I won’t claim to be a Microformats expert…but the below are some simple steps that can be taken to adjust a theme structurally for Microformat posts.
The below filters can be added to a theme’s functions.php, but you have to make sure that your theme uses the post, body, and comment class functions, and that it doesn’t style hfeed or hentry. Also, hfeed is often added to the theme, and should be removed to avoid duplication.
/**
* Adds custom classes to the array of body classes.
*
* @param array $classes Classes for the body element.
* @return array
*/
function body_classes( $classes ) {
// Adds a class of hfeed to non-singular pages.
if ( ! is_singular() ) {
$classes[] = 'hfeed';
$classes[] = 'h-feed';
} else {
if ( 'page' !== get_post_type() ) {
$classes[] = 'hentry';
$classes[] = 'h-entry';
}
}
return $classes;
}
add_filter( 'body_class', 'body_classes' );
/**
* Adds custom classes to the array of post classes.
*
* @param array $classes Classes for the body element.
* @return array
*/
function post_classes( $classes ) {
$classes = array_diff( $classes, array( 'hentry' ) );
if ( ! is_singular() ) {
if ( 'page' !== get_post_type() ) {
// Adds a class for microformats v2
$classes[] = 'h-entry';
// add hentry to the same tag as h-entry
$classes[] = 'hentry';
}
}
return $classes;
}
add_filter( 'post_class', 'post_classes' );
Now the below adds microformats 2 classes to the avatar photo and to comments.
/**
* Adds mf2 to avatar
*
* @param array $args Arguments passed to get_avatar_data(), after processing.
* @param int|string|object $id_or_email A user ID, email address, or comment object
* @return array $args
*/
function get_avatar_data($args, $id_or_email) {
if ( ! isset( $args['class'] ) ) {
$args['class'] = array( 'u-photo' );
} else {
$args['class'][] = 'u-photo';
}
return $args;
}
add_filter( 'get_avatar_data', 'get_avatar_data', 11, 2 );
/**
* Adds custom classes to the array of comment classes.
*/
function comment_classes( $classes ) {
$classes[] = 'u-comment';
$classes[] = 'h-cite';
return array_unique( $classes );
}
add_filter( 'comment_class', 'comment_classes', 11 );
This allows for the simplest conversion of themes to the basic Microformats 2 structure. In the second part, we start moving into other more invasive modifications of the theme.
There is an odd implementation detail of many themes that has created a parsing problem with timestamps. It is actually a WordPress/PHP issue. The below is an excerpt from _s(Underscores) that appears in a large amount of themes.
A parser reading the above will read it as 10:48PM UTC/GMT. Assuming it converted that into local time, it would actually be 6:48PM EDT. However, in reality, I posted at 10:48PM Eastern Time. It just omitted the timezone offset, putting in +00:00.
The timezone offset is properly shown if you replace ‘c’ with DATE_W3C or DATE_ATOM. The alternative is to add the date in as GMT. Without proper timezone offsets, posts will be parsed as being at the wrong time.
I had originally wrote this on January 27th, as part aof an email exchange between myself and the WP Tavern. However, after being told by Jeff Chandler, contributing writer for the site, that he was away and would discuss the matter further in March, I received no further word. After the site posted a somewhat inaccurate article on webmentions on March 18th, I commented to them again that I was disappointed that the article was not checked for accuracy. Again, no response. So I am posting my January 27th article and withdrawing from WP Tavern’s request for exclusivity on any such article due lack of response on their part. The dialogue on Webmentions in WordPress continues.
Over the last few years, as the smartphone has become more popular, we’ve moved from being excited about notifications to being worried about notification overload. Companies are hoping to get more data on us so they can tailor their interactions with us. We install analytics on our websites to determine how many visitors we get and what they did on our sites. At its simplest level, a linkback is a way of having a site(the sender) notify another site(the receiver) when it links to it. It sounds like something we would want to know and would have many potential uses.
WordPress has two built in linkback protocols: Trackback and Pingback. To many users, they seem like the appendix of WordPress. People don’t care about them until they are exploited by bad actors. There is a newer protocol, the first linkback protocol to be accepted as a draft specification from the W3C, the main standards organization for the Internet, called Webmention.
