Weeks 14 & 15: Welcoming the Queen at Tzfat Our time at Tzfat was a huge contrast from our time in Jerusalem. Instead of jumping into an on-going project or projects, we did our own, beginning with the planning stage and ending with a finished product that will be used to educate local building and conservation professionals. But first, we spent Shabbat in Tzfat, the center of Jewish spirituality and Kabbalah. The week in...

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Week 13: Our last week in Jerusalem! Time is flying by so quickly now! I cannot believe I am finally sitting down to write this entry and over a week has passed already. Our time in Tsefat has also come and gone, but I will write more about that later. We are now preparing our final reports of the work we did in Jerusalem and Tsefat and will finish the documentation in the coming week. First, let’s talk about Jerusalem! Our last week...

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Weeks 11 & 12: Jerusalem! Finally - a chance to sit down and catch everyone up on what we have been doing! Two of our three weeks in Jerusalem have passed and we are moving to Tsefat on Thursday. Our schedule for the past two weeks has been packed with work, tours, events, and personal enjoyment of the Jerusalem scene. Here is the run-down of everything we have been doing – it is quite an impressive list! Week 1: 1)      Tour...

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Weeks 9 & 10: Literally “Saving the Stones”!!! ...and writing up reports. After a much needed break during the week of Pesach (Passover), we jumped right into a week long intensive course on stone conservation with Jacques Nageur, Head of Art Conservation for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and his team. Our week with Jacques was highly anticipated, as it had been built up by the Saving the Stones staff, and it definitely did not disappoint....

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"Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness..." (Exod 5:3) Masada, Hatzeva, and Ein Boqeq - Week 7 Nothing beats building with mud the week before Passover (see Exodus/Shemot 5). As a biblical scholar myself and one who is particularly fond of the Book of Exodus (שמות), I found the timing of our 3-day trip to Hatzeva brilliant. The work was dirty, tedious, and very hot, but I feel more at home working on Iron Age (1,200-586...

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Week 6: Architecture as Language Week 6 sits between two very action-packed weeks. Last week, we spent three long days working at Caesarea and next week we will be working at Hatzeva, an Iron Age (ca. 1200-586 BCE) site in the Negev. We spent the bulk of Sunday and Monday on a technical write up of our Caesarea workshops, but the remainder of the week was full of fascinating tours. All of the tours took place in Old City Akko, but each gave...

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