I went to Israel in 1968 during the University of Vienna’s month-long
semester break. At the time, I was studying at the Institute of European
Studies (IES), which was part of the University, whose its fall semester
ended in late January and whose spring semester began in March.
With no classes in February, students had time for long
trips, and the Austrian student travel association (ÖKISTA) offered the most enticing
travel options, including a group trip to Israel. Its prices were cheap, but
then students in Europe had plenty of opportunities to enjoy life at reduced
prices.
The Israel trip included travel by ship from Italy to Israel, with stops along the way, plus two weeks in the country, at an all-inclusive price that was barely believable. I hopped on board, as did several other fellow IES students.
The Israel trip included travel by ship from Italy to Israel, with stops along the way, plus two weeks in the country, at an all-inclusive price that was barely believable. I hopped on board, as did several other fellow IES students.
Although it barely occurred to me at the time, the dirt-cheap
price likely was related to the “Six Day War” that Israel had fought seven months
earlier, in June 1967. Israel had battled Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. After
winning the war decisively, it had occupied land taken from its opponents. Some
people might have had second thoughts about traveling to a country, aboard one
of its ships, whose existence was under threat by most of its neighbors. I,
being young, did not, of course, give this situation a second thought.
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| Dan Durning & Mike Ramaker, 1968 |
The travel group included two of my Parisergasse suite-mates
(God rest the soul of our Hausfrau, Frau Winckler). They were Mike Ramaker and
Jack (last name escapes me). Mike (from Indiana) and Jack (from Florida) were
roommates, but did not care much for each other. I shared an adjacent bedroom
with roommate Tom Dodds (a Texan). I enjoyed being around Mike, whose sarcasm
and acerbic comments often amused me. Also, I had a friendly acquaintance with
Jack, but we had little in common.
The Journey to Israel
The group of about 20 students, plus a few older folks, took
off early one February morning in a bus heading toward Italy. We spent a night in Venice and the next day we arrived in Naples, where we boarded an Israeli
passenger ship aptly named the Dan. The ship was named after a city located during
Biblical days in what is now the northeast corner of Israel.
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| Israel Ship, the "Dan" in the Port of Athens, Feb. 1968 |
The Dan made several stops on the way to Israel, giving us a
few hours to visit different ports, including Athens (Greece), Rhodes (Greek
island), Izmir (Turkey), and Cyprus. Most impressive was the chance to see
Athens, a striking and inspiring city whose ancient buildings and ruins remind
us of the advanced civilizations that paved the way for the modern world. At
the time I was there, Greece also was a reminder of threats to democracy: it
was under military control. (Later, memories of my short visit in Athens enhanced my enjoyment
of the movie “Z”, which came out in 1969, about a military dictatorship in
Greece.)
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| The Acropolis, Athens, February 1968 |
The hours in Rhodes, an island on which one of the original
several wonders of the world was located, left me with a strong desire to
return to this beautiful island. Maybe in 2015.
Cyprus was a tense place with armed
soldiers eyeing everyone around them. Crossing the border from the Greek part of Cyprus to the Turkish
part, and vice versa, was harrowing. At the time, Cyprus was in the midst of
campaigning for a late February presidential election. Somehow I ended up with
a campaign poster for the leading candidate, Makarios III, who won re-election;
sadly the poster was made of such cheap paper that it quickly deteriorated.
Most of the sailing was done in the evenings and nights
after the port visits, and the ship provided ample post-dinner entertainment. One
night a hypnotist provided a show and one of his “subjects” was an IES student. The show went well, with the hypnotized student doing silly things as ordered by the
hypnotist; then, near the end the act the “hypnotized” student turned his eyes to
his friends in the audience and winked
to let us in on the joke. Also one night, a costume contest was held and
someone convinced me to go as “Baby Hughie,” wearing a sheet as a diaper. I did
not win the best costume prize and am glad that no photos have survived.
Of the several days on the ocean, one night stands out. It
was the night we were hit by a storm that tossed us around like a dare-devil carnival
ride. I downed some Dramamine, got into my upper bunk bed and promptly went to
sleep, awakening periodically when a great swell threw me from one side of the
bed to the other.
Arrival in Israel and
the First Visits
The ship arrived in Haifa in the northern part of Israel.
The initial view of the city was dominated by a large gold-domed Bahai Temple that sat midway up a ridge on the east side of the city.
When going into the city for the first time, we were pleased to find that the weather was mild and the trees were green. It was a pleasure to trade the Austrian winter for these new surroundings.
