Lesson #13 - Birds are cool but pottery is cooler or "I'm tired, do we really have to ride a golf cart around and look at birds?"

Pre-lesson: When your dig supervisor rattles off in crazy fluent Spanish, sometimes you don't want to know what she is saying. It has been really interesting hanging out with my awesome, new friends from Mexico. I came to Israel knowing that everyone here pretty much speaks English so that shouldn't be an issue. It has only been since I have been hanging out with the Mexicans do I feel like I am in another country. The funniest part was when the Arab caretakers and the Mexican volunteers were all trying to speak in English to each other today. Neither of them could pronounce the English word vacuum and I just had to laugh. Here I am, the only native English speaker for possibly the first time in my life! Anyway, I digress... sort of.Today was another day of pottery marking which was totally cool with me. Not only do we sit in a nice tent and I don't have to wield a pickax, I also get to look at all this amazing pottery up close. They opened up a mosaic today too. How AMAZING! They have found glass, metal, ceramics, and most interesting... flint-stone... pre-historic tools... Looking forward to hearing more about that.Working on the edge pieces (the ones with a lip or a handle or something distinctive) is hard because even the tiniest piece has to be marked but it is very interesting. I got up close and personal with 1st century paint... amazing! Also, Rosaura has been helping me understand a bit of Spanish and I have been helping her with Hebrew. I know it is a daunting task but she is so excited to learn it. I have been showing her the Aleph Bet and teaching her a word here or there. Today's lesson was brought to us by the prefix l' or ל (which means to) and by the word l'tsalem (לצלם) which means to photograph.Today was a hard day on the dig for me. The 4:30am wake up calls are catching up to me and I haven't been sleeping great here. I was exhausted by the middle of the day and then we had a special excursion that turned out to be a bit longer than I expected. We went to Hula Valley to see the migrating birds. 100,000 cranes stop in Israel on their way to Africa for the winter. The Israelis have created this reserve for them to land and eat so they don't destroy the crops in the area. It was truly beautiful, I just wish I wasn't so exhausted so I could have enjoyed it more. We drove around the park for two hours in a GIANT golf cart (I mean seriously, it sat 19 people!) with a Padre, Father John, at the wheel. It was a good time.Then we headed back to Tiveria for showers and dinner and soon, bed. Tons of traffic made it a very long ride but with a good dinner of schnitzel in my tummy, I am ready to hit the sack soon.Tomorrow is my last day on the dig. I can't work Friday because I have to catch a bus out of town before they are back from the dig site to make it to Tzfat in time for shabbis. I am spending a very special shabbis with my friend Chani and her family in the very holy town of Tzfat.I have been looking forward to my time on this dig so much, I can't believe it is coming to an end. It has been such a great experience, I am so thankful to Notre Dame in Jerusalem and Fr. Eammon Kelly, and Marcela, and everyone here for allowing me to hang out, use a pickax and fountain pen. :)Here are some shots from today:

Lesson #65 - How to write with a fountain pen and ink or "Do I really have to write on that tiny piece of pottery?"

This morning, I knew I was in for something different. Having requested not to use a pickax while my body recovered from the work, I was sent to the pottery cleaning and marking. It was a lot of fun but still hard work.Here's my supposition... on a dig, there is nothing but hard work. You can't escape and really, I didn't want to.Here's the deal with pottery marking. There are tons and tons of shards that have been found. Approx 300 BAGS of them at this point in the dig. All of those have to be washed and scrubbed, then marked. If they are edge pieces, like the lip of a jug or bowl or handle or spout... aka recognizable pieces, every single one has to be marked. If they are just random pieces of pottery, all of them above a certain size have to be marked. In this case, anything bigger than three of my thumbs... I don't actually have three thumbs therefore this is just an estimate.Here comes the challenge (other than writing tiny)... You aren't using a sharpie to mark them... you are using a fountain pen and ink well (in this situation, the ink well is a bottle cap). I know a fountain pen sounds romantic but there very little control for a novice on the flow of ink... and you have to write really tiny. As the day progressed, my writing got more consistent and smaller. Thank goodness! Because one of the girls hasn't been feeling well and she was doing the tiny parts, the rim parts, and she had to go rest so I had to finish the tiny parts... yeah... For this work, you are hunched over a piece of pottery, trying to keep your hands steady. The bonus of this work was I had to stop to stretch my hand and arm and back frequently so I got a bunch of pictures. AND I got to go see the synagogue today. What a real thrill to walk down the main street from 1900 years ago! Truly amazing! The intact mosaics on the floor are incredible and you can see the plaster and paint (frescos) on the some of the walls. As they try to understand more about this synagogue, it will be facinating to watch.And here is another sunrise... a nice progression through the morning... for you!(To see all my pictures, go to THDpr Flickr)

