Jackhammering Away

Welcome back to my blog everybody! Sorry I haven't posted earlier this week about work but they've been working me hard and I've been falling asleep early. I will catch up on everything with this post.

Sunday and Monday we were continuing with the coping of the wall of the apse. The work was more of the same, and we finished early each day because we ran out of mortar to work with. There really isn't much else to say about the work, and like I said I was pretty worn out after and didn't do much besides eat, sleep, and watch the World Cup.

Starting Tuesday we had some more interesting work involving a jackhammer. After the excavation of the site in the early seventies there was some rudimentary conservation work done. Back then, the go-to material was cement, which we now know is a big no-no. The conservation work they did was to put all the mosaics onto a cement floor, as well as putting a cement cover layer over most of the walls. Now we had to remove a lot of this cement, using a jackhammer. We took out part of the cement floor that was extra and didn't have any mosaic on it, in order to reconstruct part of an older wall that used to be there. Then we destroyed the top of the eastern wall of the apse that had been reconstructed in the seventies using bad stone blocks and cement. Tuesday the entire day was spent hammering away at the cement. Unfortunately I didn't get to use the jackhammer this time, but there is still plenty of cement that needs to be removed, and maybe I will get to help with that. Part of preparing the wall for new stones involved removing dirt and other material that was beneath the cement, and that was my job. I was digging out the dirt and small stones that were in the wall, as well as removing the dirt at the broken end of the genizah inside the apse. It was basically like doing archaeology, complete with finding pottery.

Wednesday and Thursday we started reconstructing the wall that we took apart. The amount of material that we removed meant that we have to build two or three courses of stones within the wall, which requires several days in between laying each course down so the mortar can dry and harden. Yesterday and today we placed the edge stones as well as the first layer within the wall, and next week we will hopefully finish filling in the rest of the wall. We also rebuilt the side of the genizah that was missing.

If you may have forgotten, Thursday is the last day of the work week here, so I'm done with work for the week. Sunday and Monday are also vacation days for the work team, so I won't be resuming work until next Tuesday. If I do anything exciting then I will write another blog post, but if not then I will write again at the end of next week. Time to go watch Team USA crush (or at least tie) the Germans!

Oh I forgot to mention, I found this little guy in my kitchen when I got home!

An Exciting Weekend with Cleveland

Happy new week to all my followers! This post is going to cover what I did over the weekend. Normally I just include my weekend activities in the following week's blog, but this past weekend I did quite a bit more than I normally do, I so thought it deserved its own post.

You may recall that Thursday afternoon I had a meeting with the Jewish Agency in Bet She'an who works closely with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, its partner city. At this meeting, in addition to talking about the hospitality available to me while I am here, we also talked about groups, organizations, and people I know that will be visiting Bet She'an from Cleveland over the summer. The first group that comes to Bet She'an is the group Israel-Cleveland Next (ICNext for short). ICNext is a group of high school students that spend two years learning about "the core issues of Israeli society and the geopolitical situation in Israel today" and "initiating, organizing and galvanizing peer involvement in educational, political and cultural activities designed to build support for the State of Israel" (quote from their website). Part of their program is connecting with Israeli students their age and traveling to Israel to get a first-hand look at what they learn about back in Cleveland.

Since I am very involved in the Jewish community in Cleveland I know quite a few of the people on the program, as well as some of the staff members. For this reason I thought it would be good and fun to spend some time with them while they were in the "neighborhood". Avigail, a staff member of the Partnership office in Bet She'an, set up the meeting between me and ICNext on Friday morning. I went with another of the staff of the Jewish Agency to meet ICNext at Kibbutz Nir David, a kibbutz just outside of Bet She'an and ate lunch with them in the cafeteria. After lunch we all went to a private part of the river that runs through the kibbutz and feeds the natural springs known as Gan HaShlosha or Sachne. We spent the afternoon there relaxing on the banks or swimming. I didn't go swimming, but everyone who did looked to be having lots of fun. That night I had Shabbat dinner with the landlord again, and it was just as delicious as last week.

The next morning Amnon, the leader of ICNext, took me to an art museum in Ein Haroud near Bet She'an. He was doing a training program for the Israeli group Shinshinim, where Israelis take a gap year between high school and the army and become involved in volunteer and service activities to promote connections between Cleveland youths and Israel. The visit to the art museum was to start training them to be able to lead discussions and activities for teenagers at galleries in Cleveland of Israeli and Jewish art. While at the museum we had a tour of the galleries and learned how to best engage teenagers in a visit to an art gallery that they may not feel connected to. The visit was very interesting because these two aspects were combined. After visiting the museum we went to one of the Israeli's homes for lunch, which was a delicious feast. That night I joined ICNext for an evening of pizza making and "drum-circling".

It was really nice to visit with the kids from Cleveland. Getting to see familiar faces and speak English was a welcome break from working with Israelis every day. It was like a little visit from home.

