Holiday of Holidays Festival - Haifa

The 18th Holiday of Holidays Festival multicultural event marks Hannukah, Eid Al-Adha and Christmas in interfaith harmony.

It's a happening that brings tens of thousands of happy people to the streets of Haifa every December. Now in its 18th year, the Holiday of Holidays Festival is once again filling the Jewish-Arab mixed Wadi Nisnas neighborhood with good cheer, musical concerts, art exhibits, delicious bites and, most importantly, a feeling of togetherness.

It's actually a combination of holidays of the three main monotheistic religions: Hannukah, Eid Al-Adha and Christmas celebrated in interfaith harmony every Thursday through Saturday in December. "We honor everyone who lives here," says Asaf Ron, CEO of the Beit Hagefen Arab Jewish Center, which organizes the event. "The festival is very important for dialogue, community activity, neighborliness and tolerance."

On the bill are an antiques fair, outdoor art exhibits, crafts fair, Christmas tree decorating, Christmas parades, liturgical concerts, neighborhood tours, concerts, street theater and Israeli street food.

"First of all, visitors must see the art exhibits. This year the artists look at their origins. The art is at the heart of the festival," says Ron. "Secondly, the [concert] stages are a center point and a real Israel mix. You can hear everything on the stage: Baha'i music, modern Arabic music, world music, Israeli music. This is a happening for everyone. It's great to see all the religions in the same festival."

Pilgrimage to Haifa

Travelers tend to go to Haifa to see the Baha'i Gardens, Stella Maris Monastery, the Cave of Prophet Elijah, the Achmadim Mosque and the Old German Colony area. The city does not boast a particular pilgrimage site as found in Jerusalem or Nazareth.

"Haifa offers something else. We're not a holy site specifically, but we have people that want to live harmoniously; the atmosphere here is special. The feeling is one of pluralism," Ron says.

The annual festival attracts some 200,000 people from across Israel and even from abroad. More than 40 percent of festivalgoers are out-of-towners. "The festival is very important for dialogue and a shared experience of togetherness," Ron says, noting that Beit Hagefen’s goal is to educate toward coexistence by means of cultural and artistic activities.

The festival takes place in the neighborhood of Wadi Nisnas, where Jews, Christians and Muslims live side by side. A few churches are located here, but the area is best known for its art and culinary delicacies. Here you’ll find some 100 works of art by Arab and Jewish artists from across the country. And the marketplace (shuk) is known for its mounds of indigenous herbs and oriental pastries.

During the year Wadi Nisnas is a quaint neighborhood with an open-minded atmosphere. During the festival, it's one of the most energetic and boisterous places in Haifa, if not in all of northern Israel.

Festival highlights

One of the best-loved activities is taking a photo with Haifa's own Santa Claus. "At least 80 percent of those taking pictures with Santa are Jewish," reports Ron. "It's an attraction for everyone."

Another highlight is the coexistence walks. Beit Hagefen conducts these guided tours year-round at NIS 20 per person, but it is at the festival that demand really heats up. The tours are conducted in Hebrew, Arabic, English, Spanish and Russian. Ron says they're working on getting French-speaking guides as well.

The Art Works route includes displays by dozens of Jewish and Arab artists; the Poetry Path includes excerpts by Arab and Jewish poets and explains how their words connect to the neighborhoods; the Taste of Wadi Nisnas route includes samplings of traditional foods like knafeh, baklava and olesh (chicory); and the German Colony route gives a short history of the Templar settlement amid the beautiful historic buildings.

While informative, Ron says, the purpose of the tours is to introduce visitors to the cultural mosaic of Haifa. "Educational messages of peace, pluralism, tolerance, cooperation, neighborliness and joint hope for a better future, are conveyed through the tours," reads the Beit Hagefen website.

And then there's the Christmas parade. Ron says December 22-24, 2011 is "the" weekend to be in Haifa. "Hannukah and Christmas get their start with the Santa parade that winds around the neighborhoods. The parade ends with the lighting of a hannukiah (menorah) and with two Israeli-Jewish and Israeli-Arab bands playing on stage." There really is a little something for everyone.

