LLWorldTour

Remember this guy?

It’s the Swedish chef from the Muppets. And although he is just saying ‘gobbledygook’, oftentimes to me, this is just what Swedish sounds like.

I’m back in the land of Volvos, Ikea, Absolut, and ABBA. But as I wrote about a year ago when I visited Sweden’s second largest city, Gothenburg, there is so much more to this land of nine million. My first taste of this Scandinavian nation (besides in Chicago’s Swedish enclave: Andersonville. In the early 20th century, more Swedes lived in Chicago than in Gothenburg) was during Christmas time a year ago with my Swedish friend Paula, and it could not have been more charming with white lights and candles all aglow.  Now I was back in this California-sized country and coincidentally it just happened to be winter again. The dead of winter to be precise: mid – freaking cold – February.  But, guess what? I still really liked it anyway. And if the freezing temps didn’t scare me away now, I could only imagine how much I would love it in the spring and summer.

Now mind you, in relative terms, it wasn’t even really that cold. The daily temps hovered around OC or 32F, which is normal or above normal for my Chicago blood so it was just fine. In fact, most of Sweden has a temperate climate, despite its northern latitude, with four distinct seasons and somewhat mild temperatures throughout the year.  Sweden is much warmer and drier than other places at the similar latitude, and even somewhat further south, mainly because of the Gulf Stream.  Plus the sun was shining, the sky was a deep blue, and the Swedes were smiley and sunny themselves.

But what was it about Stockholm that I liked so much? I think if I had to pick one word to describe it, it would be charm and aesthetics. Okay that’s two words…so sue me. You can imagine with a history of award-winning Scandinavian design, the Swedes care about how things look. So as a result of this, you get a very clean, well-planned city with amazing design elements from the newest cultural center, the Kulturhuset to the normally boring, now innovative office parks on the outskirts of town.

Sweden’s capital is one of the most beautiful major cities in the world, a mirage of marigold and terracotta-colored buildings shimmering between blue water and bluer skies all summer, or covered with snow and dotted with lights in winter. Built on 14 small islands joined by bridges crossing open bays and narrow channels, Stockholm is a vibrant, modern city, famous for producing sleek designs, edgy fashion and cozy cafes.

The old town, Gamla Stan, is a charming island of winding cobblestone lanes and pastel colored centuries old buildings. Just to the south of Gamla Stan is another island neighborhood, Södermalm, exuding a hip young vibe, with pedestrian streets lined with cute cafes, bohemian shops, art galleries and restaurants.

And speaking of islands, Stockholm boggles the mind and tickles the adventurous spirit with its 24,000 or so islands, that make up the archipelago that surrounds it all, creating vistas and waterfronts in nearly any direction.

I spent a lovely week here meeting some great locals through Couchsurfing, walking through the snowy lanes, splashing in slush puddles and keeping myself toasty warm with many coffee bar breaks. And I was here just in time for Sweden’s biggest gossip news: Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria is finally going to marry her prince, long-time companion Daniel Westling. Their marriage will be that of fairy tales–joining two very different worlds. He is just a ‘commoner’ of humble beginnings, a small-town guy from a middle-class family; she was raised at Drottningholm Palace, just outside of Stockholm, and is Europe’s only female heir apparent to the throne.  They met at the gym, where he was her trainer, and will marry in 2010. Now royal watchers are looking forward to Sweden’s first royal wedding since Victoria’s parents, Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, married in 1976. Ooh, the excitement. Maybe I’ll come back next year for the big shindig. I’m sure my invite is forthcoming.

Besides royalty, around 16% of greater Stockholm’s 1.2 million people are immigrants, which creates a much more multicultural and diverse cityscape than many travelers might expect. It’s certainly not all meatballs and ABBA now. In the last 10 years Sweden’s capital has emerged from its cold, Nordic shadow to take the stage as a truly international city. What started with entry into the European Union in 1995, and continued with the extraordinary IT boom of the late 1990s, is still happening today as Stockholm gains even more global confidence. Stockholmers have, almost as one, realized that their city is one to rival Paris, London, New York, or any other great metropolis.