Lesson #42 - How to wield a pickax or "I am SO not built for this"

All in all day one was successful. I cleared a trench another 10 centimeters. It was hard work and took me the whole time we were at the site.We got up at 4:45am... it came way too soon... Up and dressed... Off we went! We headed to the site but one girl got sick so we had to drive her back. Finally, we make it to the site to eat a small breakfast of cereal and watch the sunrise. Then we walked over to the dig site. The synagogue isn't being touched right now but instead we worked on a row of Jewish houses from the same time period. I sat in this trench from 6 until 1:30 digging up pieces of pots. Around me they found some coins and glass too. We were pulling up pieces of these people's lives!The routine was the same...

1. Swing the pickax, chomp up the ground. If I got stuck on a rock, my kind neighbor, Carlos (an older gentleman from Mexico) would help me out.
2. Sit on the ground and bend down with a small pickax and clear the sides that are more delicate than the middle... the sides near the wall that we don't want to collapse or the side near the string that marks the area we are digging.
3. Then sit on your tush and break up the clumps to ensure that you don't have a tiny coin in there or a piece of pottery.
4. If you find something, it goes in the appropriate bag. One big one for pottery, one for shells, animal bones, or glass. Coins get handed to the boss.
5. Then use the bottom of a big broom and sweep up the dirt into a dust pan and dump it into a bucket.
6. Repeat.

Once your bucket is full, call one of the Israelis or Russians over to dump the large rocks or sift the dirt to see if you missed anything.We broke at 10:30 for actual breakfast and then we took a breather at noon. We finished for the day at 1:30... and boy was I ready. My hands hurt to open or close and my back from stooping. It was quite an odd position to be in. We got back to the church where we are staying and had lunch at 2.All in all a good day... but I learned something today... maybe with practice I could do this every day but... wow! Chewing up the ground with a pickax is hard work for a small girl! I am totally not pulling the girl card... just that this sucker was heavy and even the small pickax became hard to hold. Hitting rocks with a pickax hurts your bones.Here is your lesson for the day -Wielding a pickax. Stand firmly with your dominant foot in front of the other. Don't bend over too much. Swing pick side into the hard packed, clay like earth. Straight down, just a bit towards you. Then let the tool pull up some earth. Don't stand there beating the ground like a mad person... it doesn't help. Thanks to Carlos for the lessons. And thanks to Carlos for helping me get out my big rocks.

I'm feeling rather bl(ah)(og)...

I know I should be over the moon that I have the opportunity to study full time but all I can think about is all the things I need to do and accomplish and where I am deficient.It can't help that I feel like I have to cram as much learning as I can into my time in Israel since I'm older... it's as if for every year over 18 or 22 I am, I have to work that much harder, go to that many more classes, answer that many more questions.Now, in addition to that, I have the practical concerns for certainly I could not forget I have bills to pay, student loans to make good on and hopefully a job when I go home.But how do you suck every drop of learning out of an experience when a third of your brain is devoted to your work tasks that have to get done that day and your mind is dreaming of that delicious garden tub and clean bathroom you left in the States?It's a balance I am constantly striving for while I spend time in Israel learning. I envy those men and women who dedicate their lives to learning Torah or stay in academia all their lives. I watch the women around me with their varying degrees of commitment to classroom learning and I know that while we are all here for the same reason (mostly), many of them would benefit from a program with more experiential classes. Not all of us are built to sit in a chair and learn for hours upon hours a day. I think about myself and my commitment to learn everything these amazing teachers are willing to give over. My face is almost always in the classroom, not only do I try not to miss classes, I dislike missing classes but how do I balance that with my need, my primal need to use my hands for more than note-taking, page flipping, and computer typing? What about the knowledge that I want to sweat and be sore, use my muscles until they ache?And just as I had these questions, a solution walked into my lap. Go on an archeological dig. I have the opportunity to go up north to the Galilee and dig a 1st Century synagogue. 1st Century people! Let me explain what this means for the normal humans who are not as obsessed with history or archeology as I am...Our Second Holy Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. Prior to the destruction, it was not common that Jews had synagogues. There was only the one Temple in Jerusalem. It was only after this time that Jews rallied around making a local structure with rabbis (this took a lot of time). Therefore, this synagogue was either from the 30 years after the Second Temple was destroyed or one of the rare synagogues built DURING the Second Temple period and to make it even more rare, there have only been 7 found in the world.Here's some info about it from the Israeli Antiquities Authority:

"A synagogue from the Second Temple period (50 BCE-100 CE) was exposed in archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting at a site slated for the construction of a hotel on Migdal beach, in an area owned by the Ark New Gate Company. In the middle of the synagogue is a stone that is engraved with a seven-branched menorah (candelabrum), the likes of which have never been seen. The excavations were directed by archaeologists Dina Avshalom-Gorni and Arfan Najar of the Israel Antiquities Authority.The main hall of synagogue is c. 120 square meters in area and its stone benches, which served as seats for the worshippers, were built up against the walls of the hall. Its floor was made of mosaic and its walls were treated with colored plaster (frescos). A square stone, the top and four sides of which are adorned with reliefs, was discovered in the hall. The stone is engraved with a seven-branched menorah set atop a pedestal with a triangular base, which is flanked on either side by an amphora (jars).According to the excavation director, Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “We are dealing with an exciting and unique find. This is the first time that a menorah decoration has been discovered from the days when the Second Temple was still standing. This is the first menorah to be discovered in a Jewish context and that dates to the Second Temple period/beginning of the Early Roman period. We can assume that the engraving that appears on the stone, which the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered, was done by an artist who saw the seven-branched menorah with his own eyes in the Temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue that was uncovered joins just six other synagogues in the world that are known to date to the Second Temple period”.

What an amazing opportunity to use my other skills in life and come back to school with a zest for sitting in class. I imagine after a week of hunching over in the sun and dirt, I will enjoy a clean classroom with comfy chairs.

The Early 1900's in Color

I found this post just recently. My love of history is overwhelming but as I told a friend today, I always had an issue picturing the past in color. With all the images being in black and white, my young brain couldn't fill in the colors. Well dear French-Jewish capitalist Albert Khan did that for me! He set out to capture images of the world. Ending up in 1929, at the time of the stock market crash with 180,000 meters of black and white film and 72,000 autochrome plates of color pictures from all over the world.This blog has many of Kahn's images on it - Early 1900s in ColourAnd here are a few links to sites devoted to his work -Albert Kahn Musee et JardinsThe Wonderful World of Albert KahnAnd for your viewing pleasure... I have included a few images here. A very special thank you to The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn for the images.

There she is, folks — that’s Molly Goldberg, a woman with a place in every heart and a finger in every pie.

If you are like me (a week ago) you have NO idea who Molly Goldberg/Gertrude Berg is.

I was listening to NPR on Friday and heard a very interesting story. It was about this Jewish woman in the 1920's who created a sitcom, The Goldbergs. In fact, she created the genre of sitcom, to an extent. It started as a radio show and then was adapted to television. It went off the air in the 1950's. Sadly, most of the episodes were destroyed but there are a few historical records of the radio show and television show.

I read a great article on MyJewishLearning.com about The Goldbergs. Read it here
Also, there is a new film out called, Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (a signature call of that show), by Aviva Kempner. Here is the interview with Aviva on NPR (which is what sparked my curiosity).

Gertrude Berg was an actress and writer (screenwriter, eventually), one of the first women to hold those roles. She was born in NY to a Jewish family and wrote about what she knew, Jewish family life in NYC. She was the first person to receive the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series but things weren't always funny for Gertrude. She was loyal to her cast/friends, almost to a fault. When her television husband, Phillip Loeb, was accused of Communism (he was involved in the Actor's Equity Union and AFRA to better conditions for actors), Gertrude stood by him... until she was forced to let him go for fear that the show would be taken off the air. She did, however, keep him quietly on the payroll because he was eminently unemployable after being blacklisted by McCarthy. Though she provided for him, Phillip Loeb sank into a depression. Being unable to work and with failing eyesight, he ultimately committed suicide in 1955.

Gertrude addressed real issues affecting Jews in America with her scripts. Ms. Kempner mentions this in her interview with NPR, "Very early on as Hitler rose in power, she had a very overt Passover scene on radio," says Kempner. "Some months after Kristallnacht, she had a stone being thrown through the window on the radio show, and while no one was addressing the Holocaust on TV, she had an episode where she got letters from her relatives."

But Molly Goldberg was everyone's mother during those 26 years (20 years on radio and six years on television)... imagine that! 26 years! We are lucky if a show lasts one year these days.