Webmention improves upon the previous protocols. It uses an HTTP POST request to send two parameters…the source and target URL. By comparison, trackback, which also uses HTTP, only sends the source URL and does nothing in its WordPress form to verify the trackback is legitimate. Pingback, like webmention, sends both source and target, but it uses XML-RPC as opposed to a POST request. XML-RPC has had some controversy around it as well. There are also several practices that are recommended by the Webmention specification that would make an implementation more robust than the implementations of Trackback and Pingback.
WordPress has a longstanding reputation of commitment to backward compatibility and isn’t going to flick the switch and remove pingback and trackback code from WordPress Core so easily, with or without a replacement. It makes sense to make improvements to the older protocols concurrently with adopting webmentions, although it would also be a good idea to consider gradually deprecate the older protocols in favor of webmentions. Trackbacks have no source validation built into WordPress as it was not part of the original specification. The pingback code could use some love. However, with some refactoring, new webmention code could be used to update the older pingback/trackback code as well. This would create a better linkback system overall.
Even if webmention is a better delivery system for linkbacks than its predecessors, no one but a developer cares about protocols. People care about what it can do for you. All of the protocols converge in one place. Once you know a site has linked to you, what do you do with that information? That is where the exciting parts come in and where WordPress falls flat.
If one person would like to speak up in favor of the presentation of […]Useless Context. […], I’d love to hear it. The burden of presentation and use in a linkback relationship goes to the receiver and can be infinitely extensible. What WordPress lacks is a good base presentation for people to enhance and some innovative examples from the community of usage. If you can parse a page of HTML, you can come up with richer content and relationships by marking up the elements of a post with Microformats. WordPress already has some microformats embedded in most WordPress sites and supporting in many themes, and there are other efforts that can be made to better improve this side of things. But there are limitless possibilities, for example:
Want to reply to a post on WP Tavern on your own site? Send a webmention(or more archaic protocol) to WP Tavern with the URL of your reply. WP Tavern could parse your site and generates an actual comment from it.
Why only a reply? What about other types of relationships? Liking a post, for example?
Even just simple administrator stats can be interesting and useful.
So, why not do all of this with an API? We have a new one coming into WordPress…and that’s a great thing I’m fully in favor of. But reading content from a website using an API creates a burden on both sides of the relationship. I have to write an API and you have to learn how to use it if you want to interface with my site. Why shouldn’t your website be your API?
If you are interested in trying webmention support, there is a basic plugin for WordPress. There is even a second plugin that uses Microformats2 plus linkbacks to generate richer comments. Both of these can be used to develop the more robust implementation that would be required for WordPress Core. For more information on how people have been using webmentions, visit IndieWebCamp.
The below notes are for myself, as much as anyone else. These are changes to WordPress recently related to proposals and tickets I opened. In order to take advantage of them, I do need to refer to literature…and there isn’t none.
Insert Comment with Meta
wp_insert_comment has a modification that allows comment meta to be added to a comment at the time it is created.
So, if there is an array in $commentdata called comment_meta, save those keys as comment_meta.
Changes due Pingback
In WordPress 4.5, a slight change will allow the retrieved source code of a site that has sent a pingback to WordPress to be accessible in $commentdata as ‘remote_source_original’. But more importantly, there is now a pathway to access this data in action ‘comment_post’
A lot of this came out of a problem I had last June where updates to comments to make them more rich…in this case pingbacks/webmentions/etc were happening after the notification was sent out. So now, notifications also are triggered by ‘comment_post’.
What Do I Want to Build?
All of these little changes serve to enhance the work I’ve been trying to do with webmentions.
I’ve been trying to reorganize my music collection. A few years ago, I digitized all my CDs. However, I’ve acquired more physical and digital music since then, and the file system needs to be redone.
The hardest thing about digital music for me is metadata. Being able to play music of a specific genre, group, etc. is useful, as well as my interest on the year of the song released. Genre is a particular issue because poorly selected genres make it more difficult to find the type of music you are in the mood for.
In researching this issue now, I came across the advice of Dan Gravell, who maintains a commercial product named Bliss that he wrote to solve his own digital music collection problems and sells. In his article, MP3 genres: one size does not fit all, he comments that a problem for owners of large MP3 collections is out of control genres. The solution he suggests mirrors what I was thinking. Come up with the genres you will allow in your collection and make sure all your music complies with this list. Here’s his starting list, compiled from the common elements of four different online music databases.