When going into the city for the first time, we were pleased to find that the weather was mild and the trees were green. It was a pleasure to trade the Austrian winter for these new surroundings.
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| Hill above Haifa, Feb. 1968 (Bahai Temple) |
Most of the group headed off for a week at a Kibbutz, but
Mike and I, being lazy and independent types, decided that we would go our own
way and meet up later with the others for the scheduled tour. We stayed at a
hotel in Netanya, a coastal city south of Haifa with about 55,000 residents. Our
room was a short walk to the Mediterranean Sea.
The hotel served tasty kosher meals, the first I had eaten.
During the week in Netanya, Mike and I went to Jerusalem a
couple of times. That required taking a bus from Netanya to Tel Aviv, then boarding
another bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We quickly figured out that the country is
tiny, the bus system was efficient and travel times were quite manageable.
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| Dan D. at Netanya Beach, Feb. 1968 |
We wandered around the arid and largely treeless underdeveloped
eastern side of the city that had been part of Jordan until June 1967. In this hilly
area, families lived mostly in modest huts, and it was not rare to see people
riding on donkeys.
In contrast to the languid pace of life and desolation on
the east side of Jerusalem, the western part of city, which had been part of
Israel from its early years, was a high-energy modern city. It had new buildings
and heavy traffic, and most people wore western dress. It seemed to occupy a
different world that the one inhabited only a few miles away by the people in
east Jerusalem.
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| Dwelling in East Jerusalem (formerly part of Jordan), Feb. 1968 |
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| Looking to the Walled City from East Jerusalem, Feb. 1968 |
The Old Walled City was an exotic place for an innocent
traveler who not experienced the color, smells, and jostling bustle of Arab
commerce. In many parts of the city, the narrow passageways were lined with
small shops selling foods, clothes, tobaccos, and other goods that came without
packaging. The oddly dressed crowds, the emphatic conversations in an
unfamiliar language, and the energetic efforts of the sellers created an
impression of chaotic strangeness that, alone, was worth the trip. I watched in
amazement as others lived lives that I had not imagined.
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| Eastern Wall of Jerusalem, Temple Mount and Dome of the Rock in the Middle, Feb. 1968 |
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| View of War Damage and Dome of the Rock from Within the Walled City, Feb. 1968 |
When entering the Walled City, evidence of the recent war
was prominent. The history of the war describes fierce fighting for it,
including hand-to-hand combat on Temple Mount, an area of the city sacred to
both Muslims and Jews. Many of the battles took place at its entrances. Seven
month later, bullet marks and damage from explosives still scarred both the
walls and buildings near them.
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| Damaged Spire, see picture above for the location |
Aside from the Jerusalem visits, the most memorable experience
during the first week was time spent in Caesarea, which lay several miles up
the coast from Netanya, about half way to Haifa. Mike and I went there by bus
to see the ruins of this ancient Roman city. We had the whole place to
ourselves as we walked amid the remains of a coliseum and strolled among fallen
columns and shells of buildings. It looked as if an earthquake had destroyed a large
Roman city and the ruins and rubble had remained largely untouched for
centuries.
When we walked a short way to the shore of the Mediterranean
Sea to view the ruins from that perspective, a local kid ran up to us to offer
some wet Roman coins he had fished from
the Sea. I bought one for a small price, but much of it disintegrated when it
dried. Still, I was awed to hold this item in my hand and wonder in what other
hands and pockets it had been since it was created, and how it had ended up in
the water.
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| Fallen Columns at Caesarea, Feb. 1968 |
We enjoyed the Caesarea ruins so much that we did not notice
that it was getting dark. At last, we realized that we had to leave before
night fully came. We went to the bus stop to find we had missed the last bus
that would take us back. So, in the darkness we walked a couple miles down an empty road
between Caesarea and a bus stop on Highway 2. For a second I wondered whether I
should be scared, but decided nothing could happen on such a peaceful night
while walking in the company of a multitude of Roman ghosts.
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| Walking Path in Caesarea, Feb. 1968 |
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| Caesarea at Sundown, February 1968 |
The Top to Bottom Tour
After a week on our own in Netanya, Mike and I joined with
the rest of the University of Vienna group for a tour that took us from one end
of Israel (Golan Heights) to the other (Eilat), with many stops in between. We
had a knowledgeable guide, who sometimes offered a little too much information.
Despite occasional yawns, we learned much from him.
