Christmas idol

Courtyard of St. George cathedral

Yesterday evening I visited the Anglican cathedral of St. George. It was wonderfully decorated with christmas lights. The building itself is like a castle with many turrets and towers and a central courtyard. There is a pilgrim house and also a school that offers short-term courses. They have a full hierarchy of clergy ... from bishop to dean of cathedral to priests and deacons .... but their congregation is dismal. It's a small community of local believers who don't attend services even on Sunday. So my classmates who're visiting ... and they're protestants ... went for Sunday service, they were surprised to find only one person in attendance. At the Garden Tomb which is also Anglican, the service was cancelled and the place closed because nobody showed up.

St. George Cathedral

I was feeling very weak today so I decided not to go to work. I've been feeling so overwhelmed by work and other demands I'm just too tired to catch up. I really need to sleep. However today there was class in the afternoon and then some paper work to do as well. And tomorrow morning it's 3am again because I must go back to the doc for my checkup. Instead of weekly, it's now biweekly. Thank goodness because the travel cost is terribly high.

There's an unholy war in the southern city of Ashdod because a shopping mall has put up a Christmas tree and orthodox jews are calling for it to be torn down because it's a christian idol and it robs the city of its jewish character. This jewish identity thing is the usual excuse to rid anything that is not jewish. There is a growing intolerance for non-jewish things and people ... it is becoming dangerous.   https://www.timesofisrael.com/ultra-orthodox-deputy-mayor-calls-to-remove-christmas-tree-from-ashdod-mall/?fbclid=IwAR3V3g3Tu8tdGPLalMX6OKXf9CoRHhsILorCbdYuc9J0L0tCzZMPtMY2L5A

Last week there was a poll which showed jews very worried because half of the country's pharmacists are not jewish. Pharmacy has been the traditional trade of christians in this country for the past 80 years or so ... it started with the Franciscans who started the first medical clinics 800 years ago and taught the local christians pharmacological knowledge. Locals were then sent to Italy to study and they return as qualified pharmacists and this is usually a family tradition.   https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-poll-shows-strong-anti-arab-sentiment-among-israeli-jews/?fbclid=IwAR3d979d7p1mIa0xqs3Zi0cvuiYbbFSOx6d2StHisaIMdB-AP3L-tPYcvek