Saturday, May 16

A very relaxing day talking with Yael and Eli and 4 of their six children and then being driven around Heifa by Eli.   Heifa is the largest and busiest port in Israel.  The huge ships look small lined up waiting to dock in the harbor and unload their cargo of mostly steel containers that are then trucked all over Israel.

Sunday, May 17

Eli dropped us at the Baha’i Gardens an amazing 18 terraces of sculpted gardens with thousands of plant species and spectacular flowers arranged and manicured in homage to the Baha’i faith and the burial site of the “Bab” the second most revered person in the faith.  Baha’i  was begun by Baha’u’llah in the mid-ninteenth century in Iran.  It recognizes all of the prophets of the major religions.  It is a religion that believes in equality and unity  The holiest place in the religion is in Akko where Baha’u’llah is buried. The temple and gardens in Haifa is the second most holy place.  The gardens are beautiful and the pictures do not do it justice. It consists of 18 sculpted and manicured terraces with more than 12,000 species of plants.

After walking down the full lenth of Baha’i Gardens we had lunch in the German Colony, a late 19th century group of restored buildings built and populated by a “colony” of German natives.

We then went hunting for the Museum of Imigration which was to provide the backdrop of the British adoption and implementation of the “White Paper” policy of restricting the flow of Jewish immigrants who survived the Second World War to 75,000 per year, with the result being the turning away of whole ship loads  of people. The museum had been closed for 6 months.

Returned to the Levy household,  which sits  the top of Mount Carmel, for coffee on the veranda followed by dinner.

Yael & Eli Levy