The Fundamental Music Genre List
Blues
Classical
Country
Electronic
Folk
Jazz
New age
Reggae
Rock
If you try to apply a list like this to a collection, you end up with a lack of balance. I, for example, have no Electronic in my collection that I know of. This is when you need to split your genres. What some would call sub-genres get promoted to better divide your music. You can then merge categories. For example, in my collection, Blues and Jazz would have to merge as I don’t have a large collection of either.
In addition to loading genres into metadata, they are a part of my filesystem organization. I still organize music into a directory structure of Genre -> Artist -> Album. Now, the simplest thing to do would be to eliminate that and go to Artist -> Album, but estimates are I have several hundred albums and artists. And multi-artist compilations seem to confuse it more.
By organizing it, I am hoping to get into the areas of my collection I forget I have and listen to more diverse playlists. It’s going to be a while though. At least I’m not alone in my problem.
It’s finally time to finish this narrative. It’s only taken me six months of procrastination.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
The grave of Golda MeirThe grave of Yitzchak Rabin and his wife. It is differently shaped than the rectangles of the other graces in this cemetary, as Rabin was assassinated.
Mount Hertzl National Cemetery is the equivalent of Arlington for the United States. The cemetery contains not only people who sacrificed their lives for the state of Israel, but state leaders. The Presidents and Prime Ministers of Israel, as well as Speakers of the Knesset can be buried here. Teddy Kollek, the mayor of Jerusalem from 1965-1993 is also buried here.
Near the cemetary is Yad Vashem, established in 1953 and contains the Holocaust History Museum, the Children’s Memorial, the Hall of Remembrance, and several other exhibits. My photos at Yad Vashem were limited. Photos are not permitted in several parts of the complex out of respect for the subject.
A new museum was dedicated in 2005 which consists of 10 exhibition halls, and thus the Yad Vashem I had visited in 1999, and my father had visited in the 1970s had been transformed.
It is hard not to be silenced by the weight of the Holocaust. The Children’s Memorial is a tribute to approximately 1.5 million children who perished. Inside an underground cavern, light is reflected into infinity while the names, ages, and country of origin of murdered children are read.
The Hall of Names is a room in which the Pages of Testimony…short biographies of each Holocaust victim, are contained. Over two million pages are stored in the room. The ceiling of the room consists of a cone in which 600 photographs showing the diversity of those who were lost reflect into a pool below.
After a long day of touring, we returned to the hotel, ate at a place across the street that we saw, and went to bed for the final touring day
Friday, June 12, 2015
View from Masada
Masada is an ancient fortification built by Herod the Great. Almost all information regarding Masada comes from Roman historian Josephus. Herod himself, from most reports, never spent any length of time at Masada. The fortress is built on a plateau. The cliffs on one side are 1300 feet high, and on the other 300 feet high. The approaches are all rather difficult.
Masada is accessible by cable car as well as two hiking paths…the Snake Trail which is gains 980 feet in elevation over its length, and the Roman Ramp which is less steep. We took the cable car to the top. I have a long discomfort with heights, and I think I have satisfied my desire to see Masada for a long while.
The Walk Up, 1970s, courtesy Warren Shanske
In 73CE, the Romans laid siege to Masada for several months. They constructed an assault ramp, built a giant siege tower with a battering ram, which they ultimately used to breach the walls of the fortress. The Romans employed some 15,000 troops at Masada. To prevent the rebels inside from attacking those building the ramp by throwing stones down at them, the Romans used Jewish prisoners to construct the ramp.
When the Romans finally breached the walls, they found that the 960 inhabitants inside had set all the buildings inside on fire and committed mass suicide. Only two women and five children were left alive. The figure of 960 comes from Josephus, although there have not been that many skeletal remains found. Inside Masada, they have unearthed 28 people, and at a cave at the base of the cliff, another 24. Josephus was not actually at the siege of Masada, and got his information from the accounts of the Roman Commanders, so there is a distinct possibility of inaccuracies.
After Masada, we headed toward lunch and the Dead Sea, with a stop at the Ahava factory. Ahava makes beauty products out of dead sea minerals. We hadn’t done much in terms of purchasing on the trip, but we did purchase some gifts there at a factory discount. I was recently in Costco. They were carrying an Ahava warehouse pack…I could have saved some space in my suitcase.
Warren Shanske floating on the Dead Sea, 1970sWarren Shanske, Dead Sea, 2015
The Dead Seat is 1407 feet below sea level and is bordered by Jordan and Israel. It is one of the saltiests bodies of water in the World. Because of its density, trying to swim is much more like floating. There is concern about the future of the Dead Sea as in January of 2015, it was reported as dropping by three feet a year.
