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431  

Friday, April 1st

Jerusalem - Mt. Zion, Ramat Rachel.

AM - Drove with young David Ramin to Ramat Rachel (Hill of Rachell-) looking towards her tomb & Bethlehem. Also to Mount Zion, one of the seven hills on which Biblical Jerusalem was built & from which the old city can be viewed. The surrounding hills & the landscape are smiling & gentle - not awsome, as the mountains of other lands, & I asked myself, why was it that it was in this peaceful site that the prophets were to speak from, & where King David is buried. I visited the Tomb of King David & went up to the tower which has a wonderful view of the city. The old ruins are majestic & one can sense past glories in their dark, cool depths. Visited, too, Artists' House - third rate contemporary work not comparing with the artists in Delhi & then the [[strikethrough]] Tet Ca [[/strikethrough]] Bezalel (Jerusalem) Art Museum - Fine collection (loan) of French paintings. Most impressive were the drawings. I have been meaning to & now I must frame up at least 20 drawings. Mine could hold well in any collection of drawings, I now realize.

Rested after lunch for a few hours - Tired & feeling a cold coming on. At 4.30



432  

Friday April 1st

Jerusalem

Chassidic Synagogue

took a walk thru an old quarter where live the Oriental Jews. Wonderful, turbaned types sitting in their synagogues. Discussed the fanaticism of the religious orthodox Jews, who not only stone people who drive through their streets on Shabat but go into other streets & stone the cars, etc. The children of the different factions also fight bitterly, I was told. 

Ever since my twelfth year, when I first saw a performance in the Maurice Schwartz theater of the "Idle Inn" by Peretz Hirshbein, I have carried with me a love for the traditions of Judaism. Today in the Chassidic Synagogue, what I had imagined & seen in the theater was a reality. The scene was beautiful, I had to sit upstairs in a tiny attic for the women behind closed glass windows with iron bars. The uproar & tumult, ecstasy of prayer, the elation & singing, the intensity & life of it all was extraordinary. In spite of the heat, old & young mostly wore the fur shtrammel on their heads, black silk coats, black & white silk striped long coats, brown, tan, the pale, wasted faces of the old, rocking over the Torah, the violent, jerking movement