KIVUNIM SAMPLE TRAVEL ITINERERIES (Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, India, Portugal, Azerbijian ’16 Only)
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KIVUNIM SAMPLE TRAVEL ITINERERIES (Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, India, Portugal, Azerbijian ’16 only) The KIVUNIM Curriculum is fully integrated with our extensive travel program totaling approximately 10 weeks of the academic year to include at least 10-12 different countries and approximately 75 cities. Our visits are rooted in our classroom study and our classroom study is informed and enhanced by our fieldwork. We visit some of the greatest National Museums, archaeological and historical sites, and places of natural beauty in the world while exploring local language, art, music, dance and cuisine. While our special interest is on the Jewish experience in each of these countries, we only fully understand and appreciate it within its local context. As you will see evident below, our travels and study are “open” and expansive. We meet with local journalists, artists, religious leaders, politicians, educators, etc., in immersing our students in KIVUNIM’s goal of “building world consciousness.” Academic reviews of our program have acknowledged that the total number of contact hours provided by KIVUNIM is almost 3 times those for a typical humanities course on an American college campus. Our local itineraries follow the same pattern each year. You will find below a sample for 2014-5 which will differ only slightly with that for the current (or any other) year. (Hopefully we learn from experience and improve from year to year but we do not redesign on an annual basis.) Turkey, Bulgaria & Greece: Istanbul is one of the most beautiful and glorious cities in the world. But aside from beauty, its location, bridging two continents - and its linking of the worlds of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in overlapping ways is both unique and astounding. Istanbul is a perfect choice to open KIVUNIM’s amazing encounter with the world. Yes, over the year we will see churches replaced by mosques and returned to being churches in Spain. We will see Synagogues preserved by non- Jews in almost every country we visit. But where else in the history of the Jewish People, including WWII-reluctant America, were Jews actively recruited, wooed, invited in as in Turkey? This same Ottoman Empire that we understand today in all its final corruptness was also the protector and savior of our people...and not for a few years, but for centuries! How ironic that the same religion, Islam, that is identified today by so many with deep anti-Jewish sentiment, was this generative force in the historic encounter of Jews and Ottomans beginning in 1492/93. What will we make of the Hanukkiah in the Jewish Museum of Istanbul designed with a minaret? What of the tallit we will see embroidered with the star and crescent of the Sultan? What of the Synagogues with their Reading Platforms shaped like the bow of a ship to remind them of how the Sultan sent out his ships to rescue them by the sea on their way from Spanish expulsion? We are often told that those who fail to learn the lessons of history will be doomed to repeat them. But what if those lessons are learned and the conclusions are positive and we would only wish that we could repeat them? What then? Is there wisdom to be gleaned from this city, this culture and these people? And how is it that Turkey had diplomatic relations with Israel, almost from the beginning of the establishment of the Jewish State? How is it that they held joint military maneuvers since the early 1950’s? How is it that the Israeli Air Force had fly-overs in celebration of Turkish Independence Day? Once again, where are we? Even after the terrible tragedy of the “Flotilla Incident” it was Turkey that sent a water tanker plane almost immediately to fight the forest fires in the Carmel region near Haifa, Israel in December 2010. So to travel to Istanbul is not only to feast our eyes...it is to anticipate all that is to come this year in what will be a working attempt at putting some of the pieces of our giant worldwide puzzle together in an image of what can be...and of course with that picture in mind...to determine what we must do. SATURDAY NIGHT November 15, 2014 8:30 PM: We depart Beit Shmuel for the airport for our Turkish Airlines flight # 791 departing Tel Aviv at 1 AM and arriving in Istanbul at 3:10 AM. Upon arrival we will be met by our Turkish specialist guides, Nur Kalpaklioglu and Toplum Biner, who are very accessible and looking to help make this week as meaningful and powerful for you as possible. Talk to them, ask them questions, challenge them and yourselves. SUNDAY November 16, 