Went on a tour of Hebron. For those of you who are concerned, I was in a bullet proof bus. The tour was sponsored by the settlers in Hebron as a fund raiser. On the way to Hebron we stopped at Rachel’s tomb. The way into Rachel’s tomb has a high wall on each side of the road. I had many thoughts about the whole experience. First off most of the people on the tour were ultra orthodox families from the US. Inside the tombs, I had trouble identifying with the religious fervor demonstrated by some of the people there. Some believe that praying there can help cure illnesses. Reminds me about the Jewish saints I learned about when I studied about Moroccan Jews. We were only able to see Abraham’s, Sarah’s, Jacob’s and Leah’s tombs. Isaac’s and Rebecca’s tombs are only accessed from the Arab side. We could not see the Arab side at all. In Hebron, Israel controls 20% of the  area in which there are about 1000 settlers, lots of children, about 250 in a yeshiva. In that 20%, most are Arabs. There is a long history of attacks on the Jews including a big one in 1929 when the settlement was abandoned. Since 1967, with the resettlement there have been other incidents with Jews being killed. Unfortunately they didn’t mention the 1994 massacre of 29 Arabs by Baruch Goldstein. This site is where our ancestors are buried. I do feel we have a right to be there but so do the Arabs. I also admire the fortitude of the settlers to stay in Hebron. The more I see, the more heart wrenching it gets. There are no easy solutions.