She was the stereotypical Jewish mother but not in a negative way. Always positive and with dignity. It didn't matter where you lived or if you had ever met a Jew, you loved Molly Goldberg.
President Roosevelt supposedly said, "I didn't get us out of the Depression, The Goldbergs did."

Once the television show went off the air, Gertrude moved onto the Broadway stage earning a Tony for her work in A Majority of One.

Gertrude Berg (zt"l) passed away in 1966.

What a powerful history that I never knew. I will be looking for anything I can find from the amazing 26 years of The Goldbergs and if you want to see something now, the article from MyJewishLearning.com has a few clips.

Basil Rathbone… my hero

Okay, so I posted in February how I am in love with Sherlock Holmes and recently ordered some old DVDs (Rathbone and Bruce from the 40's and Jeremy Brett from the 80's).

Well, I got them... finally! :-)

As luck would have it, my schedule didn't allow a Sherlock Holmes weekend and there were technical difficulties... (I need another surge protector for my living room tv. The Comcast guy didn't tell me he unplugged my dvd player to plug in the cable box, grrrr.) BUT I have snuck a few episodes in here and there this weekend.

Wow.

First of all, the UCLA Film & Television Archive did an AMAZING job at restoring these films. AND they put a note in the box explaining it. I actually learned a lot! Here is a blurb from their website -

Until 1950, films were produced using nitrate cellulose film stock, a chemically unstable and highly flammable material that inevitably deteriorates and turns to dust. Film preservation historically referred to the transfer of nitrate films to more stable acetate (or safety) film stock. However, acetate film stock also deteriorates, giving rise to a condition called "the vinegar syndrome"; and many of the color films made since 1950 are also subject to irreversible color fading. Many of the Archive's preservation and restoration projects deal with these post-1950 titles. The Archive is relying increasingly on a new polyester film stock, which appears to be much more stable if kept in optimal storage conditions.

They really did a nice job. They found the original front end titles and back end credits that were thrown away and restored the film to it's former glory. There were only a few they couldn't get all the pieces for or were irrevocably damaged.

So the first few episodes, well really, movies (they are over an hour long and were shown in theatres) are totally time warp Sherlock Holmes. They brought Holmes and Watson into WWII to help fight the Nazis. HOW COOL. It is rather funny to see them dressed in the period attire of the 40's rather than the late 1800's but still cool. The writers did a great job adapting Conan-Doyle's character to a new time period. They stayed pretty true to the character. (if you ignore the fact that they say "It's elementary, ____" to nearly every character and that is not something that Conan-Doyle wrote.)

So needless to say, I really am enjoying this collection. And I have two recommendations for you.

1. If you are watching late night tv and see a Brett or Rathbone Sherlock Holmes coming on, WATCH IT!

2. Help support the archive. What they do is invaluable and we have preserved so much history through their techniques.

Sherlock Holmes ala Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce

Okay, so a stated previously, I LOVE Sherlock Holmes. My dad even got an autographed copy of the complete works... which I thought was totally cool until I realized two things -

A. #1. It was signed, "To Talia.... Sincerely, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" and he has been dead for oh, I don't know... 50 years?

B. #2. It was totally my dad's handwriting.

But that did make it kinda more cool, that my dad would do that for me.

Anywho, so I was watching a little late night TV the other night and two things happened (and they say things come in threes...) -

A. #1. I saw a listing for the old (1980's) Jeremy Brett version of the Sherlock Holmes tv series AND

B. #2. My curiosity peaked, I went searching on Comcast for more and found that Encore was showing the old, OLD (1940's) Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce version of the Sherlock Holmes tv/movie series that they were making while doing the radio show during WWII!!!!

I have never seen #2 and got super excited... until I realized I don't get Encore. So I went searching... I found the entire set on Amazon.com! Both of them! The 1980's and 1940's versions! All episodes! ON DVD!!!!

Of course I bought them immediately (early birthday present to me)!

So here's the deal. Brett was brilliant as Holmes but Rathbone created the role... and yet, I have never seen his face! (okay, except on wikipedia) The earlier episodes that Rathbone did were taken out of Doyle's context and put during WWII so Holmes and Watson were fighting the Nazis. When the war was over, they went back to dramatizations of stories like Doyle's (they did that a lot, write new episodes based on Doyle's characters and style).

So, needless to say, I am anxious to get my DVDs and have a Sherlock Holmes marathon! :-)

P.S. The top is Jeremy Brett and the bottom is (obviously) Basil Rathbone.

--Talia