With this realization comes change. Stockholm has become a city of design, fashion, innovation, technology, and world-class food, pairing homegrown talent with international standard – you can hear it in the laughter of laid-back weekenders in the city’s many open spaces; and it seems you can buy it in the shops, which are full to bursting with cutting-edge Swedish products. This glittering feeling of optimism, success, and living in the “here and now” is what makes me wonder why I shouldn’t be living in Stockholm.

Sweet Sweden Stats

• The capital, Stockholm’s, daylight lasts for more than 18 hours in late June, but only around 6 hours in late December.
• With so many social services in effect, and a virtual absence of poverty, Sweden’s personal income taxes are some of the highest in the world. In 2002, personal income tax rates, the combination of state and local rates, were 31% on the first increment of taxable income up to 232,600 Krona (about $173,065); 51% on the next increment up to 374,000 Krona (about $278,000); and 56% on increments of income above 374,000 Krona. Since the late 1960s, Sweden has had the highest tax quota (as percentage of GDP) in the industrialized world, although today the gap has narrowed and Denmark has surpassed Sweden as the most heavily taxed country among developed countries.
• Sweden had left-side-of-the-road traffic from approximately 1736 and continued to do so well into the 20th century. The changeover just took place in 1967.
• Sweden has one of the best education systems in the world. The school system is largely financed by taxes…in other words, students go to university for free. Along with several other European countries, the government also subsidizes tuition of international students pursuing a degree at Swedish institutions, although there has been talk of this being changed. So now, of course, I am thinking of getting my master’s degree here.  Only a few countries such as Canada, the United States and Japan have higher levels of university degree holders.
• Sweden has been transformed from a nation of emigration ending after World War I to a nation of immigration from World War II onwards. In 2007, immigration reached its highest level since records began with nearly 100,000 people moving to Sweden. The largest immigrant groups living in Sweden as of 2007 are people born in Finland, the Former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Poland, Iran, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Turkey, Chile, Lebanon, Thailand, Somalia, the United Kingdom, Syria, China and the United States.
• Sweden is the third largest music exporter in the world, with over 800 million dollars in 2007 years revenue, surpassed only by the US and the UK.

I’ve gone from the Muslim and Jewish pig-free lands of the Middle East to Northern and Eastern Europe where folks can’t get enough pork-products and smoked meats. It’s the land of ‘the other white meat’, spuds and sour cream. In other words, if it’s creamy, fatty, and white, it’s eaten here in enormous amounts. But you would never know it by looking at the locals – crazy-tall Baltic beauties stroll around town with model-like spindly long legs and full flowing locks.

The Baltic nations are three of Europe’s fasting growing economies.  Today – the gray, ugly, stoic times of Soviet rule are a thing of the past and these young countries are sprinting into the future with the help of those long legs of course. I was happy to see these colorful, artsy societies filled with young people and a culture that is, in many ways, more modern than other Western European nations.

I don’t know exactly what it is, but despite the toe-numbing cold temps and often gray days, I love Northern Europe. Northern Germany, Scandinavia, and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all make me smile. They are filled with beautiful green landscapes, thick forests full of birds and wildlife and charming old towns like the fairy-tale-looking medieval city of Tallinn, art nouveau Riga, and baroque Vilnius.

In the 20^th century, all three Baltic nations suffered greatly at the hands of the Nazis and the Soviet regime. Between the two World Wars, the three small countries enjoyed a time of growth and independence. All this ended with a secret pact between Hitler and Stalin which carved up portions of Europe to be either controlled by Germany or the USSR.

After a brief and frightening rule by the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany occupied the Baltics during WWII, murdering hundreds of thousands of Jews and wiping out nearly the entire Jewish population of Lithuania which peaked on the eve of WWI at about 240,000. Back then there were about 100 synagogues in Vilnius and 6 daily Jewish newspapers. In just a three month period in 1941, 35,000 Jews were murdered in cold blood in the Panerai Forest just outside of Vilnius.

After the war, the Baltic States fell to the Soviet Union once again and the terror continued with a bleak time of repression. Thousands and thousands of Balts were sent to labor camps, deported and killed. These dark, sad times are chillingly depicted in Riga’s Museum of the Occupation and Vilnius’ very well done Museum of Genocide Victims which is housed in the former KGB headquarters complete with bone-chilling basement cells where prisoners were tortured and executed.