Israel-Cleveland Next's website: http://www.icnext.org/
Information about Shinshinim: http://www.jewishagency.org/beit-shean-valley-springs-and-cleveland/program/9566

Another week come and gone

Hey guys, here is another post from me about my work. I'm still in Bet She'an and working in kibbutz Maoz Chayim. I'm still having fun even though the work is pretty much the same. I hope you enjoy reading!

At the synagogue we are still doing the same work along the wall. Eventually all the walls of the building need to have coping, so we are working one section at a time. The building is shaped as a basilica, with an apse and three rectangular sections separated by pillars. Tuesday we did coping on the section of wall left of the apse but before the corner of the building, and yesterday we worked on the opposite side, on the right section of wall next to the apse. We didn't quite finish that section of wall because we only have a limited amount of mortar to use everyday and we used it all before finishing. We do as much work as we can with the materials we have, and if there is still time after we use everything we do cleanup work and prepare for the next day by getting stones ready that fit into spaces in the top of the wall.

Today we finished the section of wall that we didn't do yesterday, and then moved on to the right side of the wall of the apse itself. This section has more of the large stones along the edge remaining, so we are only filling in between them. One thing I find interesting and somewhat controversial is that if there are stones already in place that are significantly higher than the level of the coping, the stones are removed and smaller ones put in its place. I'm not sure if this is an aesthetic or safety decision, but the removal of authentic and original material during the conservation process always involves tough decisions.

Something else I've noticed is that the work we did yesterday and today is not as good as the work we did on Tuesday. Our coping of the wall on Tuesday was more level and consistent, while our work since hasn't been done completely correctly, isn't level and has more holes. Whatever the reasons for the differences in the work, I'm still learning and getting to actually do things. Over the last three days I have been given more and more independence in what I do. Tuesday all I really did was watch and refill buckets of mortar, but today I did a lot of the mortar cleaning and smoothing, as well as throwing the dirt onto the wet mortar. At the very end I also did the entire process for a small area of the wall that had been forgotten and needed to be finished before we left. It feels good to be trusted to do the work without direct supervision.

After the work day was over I had a meeting with people from the Jewish Agency office in Bet She'an that are involved in maintaining the partnership between Bet She'an and Cleveland. We went to lunch and talked about Saving the Stones, my work, and what I am interested in doing while I'm here. They seem to be very interested in helping me get comfortable here and I am looking forward to being involved with them.

New week, new work

Welcome back to my fabulous blog everyone! I hope you are ready to hear about the work I have done and will be doing this week, because I'm ready to tell it. It might be a little short, but enjoy! In other news, how about that World Cup? I've been trying to watch as many of the matches as I can, but because of the time difference they are usually really late and it's hard for me to stay up watching and wake up early for work. Spain and Portugal's crushing defeats, Argentina, Italy and the US's close victories. I can't wait to see more!

There is one important thing I would like to mention. Due to political and secrecy concerns I am unable to talk about or show the location and nature of my work for the past week. I have removed all of these details from my previous blog posts and cannot elaborate further. Sorry for any inconveniences! Sunday and Monday were the last days at my previous site. These days consisted of cleaning up the site, removing some of the scaffolding and artificial construction, and gathering up all the tools and equipment.

Today we (the team I was working with and will continue to work with) started working at a new location. Now we are doing conservation work on a 3rd century synagogue in a kibbutz near Bet She'an. The site is inclosed in a makeshift building to protect it from the elements and human hazards. The synagogue has some pretty cool mosaics, but we're not working on them. Today we did consolidation and covering of one part of the wall of the building, called coping. Capping the top of a wall helps give it stability as well as help protect it from erosion.

The process of coping starts off with cleaning and wetting the top of a section of the wall. Then lots of mortar is put on the surface. Stones are then placed into the mortar, and excess mortar is removed. The mortar on the edges around the stones are cleaned and smoothed to make it look good, and finally dirt is thrown onto the mortar to make it look older and more natural. The stones we used were all original stones found at the site that had been removed either during the excavation or other conservation works. We added one course of stones to the top of the original wall, making it a fairly flat surface. First we put large stones on the border of the wall, then the opposite side. Finally we filled in between these two lines with smaller stones.

Nothing else is new with me here in Bet She'an. The apartment is still wonderful, and I am enjoying my work. Soon I hope to make connections with the municipality and the Jewish Federation Partnership from Bet She'an's twin city of Cleveland and get more involved in the community while I am here.

End of the Week at Bet She'an

Happy Friday everyone! My first week here at Bet She'an was fun and exciting. The work I've been doing has been interesting and I am enjoying it a lot.

Tuesday I continued working. I filled in holes and cracks with lime mortar. I didn't make quite as much progress as on Monday, but that was due to the way in which the work was done. Holes are easy enough to fill. You wet them, slap mortar everywhere, stick in a big rock to fill most of the hole, and then fill the rest of it with more mortar. Cracks, however, are much harder to fill. They are usually smaller than holes, but it's harder to put the mortar in them. One of the cracks I had to fill was only a few millimeters wide, just big enough for me to be able to stick my dental tool in. Since it was so thin I couldn't tell how deep it went, so I didn't know how much mortar I would need. It was incredibly difficult to put the mortar in the crack. I had to push small amounts in with the dental tool, trying not to drop any. It was a very slow process to feed in enough mortar to completely fill the crack.