2014 We will board our buses and make our way, with a stop to see a beautiful overlook of the city at sunrise, to the Republika Apartments Hotel Ortakoy. We will check-in and go right to sleep for a few additional hours of rest before starting out at lunchtime. Then we’ll dive right in to ancient Byzantium, beginning at the Hippodrome that was built by the Romans in approximately 200 CE. It was originally used for chariot racing and other public events, and the stadium surrounding the track held over 100,000 people. The Hippodrome was the center of life in Byzantine Constantinople for over 1,000 years and of Ottoman life in Istanbul for over 400 years. It was also the center of numerous political and civil battles, some brutal. The bloodiest brawl occurred in 532 CE when two rival chariot racing teams ignited a riot that resulted in most of the city being burned. The revolt ended when an army of Justinian's mercenaries massacred about 30,000 people who were trapped in the Hippodrome. Very little of the Hippodrome survives today, and the area is now a large park adjacent to the famous Blue Mosque. The floor of the Hippodrome lies buried under 16 feet of soil and the track is now a paved road. Emperor Constantine once lined the Hippodrome with large columns, but only three survive in the park. Some of the rest were taken by the Crusaders, and can be found in European locations outside of Istanbul such as Venice. The oldest remaining column is called the Egyptian Obelisk, which was built in Egypt in 1500 BCE, and once stood in Luxor before Constantine brought it to his city. IMAGINE THAT?! Experts believe the beautifully carved column is only about 1/3 its original height, the rest having been broken while it was being shipped to Constantinople. Next to the Egyptian Obelisk is the spiral Serpentine Column, dating back to 479 BCE. It was brought to Istanbul from Delphi, and originally consisted of three intertwined serpents supporting a large cauldron. The cauldron and snakes' heads were broken off the column in the 18th century. The third remaining column stands over 100 feet high and is called the Column of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Not much is known about this unadorned column other than that it was once covered in bronze before being looted by the Crusaders. From the Hippodrome we will make our short way to The Blue Mosque that was commissioned by Sultan Ahmet I in the early 1600's. It has a classic Ottoman design. He charged Mehmet Aga, the imperial architect, with building a mosque that would rival the nearby Aya Sofya (also called Hagia Sophia or the Church of the Divine Wisdom) built by the Christian Justinian a thousand years before. Most visitors to Istanbul today believe that Aga met his charge, that the Mosque is magnificent. But the mosque caused quite a sensation in the 17th century among the more pious Muslims. They thought the six minarets were somewhat sacrilegious, because until that time, only the Great Mosque in Mecca had that many. In addition to the six minarets surrounding the mosque, the exterior of the Blue Mosque is highlighted by a series of domes that are designed to bring the visitors' eyes towards the heavens. The whole view is really quite awesome. How did such buildings get built without computers and modern engineering? How did they know it would stand? The design of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque is the culmination of two centuries of both Ottoman mosque and Byzantine church development. It incorporates some Byzantine elements from the neighboring Hagia Sophia with traditional Islamic architecture and is considered to be the last great mosque of the classical period. The architect ably synthesized the ideas of his master Sinan, aiming for overwhelming size, majesty and splendor, but some say the interior lacks his creative thinking. From here we will walk the short distance through the beautiful park to Ayasofya (St. Sophia Museum) one of the most impressive and important buildings ever constructed. Its wide, flat dome was a daring engineering feat in the 6th century, and architects still marvel at the building's many innovations. Called Hagia Sophia in Greek (The Church of the Divine Wisdom), Sancta Sophia in Latin, Ayasofya in Turkish, it was built on the site of Byzantium's acropolis by Emperor Justinian (527-65 CE) in 537 CE. Ayasofya was the greatest church in Christendom. It was built to surpass the gigantic Church of St Polyeuchtos erected by Julia Anitzia, scion of the line of Theodosian emperors. Julia meant her church, a "recreation" of the Temple of Jerusalem, to symbolize her wealth, power and legitimate claim to the throne of Byzantium. Justinian had to out-build her to establish his own legitimacy—and he did.