Austrian Hospitality

We had an interfaith coordinators retreat at the (Catholic) Austria Hospice in Jerusalem's Old City. This is one of Jerusalem's beautiful mysteries. I've passed by this place on the busy corner of Via Dolorosa countless numbers of times and never knew what was behind the doors. The palatial building was built in 1867 and was a Jordanian hospital from 1948, but in 1984 it reverted back to what it originally was intended for. I felt as if I were in an Austrian palace somewhere in the Middle East...

My parents are from Austria so everything was so culturally familiar to me. Not the crucifixes and paintings of Jesus but the Sachertorte with whipped cream, and Apfelstrudel with whipped cream and the Austrian accented staff speaking English to us were. The authentic Viennese cafe is absolutely divine. I laughed at dinner time when the waitress asked if I wanted "wedgetable soup" and looked around for a Cloris-Leachman type from Young Frankenstein, asking if I wanted "Ovaltine".

One of the participants was a Druze actor who is quite alot of local films - He was in the Syrian Bride. Was struck me as quaint was that he travelled to Jerusalem with a Druze woman from the same village. They are not married and asked a mutual friend to accompany them as a chaperone. They are in their forties and are not children. But I could imagine the trouble in their Galilean village had they just wandered off, without a chaperone, going overnight to Jerusalem. Of course people would think they were having one mean flingo. In this case, I agreed it made sense to have one - especially if he is an Israeli journalist.

I was oblivious to the tension in the city after the Hamas victory. Inside the Austrian Hospice, the mood was optimistic and the aura of peace was over us all as we brainstormed and planned activities for the near future - international, publicity, social welfare activities (my thing), and a retreat in the Druze Galilee village of Majar for the 300 members of our group nation-wide.

"It's not a problem putting up 350 people in our village."

"Do you have a hotel?"

"No, it will be in peoples' homes."

Wow. I'm totally impressed and envious. They spoke for the village and were so sure it will be ok for the local people to host us all. I certainly could not say this about an Israeli Jewish neighborhod opening its homes to 350 people of mixed faiths.