We accessed the sea via one of the hotels, where we had lunch and where we had access to their locker room and shower facilities, as well as their pool and…of course the sea itself.
After our dip was over, we returned to Jerusalem for Shabbat. On Friday night, we attempted to attend services in the hotel, but despite being there at the posted time…no one showed up but us.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
After the lack of services the previous evening, we decided to try the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem, which happened to be a short walk away. The building opened in 1982 and the sanctuary holds 850 men and 550 women. However, we never saw it. When we arrived, we were trying to find services, and wandered into another synagogue that is in the Great Synagogue building, the Heichal Jacob Synagogue, which is a small Sephardic synagogue in the building, and ended up attending that.
It is interesting to me, that despite the differences in tradition even from Sephardic services in the United States I’d attended, I could follow the service after I got used to the accent. In my experience, a blessing by the Kohanim is only done on holidays, but apparently in this tradition, they do it every Shabbat. At the end of the service, we were asked to smell a plant on the way out.
After services, we had lunch and took a walk, then rested up for the flight home.
The plane arrived later than scheduled on Sunday, and I was at my desk working that afternoon.
Conclusion
Obviously, I did take many more pictures than I showed in this ten part series. They may make a reappearance in future.
As a teaser, coming soon(or someday), I will be adding a trip log of the events of April 10 through April 25, 1999, when I participated in the March of the Living. I had mentioned previously they had ‘encouraged’ us to transcribe the trip and I dug up those notes and the images of same.
For those who have been following my Indieweb activities, I have for a little over a year been developing a WordPress plugin called Post Kinds. The plugin is based on the built-in Post Formats feature, but focuses on different types of specialized post types or kinds. I figured I would motivate myself by writing out some of the improvements under development.
Picking the right icons to represent the kinds has always been a challenge, because they were part of an icon font. Icon fonts are ‘fake’ fonts that are actually composed of symbols. The latest version of Post Kinds under development switches to SVG. SVG is a text format that defines a complex shape. As it is text, it can be embedded directly in the page. You can compare the two below.
New Post Kind IconsOld Post Kind Icon Font
Version 2.3.0
Enable the Jam post type. A Jam is used to share a particularly meaningful song you are listening to. distinguished from the existing Listen type, which is a more passive type designed to store songs you have listened to.
Support for start and end date, which will be used to enhance activity kinds. This will prepare for support for events, travel, and exercise in a future version. I really want to build travel in soon, but I have a lot to put in before all the pieces come together.
Improvements in parsing to bring in better and more consistent data from URLs provided.
Help within the plugin. This will be the first version to add built-in help.
This version will not go out until the above, as well as improved presentation(which I’m currently building) are complete. I’ve been working on the presentation rewrite for over a week now, trying to make it a significant improvement over the previous incarnation.
I have had this tendency of late to produce trip reports. I visited the Kennedy Space Center for the first time since 1986. So, even though I’m away from home, and my archives are a bit disorganized, I figured I’d reflect on my first visit, for a moment.
I was able to locate these images from that visit.
I also apparently saw an IMAX movie. The dream is alive was released in June of 1985 and prominently featured the Challenger. I do not remember much of that trip clearly.
Attempts to narrow down when I was there exactly have intrigued me, because January of 1986 also marked the Challenger disaster. I wonder how close I was to one of the sad chapters in American Space Exploration.
The Challenger was scheduled to depart the 22nd of January, but it ultimately didn’t happen till the 28th due to a combination of factors including a prediction of inclimate weather for January 26th. In the pictures, I am carrying an umbrella.
Martin Luther King Day was observed nationally for the first time on Monday January 20th, 1986. From recollections of the other parties, we left Florida after that and were back in New York when the disaster occurred.
That would put the trip sometime in the range between Monday, January 6 and Friday, January 17th. We know the previous mission, STS-61C, operated by the Columbia, had an aborted launch on the 6th, and was cancelled on the 7th due bad weather at the contingency landing sites in Senegal and Spain. There was a mechanical problem on the 9th, and on the 10th there was heavy rainfall at the launch area at KSC. It finally launched on the 12th and it later didn’t land at Kennedy Space Center on January 18th due to inclimate weather, ultimately landing at Edwards Airforce Base.
