September Newsletter - Heritage

Eliyahu's Cave
and
The Clandestine Immigration and Israel Navy Museum

Back in 2019 we visited the Haifa Maritime Museum (click the link to see our article about that visit), and finally got to finish that heritage visit last week when we went right around the corner from there to visit the Clandestine Immigration and Israel Navy Museum. And since it was right there across the street, we also visited Eliyahu's Cave.

The Prophet Eliyahu is important across the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and the Druze) for his unwavering devotion to God, his fight against polytheism and idol worship, and his role as a harbinger of the Messiah. He hid in this cave to escape the wrath of Queen Jezebel, who had vowed to kill him after he defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. After his miraculous victory, Elijah prophesied the coming of rain to break a prolonged drought but was then forced into hiding when Jezebel, enraged by his actions, sent a message to Elijah threatening his life. The Cave is one of the most famous and sacred places in Israel, and perhaps this is why the city of Haifa has such religious importance in the eyes of Jews, Druze, Christians, and Muslims.

I (Larry) have been wanting to visit the Clandestine Immigration and Israel Navy Museum for many years, ever since I did 5 days in the Israeli navy at the beginning of my army service, when I took part in the preparatory program for the Naval Officers’ Course (גיבוש חובלים). We started out with 76 new recruits, 5 dropped out during the testing days, and only 9 were accepted. I fell out with the other 61 soldiers 🤷‍♂️ and completed my service in the air force. But I always look back on those grueling days as an amazing experience, and this visit to the museum brought back significant memories from then, including standing under a displayed Dabur patrol boat. I spent a long day on one of those ships out at sea and wasn’t even seasick! There were only 3 recruits out of the 24 on the boat who were NOT seasick on that voyage – two who had done their high school at the naval high school in Michmoret – and me! (I was taught how to have "sea legs" by a friendly sailor on the ship I made Aliya on, in 1970, on a two-week cruise from New York to Haifa.)

After flunking out, I was offered the option to stay in the navy and go either into missile boats or submarines as a combat soldier, not an officer – I've never known if I should have regretted not choosing that path – until now! Going on board both of those types of vessels in the museum made me DELIGHTED that I did NOT! But it was fascinating to finally see the insides of those crafts.

Enjoy the pictures!