Dears,

Armenian Quarter

Armenia was the first state one of the first states to recognize Christianity as its official religion. They did it in 301 CE, 12 years before Constantine I declared the neutrality of the state in the relation to religion in his Edict of Milan (in some sense legalizing Christianity and returning Christian property to the owners). So it should be no surprise that Armenian monks and pilgrims have been present in Jerusalem since the 4th century CE.

Today, very much like during the past 15 hundred years, a small part of the Old Jerusalem is populated by Armenians. They live (of course) around the St. James Cathedral and monastery. It is said that the Cathedral has been built on the site of the tombs of James the Just (brother of Jesus and the first bishop of Jerusalem), and St. James, the Apostle . The cathedral and the monastery were renovated and rebuilt several times in their history, by the general configuration of the cathedral today is the one established during renovation made in the Crusader period.

If you want to learn more on the topic, I suggest that you have a look at Wikipedia's article on Armenian Quarter, and also at an article from Jewish Virtual Library. Some information on the Armenian Apostolic Church is available from Wikipedia and on the pages of Armenian Patriarchate. And then look also at Armenians in the Holy Land and the Gallery there.

When we talk about Armenians and Armenian Church, we must remember the Armenian Genocide. Not so long time ago, on April 24, 1915, the Young Turks undertook the systematic annihilation of Armenian intellectuals and entrepreneurs within the city of Constantinople and later the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire (quoted from Wikipedia). Whatever we call it, in the period 1915-1917, Turks carried out actions that resulted in death of still unknown (but huge) number of Armenians. Wikipedia (in the link given in the first sentence of this paragraph) gives balanced description and analysis of the events, but the bottom line is that huge number of human lives was annihilated then. Does it matter what was the exact death toll: a million? a million and a half? or two millions? Does it matter if the death of all of them was planned by the government or was only the side result of other actions (deportation)? Does it matter that Turkey does not recognize those events as a genocide and does not want to carry out any more investigations? I do not know. But I feel that it is very important that we do not forget about those atrocities - and in the Armenian Quarter they still remember.

Due to a very fortunate chain of events, together with other visiting faculty of the Hebrew University, I was able to take part in a tour of the Armenian Quarter, St James Cathedral and an audience with the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem. (BTW: the list of all Armenian Patriarchs of Jerusalem is available here.) Some pictures from the tour and the visit:

We met at Jaffa Gate
The first picture presents the entrance to the complex. Then one gets into a vestibule surrounded by the buildings of the monastery and the front wall of the Cathedral
When you enter the vestibule, on you left hand side you may notice the tomb of bishop Abraham:
The walls of the buildings have the signs of those who lived here and those who were just passing by. E.g., the first in this row shows marks made by Crusaders.
The entrances to the Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

A low and narrow passage to further parts of the complex/monastery			and what was there:

In a corridor leading to the audience room we could see a number of paintings, including portraits of the past patriarchs:
The audience room (the first pics shows taking an official picture of our group). Of course, I did not dare to take pictures during the audience.

Passover 5766

This year, the 15th day of the month of nisan (of Jewish year 5766) and the week of Passover Holidays started on Wednesday, 04/12/2006. If you are interested, you may find some info on these holidays in Wikipedia's article and on Judaism 101 page. The celebrations of Passover start with a very special (and complicated) dinner called Seder. Halina i Tomek Szankowscy invited me for a Seder in their home. (Tomek is a professor in the Institute of Mathematics; his research interests are in Banach spaces and functional analysis.) The Szankowskis tried to arrange the Seder meeting with (almost) all due details and rules.

The table was properly prepared and the guests were assigned places around it. Everybody got a Haggadah in the language that person could read. That was not so trivial, as there was a lot of languages in use around the table...
Tomek was the master of the ceremony. He checked carefully all the needed items
and after making sure he has everything he needs and that he knows the text, he started:
Of course, some details were not exactly perfect (e.g., have you noticed that no male had a kippah?), but even if the exact laws of seder were not followed, the spirit of the holidays was with us:
Not all animals in the house were allowed around the table:

The week of Passover is the time when some products are not available in Israeli supermarkets. No bread, no beer, no cakes.... nothing with chametz. Here you may see shelfs in my local store covered with plastic and marked with warning signs: chametz. Don't even think about putting your hands into this area!

Fortunately, everything what's good has to come to an end so Passover ended and everything went back to normal.

Pics of the city

a few times we went for a lunch/dinner (the young man on the last picture in this row served us beer and provided with a nice conversation)
Alda is taking a picture, Juris is looking at her
and this is the object of the picture: the Monastery of the Cross, see also here

A couple unconnected and randomly taken and chosen photos from Jerusalem:

Sometimes, when I walk in my neighborhood, I meet this very strange and mysterious person

and his associates

BTW: on May 3, 2006, we celebrated here the 58th Independence Day. The celebrations were centered around barbecuing:

Yours,
Andrzej

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Last modified: Sat May 6 13:13:45 IDT 2006