2. The Reading List 4/30/11

If one is visiting a new part of the world, preparation is complete when one packs a T-shirt and toothbrush.  If one is visiting as part of an academic pursuit, preparation involves a lot of reading to better understand the lay of the land before arriving on scene.  Though one still needs the T-shirt and the toothbrush.

My mentor suggested some of these books and I found some of these on my own to help get a better sense of the land and people where we are going.

Langfur, Stephen, Ph.D., Confession from A Jerico Jail. Langfur is the guide for our twelve days touring the important Biblical landmarks.  He is an American born Jew, educated at Cornell who emigrated to Israel where he now acts as a guide for Biblical studies tours.  He joined the Israeli Defense Force but balked at being asked to serve in the West Bank because he did not agree with the IDF abusing Palestinians already suffering as refugees from the portions of Palestine awarded to Israel in 1948.  His refusal to serve in the West Bank landed him in jail and he wrote memoirs of his contact with other Israelis who were Palestinian sympathizers.

Tolan, Sandy, The Lemon Tree.  Bashir, a Palestinian forced from his home in al-Ramla in 1948 when the Jews were awarded the portions of Palestine that became the state of Israel meets Dalia, a Jewish immigrant from Bulgaria, whose family, upon arrival in Israel were assigned Bashir’s house.   The poignancy of Bashir and Dalia forced to discuss and deal with their respective deep seated attachment to their religion and their heritage gives Tolan an opportunity to explain why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may never be resolved.  This is a fascinating and short read available on Kindle.

Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome, OP, The Holy Land, An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest times to 1700.  Murphy-O’Connor was for many years a professor at Ecole Biblique et Archélogique Français, Jerusalem, where, incidentally, my program mentor studied, and authored many books on the Bible and Bible lands.  This work is a thorough travel guide of all Biblical landmarks in Jerusalem and old Palestine.   It is worth having along as reference during the tour.  Thank goodness it is on Kindle.

Caplan, Neil, Ph.D. The Israel—Palestine Conflict, Contested Histories.   This is a recent publication by a knowledgeable student of the affairs in the Middle-east.  His very objective analysis of the histories of the conflict, separately from the Israeli and the Palestinian perspective, helps to truly better understand the background for the tension in the region and gives context to the events unfolding even this week.

Several atlases illustrate events and make the written history more graphic.  Harper Collins Concise Atlas and Martin Gilbert’s atlases, one of Jewish History and one of the Arab-Israeli Conflict have been very helpful.

So, off I go to align what I will see with what I have read (and still am reading).

Please come back often and check out this site.

Dick

1. My trip to Israel 4/27/11

Thanks for joining me on this trip of a lifetime.  I depart Anchorage, Friday, May 6 for Newark and on to Tel Aviv.

I have been pursuing an academic degree in Bible Studies for about three years.  The degree, Masters of Arts Program (MAP) at Alaska Pacific University, is a self-directed pursuit at the graduate level under the direction of a professor serving as program advisor and mentors serving as academic support and resources as needed.

This trip, the second trip taken as part of the academic program, is being arranged by my advisor, Dr. Regina Boisclair, Ph.D., the theology professor at APU.  The first trip was two years ago tracing St. Paul's second journey through Greece and Turkey.  The portion of this travel related to Bible studies will be a twelve day tour through northern Israel and Jerusalem led by an interesting scholar, Dr. Stephen Langfur, Ph.D., a graduate of Cornell.  He is an American born Jew, living in Israel, but with some very strong sympathies for the Palestinian people.  He served some time in an Israeli jail for refusing to serve as a member of the Israeli Defense Force in the West Bank.

I have also arranged a private tour of Palestinian Jerusalem, the West Bank, including Hebron and other Palestinian communities and visits with Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlors and others.  Hopefully this will offer an opportunity for a better and balanced understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in that region.

I will be carrying my Canon 35 mm SLR camera and several lenses to create a photo documentary of this trip. I hope to use this blog as a means of sharing some glimpses of this trip with you.  Please visit often.