I enjoyed all four readings for Week 1.  All four contributed my better understanding of the history behind the project in which our class is a part of. Hasan-Rokem’s “Dialogue” was a unique recalling of the festival and the Jerusalem Presentation that was supposed to be a part of it.  It was sad for me to read that after so much planning and hard work that it never came to fruition.  On the first page Hasan-Rokem notes that the Festival is July 4th weekend.  I would love to visit the festival on the Mall in Washington someday!

Dr. Horowitz paper was outstanding for me to read to better understand our Professor’s background.  I admired the short piece by Yehuda Amichai in which Dr. Horowitz included on the first page.  I would like to learn more about Yehuda’s background as a poet and the meaning behind the poem.  One part that I did not understand very well was ethnography.  Can someone better explain this in more detail in the form of a comment?  One other part that I found interesting was on Page 4.  This in the second paragraph talking about the possible problems that could occur in which would totally ruin the project.  This demonstrated how difficult the project was to create because of the tensions between the American/Israeli/Palestinian governments.

“Representing Jerusalem” was an unique interview with Suad Amiry.  I enjoyed this change of pace, of a Q&A Format as opposed to our other readings.  I feel embarrassed that ethnography was also mentioned in this piece, but I didn’t help me to further clarify its meaning. I would like to learn more about the Damascus gate featured in one of the article’  As an American-Jew I enjoyed reading this piece on Suad Amiry the Palestinian Coordinator for the Festival.  Lastly, I didn’t quite understand why Suad encouraged “eliminating women’s participation, except in limited areas like food and weaving”.

Saud Amiry’s piece titled “Researching East Jerusalem” was a quick but informative paper on her thoughts.  What struck me the most was that Amiry started with a Talmudic proverb.  Call me naive but the last week my knowledge of the geography of the situation increased.  I knew well of Israel and the Gaza Strip, because of the recent war.  Jerusalem I do not much about.  I found interesting and would like to learn more about why the stress on the design and the separation of the presentation.  One thing that was brought up was Jerusalem also being so important to Christians.  Why are they not in the fight?  It seems to me like Christians have all but given up their fight.