In August 1989, an estimated two million Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians (out of a total population of 8 million) joined hands in a human chain known as the “Baltic Way” stretching the 650 kilometers (370 miles) between Vilnius in the south and Tallinn in the north. It was a completely peaceful protest symbolizing the peoples’ solidarity and wish for independence. On November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. In December 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev signed the declaration condemning the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact’s secret protocol. Within six months, Lithuania became the first Soviet state to declare independence and just two years after this demonstration, the independence of all three Baltic states was recognized by most western countries.

Fun Facts:

• Vilnius is the home of Eastern Europe’s oldest University.
• Riga has one of the largest markets in Europe. It’s housed in 5 huge old Zeppelin hangars.
• Skype was developed in Estonia.
• The current Lithuanian president, Val Adamkus, emigrated to the Chicago area as a teenager, worked extensively for the U.S. government, and moved back to Lithuania after his retirement.

During my visit to Israel there just happened to be a war going on.  I was not near Gaza.  Israel has been hit by Hamas rockets for years now but, the aggressive approach Israel recently took was very condemned in much of the world.  A total of 1,200 Palestinians died with a recent report from Israel saying that 300 of these were civilians.

The report said 580 of those killed have been identified as fighters of the Hamas Palestinian militant group. Another 320 victims have yet to be classified but they have been described as all men, two-thirds of whom were deemed likely by Israel to be terror operatives.

Of course, these results differ greatly from those of Hamas reports. Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration chief Col. Moshe Levi told the newspaper the Hamas figures are the result of “false reporting” that have given the international community a “vastly distorted impression” of the Gaza death toll.

According to some reports, Israel’s Minister of Welfare and Social Services Isaac Herzog, who is coordinating Israel’s humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza, has said that “[The IDF] made 250,000 phone calls], it sent text messages and delivered leaflets by air. It [made] broadcasts on television and on radio and asked people to move away. It did whatever it could to prevent human suffering.”

Some say that Hamas deliberately forced its “own” Gazan civilians to serve as hostages and “human shields,” behind which the terrorists conducted their assault. Hamas regularly sent its troops to occupy schools, hospitals, mosques and office buildings, their grounds and adjacent streets, as well as many private Palestinian houses and business, and used them to fire at Israeli soldiers and to launch rockets against Israeli civilians. The Hamas men used mosques as weapons and ammunition storage facilities, and fired anti-aircraft guns from them. The Israelis have even filmed videos, now broadcast on YouTube, of Hamas fighters launching rockets and mortars from the courtyards of schools, or streets directly adjoining them.

In Israel, military service is mandatory and nearly all citizens – men and women – are drafted at age 18.

Because Israel is such a small country, and everyone serves in the army, entire communities are affected by everything that happens along the border.

All active military personnel, whether on duty or not, must carry their weapons with them at all times. Which means, I sat next to a nice young boy sleeping with his assault rifle propped between his legs on the bus on my way to Jerusalem from the south of Israel.  But I should also make a side note that all these young military men are quite hot. Does that help my safety? Well, no, but they sure are nice to look at.

I was at a Sabbath dinner (the first one in my life) in Jerusalem one night and met a mother who has something in common with nearly all Israeli mothers: her children served in the military and due to Israel’s common conflicts, it is not all that rare that their children have to fight. This particular mom’s son had just returned from Gaza City. But what I heard from her wasn’t about the war itself, but what it meant to be a soldier for Israel. Since everyone does it here…it’s something of a rite of passage. What struck me as amazing were all the phone calls this mother received from random strangers telling her that her son was alright. In other words, there is an unwritten chain of command that soldiers give their mothers’ phone numbers to random people they come in contact with during the conflict…like truck drivers or other officers, who make calls for the soldiers…or even hand the numbers on to someone else who then makes the calls.

When her son returned home, she then learned that he had really been at the front lines, something he kept from her so she would not be overcome with worry. He brought back with him a stack of letters he’d received written by school children and teachers wishing him a safe return. Without being asked, this young man sat down and called every child who had written him and left a telephone number to tell them he read their letter and to thank them. The kids on the other end of the phone line were ecstatic to hear from him.

