Magdala in Israel, home of Mary Magdalene

24 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  8 minutes

© AVRAMGR/cc-by-sa-4.0

© AVRAMGR/cc-by-sa-4.0

Magdala was an ancient Jewish city on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Tiberias. In the Babylonian Talmud it is known as Magdala Nunayya, and which some historical geographers think may refer to Tarichaea, literally the place of processing fish. It is believed to be the birthplace of Mary Magdalene. Until the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, a small Palestinian Arab village, al-Majdal, stood at the site of ancient Magdala, while nowadays the modern Israeli municipality of Migdal extends to the area.   read more…

Florentin in Tel Aviv

9 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Harvey Sapir/cc-by-2.5

© Harvey Sapir/cc-by-2.5

Florentin is a neighborhood in the southern part of Tel Aviv, Israel, named for Solomon Florentin, a Greek Jew who purchased the land in the late 1920s. Development of the area was spurred by its proximity to the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway.   read more…

The Crown Iris

1 October 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Cruise Ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  10 minutes

Crown Iris © Sotiris Boutsaxis/cc-by-sa-4.0

Crown Iris © Sotiris Boutsaxis/cc-by-sa-4.0

MS Crown Iris is a cruise ship owned by Mano Maritime. She was originally ordered by Birka Line as MS Birka Queen from the Wärtsilä Marine Turku Shipyard in Finland, but completed by Kvaerner Masa-Yards as MS Royal Majesty for Majesty Cruise Line. In 1997 she was sold to Norwegian Cruise Line as the MS Norwegian Majesty and lengthened by 33.76 m (110 ft 9 in) at the Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany. She was sold to Louis Cruises as the MS Louis Majesty from 2008 to 2012 when she was chartered to Thomson Cruises as the MS Thomson Majesty before being returned to Louis Cruises/Celestyal Cruises, as the Majesty. In 2018 the ship sold to >Mano Maritime.   read more…

Portrait: David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founder and first Prime Minister

21 September 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  10 minutes

David Ben-Gurion, 1968 © Fritz Cohen - National Photo Collection of Israel

David Ben-Gurion, 1968 © Fritz Cohen – National Photo Collection of Israel

David Ben-Gurion was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Adopting the name of Ben-Gurion in 1909, he rose to become the preeminent leader of the Jewish community in British-ruled Mandatory Palestine from 1935 until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, which he led until 1963 with a short break in 1954–55.   read more…

70 years Luxembourg Agreement

10 September 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  16 minutes

Luxembourg City Hall © Cayambe/cc-by-sa-3.0

Luxembourg City Hall © Cayambe/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Reparations Agreement between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany (“Luxembourg Agreement”, “Wiedergutmachungsabkommen” or “Reparations Agreement”) was signed on September 10, 1952, and entered in force on March 27, 1953. According to the Agreement, West Germany was to pay Israel for the costs of “resettling so great a number of uprooted and destitute Jewish refugees” after the war, and to compensate individual Jews, via the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, for losses in Jewish livelihood and property resulting from Nazi persecution.   read more…

Ramat Gan in Israel

7 September 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  6 minutes

Diamond Exchange Center from Azrieli Center © flickr.com - Ted Eytan/cc-by-sa-2.0

Diamond Exchange Center from Azrieli Center © flickr.com – Ted Eytan/cc-by-sa-2.0

Ramat Gan is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world’s major diamond exchanges, and many high-tech industries. Ramat Gan was established in 1921 as a moshav shitufi, a communal farming settlement. In 2022 it had a population of 171,000.   read more…

Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth

3 September 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  9 minutes

Catholic Mass in the Grotto of the Annunciation (lower church) © Berthold Werner

Catholic Mass in the Grotto of the Annunciation (lower church) © Berthold Werner

The Church of the Annunciation, sometimes also referred to as the Basilica of the Annunciation, is a Catholic church in Nazareth, in northern Israel. It was established over what Catholic tradition holds to be the site of the house of the Virgin Mary, and where the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced that she would conceive and bear the Son of God, Jesus – an event known as the Annunciation.   read more…

Ben-Gurion House in Tel Aviv

8 August 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Gideon.shapira/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Gideon.shapira/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Ben-Gurion House is a historic house museum in Tel Aviv, which served as the family home of pre-State Zionist leader and then first Defense and Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, between 1931 and 1953. Until his death in 1973 it continued serving as an additional residence, along with two others, one private – “Ben-Gurion’s hut” at Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev (known as his desert home), and the official residence as Prime Minister of Israel during his multiple terms as head of government. The latter, known as Julius Jacobs House, is located in Rehavia, West Jerusalem. Ben-Gurion House is located at 17, Ben-Gurion Boulevard in northern Tel Aviv.   read more…

Port of Haifa

15 July 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  11 minutes

Port of Haifa © flickr.com - Morgan Davis/cc-by-2.0

Port of Haifa © flickr.com – Morgan Davis/cc-by-2.0

The Port of Haifa is the largest of Israel‘s three major international seaports, the others being the Port of Ashdod, and the Port of Eilat. It has a natural deep-water harbor, which operates all year long, and serves both passenger and merchant ships. It is one of the largest ports in the eastern Mediterranean in terms of freight volume and handles about 30 million tons of cargo per year (not including Israel Shipyards’ port). The port employs over 1,000 people, rising to 5,000 when cruise ships dock in Haifa. The Port of Haifa lies to the north of Haifa‘s downtown quarter on the Mediterranean, and stretches to some three kilometres along the city’s central shore with activities ranging from military, industrial and commercial next to a nowadays-smaller passenger cruising facility.   read more…

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