Bahai temple in Haifa reopens after $6 million renovation

The Bahai holy site in Haifa reopened Tuesday following two-and-a-half years of renovations.

· The Shrine of the Bab, a UN-designated World Heritage site, reopened following a $6 million renovation, which included covering the temple’s dome with 11,790 new gold-glazed porcelain tiles.

· The structure has been refitted and even strengthened to withstand an earthquake.

· The Shrine is in honour of Bab, who was venerated as a prophet and later buried in the Mediterranean port city of Haifa.

· The project was overseen by a Bahai engineer from California, Saeid Samadi, who was born in Iran, where Bahais have long suffered persecution for their beliefs and where the Bahai faith was declared illegal after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

· The Bahai faith, which has roots in 19th century Iran and has between 5 and 6 million adherents worldwide, is one of Israel’s lesser known religious groups.

· It has been reported that as many as 750,000 people visited the Haifa shrine last year.

Yet Another Example of Israeli "Apartheid"?

To mark Baha'i New Year, an international conference will be held at Hebrew University, Jerusalem on Baha'ism, Judaism, Christianity & Islam

To mark the Baha'i New Year on March 21, an international conference will take place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on 'Modern Religions and Religious Movements in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Babi-Bahai Faiths'.

"The circle of Baha'i believers is expanding every year – especially in the Western world," says Prof. Moshe Sharon, the conference organizer and head of Baha'i Studies at the Hebrew University. "The number of Baha'i believers has been increasing by about four percent a year, and in recent years there has been an increased penetration into new areas in eastern Europe."

The Baha'i faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in nineteenth-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are currently about six million adherents of the Baha'i faith around the world, of which 250,000 live in Iran, the birthplace of the religion's prophets. The largest Baha'i population can be found in India.

The Baha'i Faith is the world's only religion run by a local, national and international administration. The Baha'is' World House of Justice sits on Mount Carmel in Haifa. Haifa and Acre are the holy cities of the Baha'i faith, and the Bab himself, the first founder of the religion, is buried in Haifa.

Lectures and sessions during the conference include: 'The spread of the Baha'i faith from East to West', 'A 19th century Zoroastrian-Baha'i dialogue', 'The Bab and the Babis – Early accounts in the Western press 1845-1851' and 'Promoting sexual equality through education: Baha'i girls' schools in Iran'.

Other lectures include 'Stretching the borders of religious legitimacy: Baha'is and latter-day saints in China', 'The Bydzhov Israelites and the Frankists – Two sects in 18th century Bohemia', 'Jewish Christianity in 20th century Russia as a form of Jewish national revival' and 'The promise of Monotheism'.

Isn't the North of Israel an Amazing Region?

This morning’s paper reports on another massive increase in tourism here in Israel, 41% above the first 4 months of last year. There seems to be no doubt we will hit the 2.8 million target for this year.

As well as being good for the economy, this increase offers so many more people to see the real Israel, an Israel certainly not reported in the international press. A recent letter from a contact in Ashkelon says ”We are indeed having a bit of a rough time, 12,14,20 shells a day landing in or around the area. Not only does the BBC / Sky not report it, even our news hardly reports it any more!”

In a recent discussion at the offices of the the local city council, I happened to remark on this increase in tourism and was told that there seems to be reluctance on the part of tour offices to include Haifa in the itinerary of tourists. The local council has offered any group staying a minimum of 2 nights at a city hotel, a free guided tour of the city, yet there still seems to be a reluctance to accept this offer.

Now I know I am prejudiced since living here in Haifa for more than 26 years but I leave you to judge, where would you find such a beautiful daily drive on a visit to the supermarket as that in the picture? There is so much to see in this city of ours.



After attending the Machal dinner for the 1948 war veterans,see last blog, a group of us got together with our Machal friend to take a tour of Acre. Now I have been to Acre many times with friends of ours but our guide, Danny, who lives in Acre was able to show us many new things and we spent 5 hours until our feet felt as though they were dropping. Interestingly, he also commented on how the tourists seem to miss out his city. The tour of the underground Crusader city