Observations Weeks 1 and 2
Dear Friends,
Here is a random collection of things I’ve learned about Haifa. In no particular order:
Druze is a secret religion and one you cannot join. According to the Druze man I spoke with, they originated in Egypt about a thousand years ago and you have to be born to Druze parents to be a Druze. He also said that it is more of a philosophy than an actual religion, but did not elaborate on what he meant. He did explain that they seek peace among all people and deliberately chose to integrate themselves into the state of Israel. Also, their villages don’t close on Shabbat (this is significant).
This Druze man also told me that the Baha’i religion is more of a philosophy of life than an actual religion. When you join the Baha’i, you can keep your former religion at the same time. However, all the Baha’i members in Israel are visiting and volunteering at their shrines, because f you live in Israel, you cannot join the Baha’i. But! If you really want to join the Baha’i, they have centers in several other countries. The Druze man did not explain why you cannot join in Israel. If you’re interested, the three pillars that the Baha’i seek for the world are: 1. Unity of nations, 2. Unity of religions, and 3. Unity of peoples. I think they also want unity of languages, but that isn’t one of the three he mentioned. Their holiest city is actually Akko (Acre) which is on the other side of the bay from Haifa. They pray facing it. Haifa is their second holiest city because one of their prophets (but not the major one) is buried here. They can only approach the shrine on pilgrimage by walking up from the port, through the German Colony, and up to the Shrine. Also, the Baha’i religion was only founded in the nineteenth century (the 1800s for those of you who get confused by centuries) and they only finished developing their gardens in the early twenty-first century (2000s)
I was expecting every city in Israel to be old, but Haifa is a young city. It is about 200 years old. There had been a few fishing villages in the area and then some Germans called Templars (not the crusading order, but Protestants of some kind) came and built a town. They did a very good job draining the area and making it livable. Then they got kicked out in the 1930s because some had Nazi sympathies. A bunch of them then moved to Australia. Their homes in Haifa got taken over, and then Haifa became the major port for Israel. The German Colony is an area of Haifa still named after them, but there aren’t any Germans living there.
People here in Haifa dress like Americans. There are lots of American tee-shirts with brand names and/or meaningless sayings. There is also a lot of athletic wear. I feel like I’m in some city in California…except that everyone is speaking Hebrew or Arabic or Russian. There are lots of very stylish women wearing hijabs. Lots of men wear zucchettos…nope, kippahs. Kippahs come in a variety of sizes and colors. I don’t understand how men keep them on their heads. Some use hair clips; but I have seen men with buzz cuts wearing kippahs with a hair clip, but they don’t have enough hair for it to be clipped to…this is one of the puzzles of my life right now.
Most signs are in Hebrew. If there is a second language, it will be Arabic. After that, it depends where you are. If you’re in a tourist area, there will be English. If you’re lost, the signs will be in Russian.
Everything shuts down on Shabbat. Shabbat starts around 4 on Friday and ends at the same time on Saturday. Most buses stop running. Campus empties and becomes super quiet. Shops and restaurants close. Most of the buildings on campus are actually locked. The only way to get food if you forget to plan ahead is to catch one of the rare buses and go to the Druze villages. (The villages are really more like medium sized towns. I don’t know why they’re called villages). I like the stillness and respect for the day; but it throws off my whole week because then Sunday feels like Monday and Monday feels like Tuesday and so on.
Of the Catholics in Haifa, Roman Catholics are the minority rite. Apparently, there are way more Melkite and Greek Catholics. One of the guys I talked to at the church was interested to learn that there are primarily Roman Catholics in my hometown.
That’s all for now folks. I will post more pictures and hopefully get out of Haifa to see more of the country soon.
Pax!
DS