Here is another letter that is circulating on the internet. I can not say for sure it is real, but have not found the contrary.

An Open Letter to A citizen Of Gaza: I Am the Soldier Who Slept In Your Home

I Am the Soldier Who Slept In Your Home
By: Yishai G (reserve soldier)
ygoldflam@gmail.com
[Originally published in Hebrew in Maariv]

Hello,

While the world watches the ruins in Gaza, you return to your home which remains standing. However, I am sure that it is clear to you that someone was in your home while you were away.

I am that someone.

I spent long hours imagining how you would react when you walked into your home. How you would feel when you understood that IDF soldiers had slept on your mattresses and used your blankets to keep warm.

I knew that it would make you angry and sad and that you would feel this violation of the most intimate areas of your life by those defined as your enemies, with stinging humiliation. I am convinced that you hate me with unbridled hatred, and you do not have even the tiniest desire to hear what I have to say. At the same time, it is important for me to say the following in the hope that there is even the minutest chance that you will hear me.

I spent many days in your home. You and your family’s presence was felt in every corner. I saw your family portraits on the wall, and I thought of my family. I saw your wife’s perfume bottles on the bureau, and I thought of my wife. I saw your children’s toys and their English language schoolbooks. I saw your personal computer and how you set up the modem and wireless phone next to the screen, just as I do.

I wanted you to know that despite the immense disorder you found in your house that was created during a search for explosives and tunnels (which were indeed found in other homes), we did our best to treat your possessions with respect. When I moved the computer table, I disconnected the cables and lay them down neatly on the floor, as I would do with my own computer. I even covered the computer from dust with a piece of cloth. I tried to put back the clothes that fell when we moved the closet although not the same as you would have done, but at least in such a way that nothing would get lost.

I know that the devastation, the bullet holes in your walls and the destruction of those homes near you place my descriptions in a ridiculous light. Still, I need you to understand me, us, and hope that you will channel your anger and criticism to the right places.

I decided to write you this letter specifically because I stayed in your home.

I can surmise that you are intelligent and educated and there are those in your household that are university students. Your children learn English, and you are connected to the Internet. You are not ignorant; you know what is going on around you.

Therefore, I am sure you know that Quassam rockets were launched from your neighborhood into Israeli towns and cities.

How could you see these weekly launches and not think that one day we would say “enough”?! Did you ever consider that it is perhaps wrong to launch rockets at innocent civilians trying to lead a normal life, much like you? How long did you think we would sit back without reacting?

I can hear you saying “it’s not me, it’s Hamas”. My intuition tells me you are not their most avid supporter. If you look closely at the sad reality in which your people live, and you do not try to deceive yourself or make excuses about “occupation”, you must certainly reach the conclusion that the Hamas is your real enemy.

The reality is so simple, even a seven year old can understand: Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip, removing military bases and its citizens from Gush Katif. Nonetheless, we continued to provide you with electricity, water, and goods (and this I know very well as during my reserve duty I guarded the border crossings more than once, and witnessed hundreds of trucks full of goods entering a blockade-free Gaza every day).

Despite all this, for reasons that cannot be understood and with a lack of any rational logic, Hamas launched missiles on Israeli towns. For three years we clenched our teeth and restrained ourselves. In the end, we could not take it anymore and entered the Gaza strip, into your neighborhood, in order to remove those who want to kill us. A reality that is painful but very easy to explain.

As soon as you agree with me that Hamas is your enemy and because of them, your people are miserable, you will also understand that the change must come from within. I am acutely aware of the fact that what I say is easier to write than to do, but I do not see any other way. You, who are connected to the world and concerned about your children’s education, must lead, together with your friends, a civil uprising against Hamas.

I swear to you, that if the citizens of Gaza were busy paving roads, building schools, opening factories and cultural institutions instead of dwelling in self pity, arms smuggling and nurturing a hatred to your Israeli neighbors, your homes would not be in ruins right now. If your leaders were not corrupt and motivated by hatred, your home would not have been harmed. If someone would have stood up and shouted that there is no point in launching missiles on innocent civilians, I would not have to stand in your kitchen as a soldier.

You don’t have money, you tell me? You have more than you can imagine.