If there had been a launch attempt any day we were there, it would be something that would likely stick in our minds. There is a vague recollection of the shuttle being on the launch pad. But it was most likely the Columbia, not the Challenger as suggested. But who knows?
The final clue is a trip to Disney, taken as part of the same trip, which shows a sunny day. So, we need two days together, one inclimate, one nice…not hard in Florida weather. But lacking concrete historical weather data for 1986(anyone have access to that information?), or more clues, it seems unlikely I can narrow is down further.
The Columbia, which operated STS-61C, disintegrated on February 1, 2003 on reentry. The two shuttle disasters claimed the lives of 14 dedicated men and women.
The search is ongoing for additional visuals from this trip. The mystery remains.
It’s been a while since the last post on this matter…but I intend to finish this narrative.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
The Israeli Flag over Ammunition Hill
We headed to Ammunition Hill. I have to say that their museum’s video display was one of the most well-done presentations I can recall seeing in a museum. Ammunition Hill was a Jordanian military post in East Jerusalem and the site of one of the battles of the Six-Day War.
The Jordanians seized control of the hill during the 1948 conflict, which severed the connection between Mount Scopus and West Jerusalem. On June 6, 1967 at 2:30AM, the Israelis attacked. However, due to faulty intelligence, the size of the Jordanian forces was three times as much as expected. The battle ended four hours later, with 36 Israeli soldiers and 71 Jordanians killed.
Bar Mitzvah outside Old City
We returned to just outside the gates of the old city to see a common site…young boys preparing for a Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall. They are escorted from outside under a chupah with friends and musicians.
The KnessetThe Menorah
The Knesset, 1970s
The Knesset is the legislature of Israel. It first convened on February 14, 1949, and moved to its current location in 1966. The Menorah is located in front of the Knesset and was presented in 1956. It took over six years to finish, and depicts various scenes from the history of the Jewish people.
Holyland Model of JerusalemThe Holyland model at its original location
At the Israel Museum, you can not only see the Dead Sear scrolls(no photography permitted), but the Holyland Model of Jerusalem. Commissioned in 1966 by the owner of the Holyland hotel, it was relocated to the museum in 2006.
Since 1965, the majority of the Dead Sea scrolls can be found at the Shrine of the Book, at the Israel Museum.
Next time…we finish off the New City with Mount Hertz and Yad Vashem and move on to the final touring day.
After living in New York City my entire life, I finally got around to visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island today. I went on the Ellis Island Hard Hat Tour.
“Your tour guide will take you to select areas of the 750-bed Ellis Island Hospital, including infectious and contagious disease wards, kitchen and the mortuary and autopsy room. At its peak of operation in the early 20th century, this was the largest Public Health Service facility in the United States. Following in the footsteps of the dedicated doctors and nurses of years gone by, you will learn the fascinating history of the hospital and its role in preserving public health. You’ll also visit the Laundry Building, with much of its original equipment still in place, where over 3000 pieces of laundry were washed and sanitized daily.”
A ward, last used as a Coast Guard office in the 1950s
Most people do not realize that Ellis Island had a hospital, or the controversial nature of it. From 1902 to 1930, the hospital treated immigrants who were identified with a health deficiency of some kind. One in five immigrants who passed through Ellis Island were identified as having an issue, and nine out of ten of those were eventually cured and allowed to enter the United States.
A Tuberculosis Spit Sink
It was an amazing concept then, as it would be today. It was one of the largest public health hospitals in U.S. history. It was designed based on the philosophies of the time, with isolated wards to keep disease from spreading, large windows and other natural methods of circulating air, a mattress sterilizer, and a dedicated laundry for hospital linens.
By the thirties, advances in technology, including air circulation systems, made the hospital increasingly obsolete. It was receiving little upgrades or equipment. Ultimately, the hospital was closed and was used as a military psychiatric hospital during its later years.
In the end, on November 12, 1954, 61 years(less one day) to the day I stopped by, the hospital closed for the last time. There was no removal of fixtures or supplies. The fixtures were so antiquated, the employees simply left everything where it was…where it remained…ready for the next day that never came. Over the next few decades, the island was looted and vandalized, until it was reopened as a museum.
This morning, Open House NYC held its annual open house at the TWA Flight Center at JFK airport. I headed down for a bit before work. The building opened in 1962 as the TWA terminal at the airport. Designed by Eero Saarinen, the building was in use until October of 2001 when TWA merged into American Airlines.
