Picture Day and Holy Places

When I was growing up, Picture Day was probably the second most important day at E.C. Brooks Elementary School. (The most important was Field Day, which concluded with a brutal tug-of-war match for grade-wide bragging rights. My fondest memories, however, consist of popsicles and an endless supply of mystery orange drink.) That is why I felt a twinge of nostalgia when the Albright Institute Picture Day rolled around last week. There were some differences, of course: (1) at no point did the photographer say to me, "Come on, Superman, let's have a smile," and (2) I was not wearing hand-me-downs from my brother Brendan. No, my clothes this year are hand-me-downs from my brother-in-law Will. (Thanks, Will! The blazer fits great!) Since I've written about several of these folks throughout the year, I thought you'd like to see some of the shots. Here is the group photo; I am in the second row from the back, fourth from the left. On the end of my row in the tie is Sy Gitin, the director of the Albright.

Here is a picture of me with Linda who has the same fellowship as I do. You may be thinking that she could not resist resting her hands on my broad, muscular shoulders; in fact she is trying to steady herself on the rock ledge she stood on to look taller. Linda is a graduate student from the University of Pennsylvania.

Here is a picture of Rodney, my intrepid travel partner to Jordan. He recently defended his thesis at the University of Wales.

Here's a shot of Christine and Isaac, who are the two National Endowment for the Humanities fellows. Christine just finished her doctorate at UCLA and Isaac is a professor from the University of Chicago. He is here with his wife and three kids who are with him in the group photo.

This is a picture of Erin and Bob, who are two of the Education and Cultural Affairs fellows. (There are four total, but the other two had already left the Albright before the picture day.) Erin is a doctoral candidate at Duke University and Bob is a candidate at the University of Missouri.

And finally here is Ben, who earned his doctorate at the University of Liverpool but before that he studied at N.C. State. He is this year's program coordinator at the Albright, so he organized all of our field trips and made sure the resident hostel ran smoothly.

The morning of our picture day, we took a field trip to the Haram ash-Sharif ("the Noble Sanctuary), or Temple Mount. This enormous platform is perhaps one of the holiest sites in the world and is venerated by Jews, Muslims and Christians. Tradition has linked it with Mount Moriah where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac, and it is also regarded as the site of Solomon's Temple, which was rebuilt and greatly expanded by Herod the Great just before the time of Jesus. In fact the present platform still rests on some of the Herodian architecture, most famously the Western Wall, which Jews believe has retained the divine presence of the God of Israel. For this reason that stretch of wall is the most sacred holy site for Jews.

For Muslims this area is sacred for two events in the life of Muhammad: (1) the isra, or night journy, in which the Prophet traveled from Mecca to Jerusalem in a single night, arriving on this mount to lead prayer. The night journey is commemorated in the great al-Aqsa Mosque. And (2) the Prophet's miraj, or ascension to heaven, which occurred on the Haram ash-Sharif and is commemorated in the Dome of the Rock, the golden jewel of Jerusalem's skyline.

Here am I in front of the Dome of the Rock:

And again, closer this time:

Here's a picture of me inside the al-Aqsa Mosque. Our group was very fortunate to get inside the mosque, which isn't always open to non-Muslims. We were also allowed to go down to "Solomon's Stables" beneath the mosque.

I took lots of photos inside, but the light was not that great. This one of the stained glass was one of the few that came out well.

Probably the best part of the whole trip, however, was the fact that our tour guide, Khader, wore a Dale Earnhardt #3 hat the whole time. If there's one man who can bring together Jews, Christians and Muslims, it's the Intimidator.