Even before Hamas took control of Gaza, during the time of Yasser Arafat, millions if not billions of dollars donated by the world community to the Palestinians was used for purchasing arms or taken directly to your leaders bank accounts. Gulf States, the emirates – your brothers, your flesh and blood, are some of the richest nations in the world. If there was even a small feeling of solidarity between Arab nations, if these nations had but the smallest interest in reconstructing the Palestinian people – your situation would be very different.

You must be familiar with Singapore. The land mass there is not much larger than the Gaza strip, it is considered the second most populated country in the world. Yet, Singapore is a successful, prospering, and well managed country. Why not the same for you?

My friend, I would like to call you by name, but I will not do so publicly. I want you to know that I am 100% at peace with what my country did, what my army did, and what I did. However, I feel your pain. I am sorry for the destruction you are finding in your neighborhood at this moment. On a personal level, I did what I could to minimize the damage to your home as much as possible.

In my opinion, we have a lot more in common than you might imagine. I am a civilian, not a soldier, and in my private life I have nothing to do with the military. However, I have an obligation to leave my home, put on a uniform, and protect my family every time we are attacked. I have no desire to be in your home wearing a uniform again and I would be more than happy to sit with you as a guest on your beautiful balcony, drinking sweet tea seasoned with the sage growing in your garden.

The only person who could make that dream a reality is you. Take responsibility for yourself, your family, your people, and start to take control of your destiny. How? I do not know. Maybe there is something to be learned from the Jewish people who rose up from the most destructive human tragedy of the 20th century, and instead of sinking into self-pity, built a flourishing and prospering country. It is possible, and it is in your hands. I am ready to be there to provide a shoulder of support and help to you.

But only you can move the wheels of history.

Regards,

Yishai (Reserve Soldier)

Here is a direct quote from the official Israel Travel Warning put out by the United States Department of State.  Keep in mind these warnings are very conservative and always air on the side of caution. They can seem scarier than they need to be (Mom).

American citizens are cautioned that a greater danger may exist around restaurants, businesses, and other places associated with U.S. interests and/or located near U.S. official buildings, such as the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem. American citizens are also urged to exercise a high degree of caution and to use common sense when patronizing restaurants, nightclubs, cafes, malls, places of worship, and theaters, especially during peak hours. Large crowds and public gatherings have been targeted by terrorists in the past and should be avoided to the extent practicable. American citizens should take into consideration that public buses, trains, and their respective terminals are “off-limits” to U.S. Government personnel…The State Department urges American citizens to remain vigilant while traveling throughout Jerusalem, especially within the commercial and downtown areas of West Jerusalem and the city center. Spontaneous or planned protests within the Old City are possible, especially after Friday prayers. Some of these protests have led to violent clashes.

Even though they are quite serious, I always find these warnings a bit humorous. I am a tourist here, but I am supposed to avoid “restaurants, cafes, buses, or any large, crowded places.” In other words, anywhere popular or cool  – I should not go there. So you may be thinking, ‘what places does that leave?’ I guess I can hang out in the suburbs or just stay holed up in my hotel room watching bad Israeli Television – that would be fun.

Even though Israel and its neighbors are often gracing dailies’ front pages  and CNN top of the hour video clips, you would never know it by being here.  The sun is shining, people are walking about doing people things. There is security everywhere – especially in Jerusalem. Whenever you enter a big restaurant or bus station or mall your bag is searched and you walk through a metal detector. Plus, since Israel has erected its very controversial and much-discussed ’security wall’ there has been a major decrease in suicide bombings.  In fact with all the security here, sometimes I feel like there could be no safer place. It’s so safe in fact, that I personally was detained by security guards at the house of the Prime Minister for more than one hour.

I was walking around one of Jerusalem’s nicer, more posh neighborhoods where the President’s and Prime Minister’s mansions are located. I was actually following a walking tour in a book a friend had given me. I walked past the guards in front of the PM’s pad and was asked to show my passport. They handed it back and I went on my way. The tour actually took me past the house and then had me retrace my steps and come back in front of it again. Perhaps this made me look suspicious? Or perhaps it was my shifty gaze or dodgy attire??  Either way, I was questioned by a second guard and then basically a whole gaggle of guards – young, good looking, and barely twenty-years-old – guards.  I thought perhaps they were just bored and it would be fun to question the ‘obvious foreign girl’ as she walked by. But after the first hour, I figured they now had to follow a complete protocol all the way through.