In 1994, the building was declared a landmark by the city. In 2005, the Port Authority and JetBlue Airways began constructing the new T5. The original concourse was knocked down. The only part of it saved was part of the departure lounges, known as the Trumpet, which was lifted and moved at a cost of $895,000, but was ultimately demolished. Despite promises of a complete renovation and use for the space, in the last decade, it has been only open for events such as the Open House.
Just a few days ago, it was confirmed, after years of discussion, that JFK’s first onsite hotel would be built there. According to the renderings I saw today, the hotel would be in two sections at the edge of the terminal near the old tubes that led between the ‘headhouse’ and the concourse, and would not obstruct the views of the existing building.
It’s been a while since I’ve updated on some of the work I’ve been doing. A lot of it has been behind the scenes. I’ve been working on improving some of the things I’ve built. Some of the work is rather subtle. For those of you not interested, feel free to skip this.
So, since 2014, I’ve been working toward getting certain building blocks available in WordPress, along with several other people.
A webmention is a way to notify another site that you’ve linked to their site. Once you have that notification, there are things you can do with it. Webmentions have been developed as a plugin for WordPress.
Linking itself has utility. But by marking up content, the receiving site can take action.
Microformats would be the markup you can use to have cross-site commenting and other forms of communication.
That would be the purpose of the Post Kinds plugin. It allows posts to be marked up as Likes, Bookmarks, etc. These things could be marked up manually, but some people would prefer a more automated solution.
Separately, there are two theme options now that mark up WordPress theme elements with microformats.
On the receiving end, the Semantic Linkbacks plugin takes incoming mentions and tries to interpret them….turning them into comments, likes, etc. This would be how you would derive value.
Finally, Micropub support. Micropub is a standard to create posts on a site from a third-party client. It means that be it WordPress on the backend, or something else, you can create with the same tools.
There is slow but regular improvements in both the Indieweb in general. Nothing is ever as fast as one would like it to be. But think of what can be done…
After a bit of hiatus, yet another part of this story. Hope the suspense has helped fuel interest.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
After we left the Western Wall plaza, we ascended a long series of stairs up to the Jewish Quarter, where we stopped for lunch, then headed for the Four Sephardic Synagogues. The synagogues in question are all adjacent. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the synagogues were desecrated and turned into horse stables. Most synagogues in Jerusalem were destroyed or desecrated during the 19 year Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem.
The Four Synagogues are the: Yochanan ben Zakai Synagogue, the Istanbuli Synagogue, the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, and the Emtsai(Middle) Synagogue.
The Yochanan ben Zakai SynagogueThe Emtsai(Middle) SynagogueIstanbuli SynagogueThe Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue – A Class was In Session Here
This is probably not King David’s tomb
We then headed to the Tomb of King David. The tomb is somewhat questioned as to its authenticity. Many scholars agree that King David was not buried in this location. There has been no scientific analysis on the contents of the tomb. Our guide suggested he had been reinterred here subsequently, but I couldn’t find anyone else mentioning that theory. Either way, the entire complex, which also includes the room where the Last Supper allegedly happened, is administered by Yeshiva University, who offers free access to all. The tomb also doubles as a synagogue.
We also visited the Tower of David…also not associated with David. It is a Citadel that dates to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. A Herodian era foritification also stood on the same site. You remember Herod, the King who our tour guide repeatedly called a meshugana paranoid. I kept challenging him, pointing out if people actually wanted to kill you, you technically weren’t paranoid. On the other hand, he did execute several members of his immediate family. So, who knows?
It is currently a museum of the 4000 years of the history of Jerusalem. The best part was the view from the top of the Citadel.
The View from the Tower of David Citadel in the opposite direction. The large building in the middle is the King David Hotel, opened in 1931. To the extreme left of that is the Dan Panorama Hotel where we stayed.The View Facing the Dome of the Rock from the Tower of David Museum
After the day’s activities, we spent a brief time at the hotel pool. It was at the top of the hotel. The water was cold, and no one was in it. The only people around aside from the disinterested lifeguard were two old women reading their Kindles.
After a brief rest, it was time for a birthday celebration. It was my birthday, so my father and I headed down to the lobby, asking for a good light place. This continues the lesson I learned…Don’t trust Israeli hotel concierges.
Following the directions given, we headed down toward the German Colony. We walked a long distance till we finally arrived at the place he recommended….which closed down, according to the sign, 2 weeks earlier. Tired and hungry, we ended up having dinner at a Waffle Factory. I had a birthday waffle with ice cream.
