The treasure of Jerusalem – LA NACION

Hear

Last Saturday, a man got up from taking a long nap in Buenos Aires. He turned on the television. He put on a newscast. He wanted to know the weather. The time, temperature, and humidity appeared on the screen, and headlines announced the launch of a wave of Iranian drones aimed at Israel. Was it a remnant of drowsiness? He moved on to newscasts on other channels; there were interviews, for example, with influencers who were talking about Argentina. It occurred to him to investigate foreign stations; He didn’t come up with anything directly related to the topic. He “Returned” to Argentina, but to non-journalistic channels: the relative peace of the different television genres reigned.

Suddenly, the image of President Milei “emerged” on the tarmac of an airport. It was a scene from the recent past, the Buenos Aires viewer assumed. The next day, Sunday, he learned that Milei had anticipated returning to Buenos Aires and convened a crisis committee. The zapping screenshots became very brief. The gentleman’s fingers had become as fast as those of an amateur pianist in a accelerating plagued with typing errors instead of false notes.

His gullible and alarmist side surmised that the Apocalypse had arrived. The skeptical and sensible side of him told himself that nothing serious was going to happen because it would be a suicide of the species and we would still have to see the end of the series that one (he) was following. He also came up with bold political hypotheses, which it is wise not to spread.

That foreign anecdote, which came to me through a friend’s humorous story, seemed interesting rather than funny. I thought it was convenient to show what happens to us citizens as a result of what those who run the world or try to save it on behalf of “our” do or destroy. Not mine.

To try to lift the spirits of the readers and my own, I am going to tell something related to the above, but positive. A very dear friend, Teresa Orecchia-Havas, who lives in Paris, is now with her husband in a town in Israel spending a few days with one of her children and, of course, her grandchildren. Precisely last Saturday the 13th (in the morning, Argentine time), Teresa sent me a WhatsApp with numerous photographs of a small museum in the Israeli capital whose headquarters are in the now luxurious The American Colony Hotel. Originally, in that beautiful construction from the beginning of the 20th century, the utopian and Christian community American Colony functioned until the 1950s.

Over time, the building preserved its architecture, but changed its function and had new owners. It was converted into a sumptuous and elegant hotel. However, its directors decided to continue the spiritual tradition of the founders. That wise decision had a beneficial effect in future years; turned it into “an oasis of neutrality” (according to the words of those responsible). International conferences are held there; Israelis and Palestinians are cited; and the Palestinian Museum in Jerusalem operates.

Almost everything on display dates back to the 19th century and belongs to all of Palestine. There are dresses and jewelry from all regions, tools, chests, carpets, ceramics, basketry, an oven to cook poultry, a sieve, a wineskin to make butter, very high-heeled bridal shoes in the shape of a kind of Eiffel Tower. cut just above the start of the thinnest part; and a magic lantern with an oral narrator that showed the images in the box.

Something is conspicuous by its absence. No cult objects are displayed on that land. Perhaps the Museum’s main treasure is tolerance, which makes its existence and a certain hope possible. Something like this could be the beginning of a path.

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