They kept my passport, looked through all the pictures I had taken on my digital camera, and asked me a litany of normal, and slightly strange, questions including some of the following:

• Were you in any Arab countries?
• Is this your first time in Israel?
• How long are you staying in Israel?
• Are you Jewish?
• Where are you staying? What address? Phone number?
• Are you married?
• What is your job?
• Where are you going next?
• Do you have your plane ticket with you?
• Do you like Israel?
• Why don’t you move here?
• Do you know what house this is?

While I stood outside on the sidewalk, they went back and forth with my passport into their little security booth to look things up and check me out. Who knows what fun nuggets they were digging up on me? It seems the biggest problem was they couldn’t reach my friend with whom I was staying. I found out later she had turned off her cell phone to take a nap and had received 9 missed calls from a ‘private number.’ So I think I was there so long…just because they couldn’t reach her to confirm my ’suspicious’ story.

They chatted with me a little and occassionaly a grin would creep across the face of one of the guards, but they all tried very hard to keep straight faces and stay in ‘character.’  I mean of course this was actually serious business. But, you know me, and at first I thought it was kind of funny, but after being held for so long I grew weary and cold as the sun set over Jerusalem and wondered what they were possibly keeping me for, knowing I have absolutely nothing to hide (well, almost nothing).  After a cup of tea and a pee break, they handed me my passport, apologized for any inconvenience and with no more information I was on my way.

• Israel is the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world’s population.
• Roughly 15% of Israel’s population is Muslim.
• Tiny Israel maintains the 4th largest air force in the world after the United States, Russia, and China.
• Israel actually has TWO official languages – Hebrew and Arabic. Other non-official languages highly spoken: Russian (16% of Israelis speak Russian), Romanian (at least 500,000 speakers), Amharic (spoken by 100,000 Ethiopian Jews).
• Hebrew is read right to left just like Arabic. Even when Googling in the Middle East the searches come back flush right.
• In case it’s not obvious, Israel is the only country in the world where a majority of citizens are Jewish.
• There are 14-18 million Jews (practicing or just by birth) around the world (just 0.22% of the world’s population). There are 2.1 billion Christians (33%).
• The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
• Israel’s $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate Arabic neighbors combined.
• Israel has the largest number of start-up companies; more than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
• Twenty-four per cent of Israel’s workforce holds university degrees ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and The Netherlands – and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.
• Did you know these celebrities are Jewish? Kate Hudson, Zac Efron, Gweneth Paltrow, Rachel Bilson, Jake Gyllenhal, Harrison Ford, Natalie Portman, Elizabeth Banks, Scarlett Johansson, Amanda Peet, Alicia Silverstone, Sarah Jessica Parker, Keri Russell, Zach Braff, Adrien Brody, Neve Campbell, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mila Kunis, James Franco, Leah Remini, Seth Meyers, Jack Black, Lisa Bonet, Phoebe Cates, Gina Gershon, David Duchovny, Sean Penn, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kyra Sedgwick, Ben Stiller, Katie Couric…
• Askenazi (Eastern European) Jews today only make up 0.25% of the world’s population, yet they have won 28% of Nobel prizes for economics, physics, chemistry, and medicine.
• In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews at risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.
• Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth.
• Israel has mandatory Military service right after high school – 2 years for girls and 3 years for boys. That is why college age students in Israel are usually in their early to mid twenties.
• When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world’s second elected female leader in modern times.
• The word “Jerusalem” appears 645 times in the Hebrew Bible, 392 times in the New Testament, and 0 times in the Koran.
• Jerusalem has been sacred to the Jews since the 10th Century BC
• Christianity reveres Jerusalem as the place Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected.
• Jerusalem is the 3rd holiest city to Muslims. It is here that they believe Mohammed was miraculously transported from Mecca to the Temple Mount, where he then ascended to heaven.
• The only research and development for Microsoft outside of the USA is in Israel.
• Which internationally well-known shoe received its name from the Hebrew word for nature?   Answer: Teva

Want more info? Try these sites:

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