My father valiantly tried to explain to the server that it was my birthday. Considering the other birthday celebrant in the room whom they did acknowledge, I’m chalking it up to a language barrier.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, June 9th, 2015, we proceeded through the West Bank to Jerusalem.
As we headed toward Mt. Scopus, our guide put on Yerusalayim Shel Zahav, written in 1967. The song was written by Naomi Shemer, commissioned by Mayor Teddy Kollek, and apparently unintentionally inspired by a Basque lullaby. The song was performed for the first time on May 15th, and on June 7th, after the Jordanians retreated, eastern Jerusalem and the Old City was under the control of the IDF. Jews, who had been a presence in the city for many generations, had been forced out of the Old City in 1948 when the Jordanians took over. When Shemer heard that the song was being sung at the Western Wall, she added a verse to the song.
It is said that when Jews were not allowed to enter Jerusalem by the city authorities, they used to come to Mt. Scopus and look at the city. Here, we opened a bottle of grape juice to commemorate the occasion.
McDonald’s in Jerusalem
We then proceeded to the hotel, the Dan Panorama Jerusalem. Like it’s counterpart in Tel Aviv, this was a middle-of-the-road hotel in a good location, not far from the Old City. We didn’t want a big meal, so we took a walk down to Ben Yehuda Street in search of some American food. It marked the first time I have had a McDonald’s hamburger. There are 180 McDonald’s in Israel, and 50 of them are kosher. The first opened in 1993, and the first kosher one in 1995.
Wednesday, June 10th, 2015
The tour group was nice enough to remember it was my birthday, and wished me a Happy Birthday. Earlier in the week, at Kibbutz Lavi, another member had a birthday and they’d arranged for everyone to sing. Alas, no group meals this day, therefore this was not an option. But heading to the Old City on my birthday…I suppose that made up for it.
The day started with visiting the Kotel…the Western Wall. On Saturday, June 10, 1967…the last day of the Six Day War, the residents of the Moroccan Quarter were evacuated and the section destroyed to expand the area in front of the Western Wall. While this was a controversial decision, the official reasoning was that the area was a slum, and the Israeli government had compensated the residents and resettled them in better housing conditions. Jews had been barred from the area from 1948-1967, and outbreaks of violence at the wall had been an issue dating back to the 1920s. Jews had, in fact, been trying to buy the area around the wall since 1918 to establish a permanent prayer site.
Western Wall, June 2015Western Wall, 2015Checkpoint, Western Wall, 2015
This is the Western Wall as it appears today. It has changed since coming under Israeli control. On the day we were there, they were preparing for a celebration. A new torah was being presented to the wall. From what I understand, there is a large ark of torahs at the wall. There was even a group of young schoolchildren practicing a song for the occasion.
Checkpoint for the Western Wall, 1970s (Courtesy Warren Shanske)Western Wall, 1970sWestern Wall, 1970sMe at the Western Wall, April 19, 1999
I could write for many more hours on the issues regarding the Old City, the Western Wall, the mosque above the wall…but this is a travel report. I’m trying to, while not ignoring the politics of it, not get sucked in that direction too much. Even within the Jewish community, the Wall is administered under Orthodox rules of gender separation and modesty. There are informal volunteers who will chastise those who do not act according to those rules.
A short distance along the wall, provisions have been made for an egalitarian prayer site near Robinson’s arch. It wasn’t until 2013 that a dedicated area was completed with access as all hours, as the original area was within the confines of the Jewish Archaeological Park.
There have been extension excavations around the Western Wall, and the Temple Mount, which have revealed a great deal about the history of the area. We toured the tunnels beneath the Western Wall, which had been relocated from where I recall them being in 1999. The excavations had been connected to the Hasmonean Water Tunnels, ending under the Convent of the Sisters of Zion, where the Sisters would not permit exit, requiring a turnaround. I recall walking through the tunnels and exiting elsewhere in 1999, but this time, we returned to the entrance by the Western Wall. In 1996, Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the creation of an exit leading to the Via Dolorosa, in the Muslim Quarter. This led to multiple riots at the time, and in 1999, the rule was we had to be escorted back by an armed soldier.
The size of the stones both above and below is amazing. All these were hauled into place without modern construction equipment. The newer rebuilt portions at the top date from a later period, and do not demonstrate the massive skill it must have taken to get these into place.