Tuesday was also one of the other worker's birthday. He brought bourekas (pastries filled with cheese or potato), vegetables and brandy for a little celebration during brunch. Now is a good time to give a little more information about the team I'm working with. Besides me, there are three other workers: Ilan, from Israel, Octavian from Romania, and Alexander from Russia. It was Alexander's birthday. Everyone speaks some level of Hebrew so we are able to communicate well enough. Our boss, Ilan (different from the Ilan on the team) comes to check on us for an hour or two every day to make sure we know what to do and that our work is good. So far he's been happy with the work that I've done. The guys are funny, laid-back, and typical Israeli workers.

Wednesday my job was to fill in the holes made to put grouting pipes in to fill the interior with liquid mortar. The end of the project is coming and all the grouting has finished, so the holes left by the pipes have to be filled in. I rolled mortar into thin cylinders and stuffed them into the holes as far back as they would go to fill any remaining spaces within the stones. Thursday was mostly spent removing the wooden scaffolding. The World Cup started last night, and I tried to stay up to watch the first match (Brazil vs. Croatia), but I fell asleep before half time. Hopefully I won't be so tired to watch some of the other games.

Starting to Work

Hey there everyone reading this. Sorry it's been a while since I posted last. I wanted to wait to make it a substantial post so as not to bore you. I know, being in Israel for five months can't possibly be boring, but reading an entire blog post describing the food and souvenir stands I walk past would get repetitive and tiresome. So here is a post that covers all of what I did last week as well as what I did yesterday and today.

I will start with last Sunday, June 1st. Bronwyn and I (Melissa went to work with Shay) met Alison and Kamil at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. The museum is built on Tel Kasilah, one of several ancient tels on the Yarkon River that date back to the Bronze Age. The section of the ancient site that has been excavated and is still visible dates to the Philistines. We were given a tour of the ruins by the head archaeological inspector of  Tel Aviv. After our tour we had time to explore the rest of the museum on our own. The layout of the museum is unlike others in that the different exhibits are each housed in their own building spread out over the entire grounds. I went into the coin, glass, ceramics, copper, and modern art buildings. The coin exhibit displayed methods of payment since before coins were minted right up to modern shekels. The glass building explained the history of glass-making using finds from the country. The ceramics building showed pottery vessels and other ceramic objects. The copper building focused on the methods of copper mining used in ancient times, showcasing finds from the mines of Timna in southern Israel. The modern art building, which was the least interesting to me but still worth looking through, displayed the use of art to showcase culture through advertisements. Exploring the museum was interesting and time consuming, a day well-spent.

Monday we went with Shelley to Rehovot to visit a glass conservator and see his studio. He was trained in stained-glass conservation in Belgium but makes his living creating new pieces by commission. Currently he is working with the companies at the French Hospital and the W Hotel in Jaffa (that we visited the week before) to restore and conserve the stained-glass windows of the church there. He showed us how he works and explained to us the different methods that go into conserving stained-glass from the 1800s. After the windows are removed, the glass panes are removed from their lead frames, and the lead is discarded. Then the glass is cleaned.If any pieces are broken they are glued back together using a special reversible glue. Then the panes are slowly put back together using new lead (called re-leading). A putty is inserted into the lead to fill the holes and keep the glass from moving before the lead is soldered shut. The church has more than twenty windows, only half of which have survived. Part of the job includes recreating the missing windows. When the entire project will be completed in a couple of years, the windows will be placed back in their spots in the walls. They are put back last so that they will not be in danger from any other work that would be done, like painting. Seeing the stained-glass and learning how the windows from the French Hospital was really interesting, especially since we had been to the church and seen the site ourselves.

The rest of the week (Tuesday through Friday) we were free to do what we wished. I spent the majority of the time either relaxing on the beach or walking through the streets and the flea market. Since I'm not sure what free time I will have the rest of my time here, I used those days also to buy a few gifts and souvenirs. On Friday I went to my family in Bet Shemesh for Shabbat.

Yesterday (Sunday) I met Ornit and Alison in Afula and we went to Bet She'an to start the next section of my practicum, working with the conservation team at the National Park. We first went to the apartment where I will be staying. I have one room with a bathroom, and an attached kitchen, with the laundry room attached to the kitchen. The room is big, the bed is nice, and I also have an extra bed and a couch. If anyone wants to come and visit, I have a great place for you to stay! After I got settled in the apartment we met with Ilan, the boss, and decided on what I would be working on. After our meeting with Ilan I returned to the apartment, relaxed, and then went on a walk to better acquaint myself with this part of the city.

Today I began my work. The work was very similar to what we did in Akko and the ancient synagogue at Meron, so I was able to jump right in. I filled in holes in between stones with lime mortar We worked from about 7:30am until 1pm, with coffee and lunch breaks. After we finished for the day they dropped me back at the apartment, and I relaxed.