The following is an overview of some of the places we more memorable
places we visited:
Golan Heights
(Occupied Syria). We went up to the southern edge of the Golan Heights that
overlook the Sea of Galilee and the surrounding parts of Israel. Until June
1967, the Golan Heights had been part of Syria from which it could easily fire
weapons, mortar and artillery at Israeli settlements below. It provided Syria
with a commanding military position.
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| Sign showing location of former frontier on road to Golan Heights, Feb. 1968 |
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| To Damascus with Love, on the Road to Golan Heights, Feb. 1968 |
We stood on top of Syrian military bunkers to view the green
valley and the stunted hills that stretched before us. From there, we saw the well-tended
land surrounding the Sea of Galilee and the small mountains that arose in the
distance.
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| Viewing Northern Israel from the Top of a Syrian Bunker; Guide is in front; IES students Winnie (light hair, side view), Mike Ramaker (beside her), and Pat Hurley (sun glasses facing camera) can be seen |
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| View of the Sea of Galilee from the Golan Heights |
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| Service at the Ruins of an Old Church by the Sea of Galilee, Feb. 1968 |
Megiddo (In Greek,
the name in Armageddon). This site is located in the northern part of Israel
about 25 miles from Haifa. For many of
the pre-Christian Era centuries, it occupied a strategic location guarding a
narrow pass on a trade route that connected Egypt with Assyria. At this site,
cities were built at different times from 7000 BC to 586 BC., and they were
repeatedly destroyed by battles, then rebuilt again.
Archaeological excavations of Megiddo have found 26 layers of
ruins that accumulated during it 6,500 years of existence. Visiting these ruins
created a new appreciation of the scope of history that has been lived in times
before ours. The six and a quarter centuries between the time of Columbus’
arrival in the “New World” and the present is less than a tenth of the time of
Meggido’s existence.
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| Some views are better than others: IES Student Pat Hurley, Feb. 1968 |
Inspired by my visit to this site, I tracked down a book, The Source, by James Michener, that
tells the story of a fictional ancient city in Israel resembling Megiddo and
lives of people living there as it was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt.
Jerusalem. Returning to the city with the
group, I visited major spots important to Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths.
The city of full of them; many of the Christian sites are associated with the
crucifixion story. Probably the most
famous – and certainly the most visible – place in the Walled City is the Dome
of the Rock, on Temple Mount. This Muslim Shrine was built on the location of
the Jewish Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. (aka
A.D.). The Dome of the Rock is built
over the “Foundation Stone.” According to Muslims, it is from this stone that Muhammad
ascended to heaven. Jews regarded the “Foundation Stone” as the holiest spot on
earth; it was the “Holy of Holies” during the time the Second Temple was
located there.
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| Dome of the Rock, Feb. 1968 |
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| Market on Narrow Street in Jerusalem, Feb. 1968 |
Bethlehem and Jericho
(occupied Jordan). We made a trip to sites well known to Christians,
including a church that purported to be built at the birthplace of Jesus. This
area had been occupied by Israel six months earlier, and we did not seem
particularly welcome, except by sellers of trinkets.
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| Market in Bethlehem, Feb. 1968 |
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| The Trail up to the Top of Masada, Feb. 1968 |
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| The Buildings and Fortifications on Masada |
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| View of the Dead Sea from Masada, Feb. 1968 |
In 1968, the only way to get to the top of Masada was to
walk up a steep, winding, and, in places, narrow path. Now, a cable car is
available to whisk lazy people to the top. On the top of Masada are ruins of
the military outpost. Also, the top provides a sweeping view of the Dead
Sea.
After a couple of days to float in the warm Gulf waters, we headed back to Haifa for the trip back to Vienna.
Heading Back
The trip to Israel left some strong impressions. Some of them came from having spent so many hours as a kid in Sunday school and church hearing stories from the Bible. It was exciting to see the places whose names I had heard so often: Jerusalem, Sea of Galilee, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Mount of Olives, Jericho, etc.
Other impressions were of the state of Israel. It was a surprisingly small country and much of it was made up of an inhospitable desert. It was hard to believe that a country with so little land and so few resources, surrounded by hostile neighbors, had been so successful.
I was surprised that Israel had such a distinctly modern and Western feel, and the differences between the places we visited that had been part of Israel since its creation and the parts that had been occupied seven months earlier were stark. Visiting the occupied areas was stepping back in time.
As we were headed back to Vienna, on the day I turned 21, I thought to myself how much I had enjoyed visiting Israel, what a great opportunity it had been for me to travel there, and how much I had learned from the trip. Even now, more that 45 years later, I still feel the same.
(Note: I took all of the photographs except for the two that I am in.)