The Southwestern Corner of the Temple Mount
This is the Southwestern corner of the Temple. The stones sticking out on the western side is Robinson’s arch, the support for a massive staircase the once stood here, dating back to the time of Herod the Great. You get a perspective from this angle the proximity to the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, at the top.
The Southern Wall is where you can see the excavation of an enormous flight of steps excavated after 1967, that led, via the Hulda Gates, up to the Temple Mount. A series of Umayyad administration buildings and palaces were uncovered just outsiide, which form the rest of the Archaeological park.
I suppose the Western Wall and its surroundings deserve their own part in this series. This part contained more pictures than previous.
Drive to Tiberias to visit the Rambam’s grave; proceed to Beit Shean, also called “Scythopolis”, the biggest archeological park in Israel with beautiful excavations from the Roman and Byzantine periods. Stop at Beit Alpha to see the beautiful mosaic floor of a synagogue from the Byzantine period. Onto Gan Hashlosha, (Sachne) where you will have an opportunity to enjoy in the water springs located at the foots of the Gilboa mountain, the famous mountain on which King Saul was killed in the battle against the Philistines. Continue via the Jordan Valley to Jerusalem; stop at Mount Scopus for a blessing as you enter the city.
Tuesday morning, we bid a fond farewell to Kibbutz Lavi…home of powdered eggs…but good wifi and headed toward the city of Tiberias. Tiberias dates back to Roman times, and is well known for its hot springs and their alleged healing powers.
Tomb of Maimonides 1974Tomb of Maimonides 2015
Our first stop in the city was the grave of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, aka Rambam or Maimonides. He was born in 1135, and died in 1204 in Egypt, after which his body was buried in Tiberias. He was well known as not just a Rabbi, but a physician. Maimonides shares a grave with Rabbi Isaih Horowitz and Yochanan ben Zakai.
Rabbi Maimon – Ramban’s fatherThe Grave of Maimonides
The tomb is separated, so men and women can pray separately.
I’m not sure what Maimonides might have thought of this. This is a more recent development. I understand that Jews who believe in having a separation of the sexes feel very strongly about this, however, it seems disrespectful to the man’s memory on some level.
They do the same thing at the tomb of King David…or one of them(more on that later).
After this, we got dragged to the Caprice Diamond Exchange in Tiberias, which is not on the official tour list. We were told this was a special treat. I hate to cast aspersions on our tour operators, but I’m assuming the treat was the possibility they might get a kickback. I have little to no interest in shopping for diamonds. Sorry.
Leaving Tiberias, we started to head toward Jerusalem, with some stops along the way. I’m six parts into this story and we haven’t even reached Jerusalem yet, and I am certainly leaving some details out as we go.
A map of Roman era Beit She’an
We headed toward Beit She’an, at the junction of the Jordan River Valley and the Jezreel Valley. The location made it strategically important, and has been occupied for 8000 years or so. The ruins of the ancient city of Beit She’an are now part of a National Park.
It was hot. I’d like to say I’ve learned a lot about keeping hydrated, but I still think I could stand some improvement in that area. Not sure if I’ll get into travel preparations at any point.
The excavations are extensive and impressive, and began in 1921-1923 by the University of Pernnsylvania, who found relics from the Egyptian Period.
Excavations resumed in 1983 by Hebrew University and then again in the 90s. The excavations have revealed no less than 18 ancient towns.
Our Guide demonstrates a Roman toiletGuide to the Roman Bathhouse
After Beit She’an, we proceeded to Beit Alpha. It is a the ruins of a late fifth-century synagogue located near Beit She’an. It was uncovered in 1928 by members of Kibbutz Hefzibah, and was excavated the following year. Additional excavations were made in 1962.
The mosaic floor of Beit Alpha
The mosaics depict the Binding of Isaac, the scene of a synagogue…and quite strangely, the Zodiac. Apparently it was popular at the time, as several other synagogues of the period show zodiac symbols. They showed us a dramatic video of how this might have come to be.
Gan HaShlosha Pools
Finally, to close off the day before heading to Jerusalem, we headed to Gan HaShlosha, which has natural warm water pools for swimming. They seem to make a good amount renting towels though. My father and I took a quick swim here before heading toward Jerusalem.
After this last stop, we headed through the West Bank toward Jerusalem. More on that in Part 7…yes, we finally talk about Jerusalem.
