Jerusalem Syndrome: Holy Folks

by Jamie Rhein on

Have you ever heard of the Jerusalem Syndrome? I hadn’t until yesterday when I was driving from one point to another and heard part of a radio interview with a woman about a book she has written. I can’t remember her name, or the name of the book-it was dark, I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to stop and write her name down, but here’s the scoop. I found it facinating.

Some people, not a lot, just some, go to Jerusalem on a vacation and end up thinking they are Jesus, or John the Baptist or the Virgin Mary. To be a true sufferer of the Jesus Syndrome you need to have had all your mental faculties in order before you forgot you were just little old you.

The syndrome, just in case you’re in Jerusalem and are getting a bit worried, or you are headed to the holy land, manifests this way.

  • First you start feeling anxious and nervous
  • You start visiting holy sights
  • Before you visit holy sights you purify yourself, an elaborate process that involves shaving one’s heard, bathing, and putting on white.

Now, this syndrome is not clear cut in terms of what experts think about it—or when this syndrome was first discovered. I’ve found various articles written about it. Here’s two for you to check out. One is at The Savvy Traveler and the other is an article from a professor in Israel. If you do happen to go to Jerusalem, keep your eyes open. The Jerusalem Syndrome isn’t common, but people do say it happens.

Israel Hires Maxim Magazine for Tourism Photoshoot

by Dave Luna on

Israel is a land brimming with wonderful beaches and rich history. So, what’s the best way to market that to the world? The government believes the answer is… “good-looking women.” What? How disappointing.

This public relations strategy is particularly skewed to hit a key demographic of American men aged 18 to 35. The tourism board found that this group wasn’t particularly interested in visiting the nation because they associated Israel with “war or holy relics.” In an effort to change that target audience’s collective mind, Israel hired a Maxim Magazine camera crew to photograph the country’s (bikini-clad) female beauty amidst the country’s natural beauty. Women of the Holy Land, anyone?

Tourism is a cut-throat market, so I can understand where a sexy, new approach might be appealing. (After all, I dedicated 188 words to it.) However, I cannot condone an entire marketing campaign built around objectifying women. Sure, sex sells, but whatever happened to dignity?

I think a Harvard Law School professor said it best in the Newsweek article: “Completely not the way to go. I can see models anywhere.”

Hooters in the Holy Land

by Jonathon Morgan on

Next time you’re in Tel Aviv — tired from traveling, homesick, and looking for a little comfort food — you can sit back, relax, and experience some all-American hospitality, half-way around the globe. Hooters is opening its first location in Israel.

It’s a restaurant known, kind of, for its spicy chicken wings, but mostly for its servers — “Hooters Girls,” who bring you food and beer in low-cut blouses and short skirts. And, according to the man behind the move, Ofer Ahiraz, it can “suit the Israeli entertainment culture.”

“I strongly believe that the Hooters concept is something that Israelies are looking for,” says Ahiraz.

While there will probably be minor changes to meet Israeli tastes — such as keeping the restaurants away from large religious populations, and making all the food kosher — the restaurants will look a lot like the chain’s other locations across the U.S., China, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil and beyond.

Over the next two years the company plans to open additional restaurants in Colombia, Dubai, Guam, New Zealand and India.

So it’s official, the tackiest restaurant in the U.S. will now lead the way as America’s most ubiquitous cultural ambassador. Great.

Jesus’ Bones Tour

by Iva Skoch on

If you missed the press conference at the New York Public Library, where filmmaker James Cameron announced his new Discovery Channel movie, you might want to read up and do a little digging yourself.

If you hadn’t heard the hype, Cameron’s movie The Lost Tomb of Jesus, airs this Sunday. In it, he apparently argues that a couple of caskets, ossuaries actually, once contained the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Not only that, but, ala Dan Brown, he suggests they were a family…with children. The ossuaries made the trip for the press conference (hopefully not on JetBlue), as did a few experts.

Now, the discovery of the ossuaries is not new. They were found in 1980 in a Jerusalem ‘suburb’ of Talpiot. And, forgetting the multiple controversies that surround the whole thing (including the assertion by the lead archaeologist that the movie’s claims are baloney), you can visit the town yourself.

The modern town is pure 20th century, and includes a vibrant club culture (where you can shake your own bones), but there’s also more distant culture and history. For example, walk along the Haas Promenade for sweeping views of the old city.

Jerusalem as Destination

by Erik Olsen on

I sometimes puzzle friends when I tell them that I did my honeymoon in Israel. Are you Jewish? they immediately ask, wondering if my WASPY appearance belies a history of Yom Kippurs and Saturday morning services. I am not Jewish, not that I know of anyway, but I am intensely curious about Jewish history and culture, and in my mind there was no better place to get a sense of this, let alone a sense of our common history over all, than Israel. Of course, Israel is more than just the cradle of Western culture. It is more than one of the most historically rich places on the planet. It is also a lovely, friendly, adventuresome place that I believe everyone should visit in heir lifetime.

I could go one about all the great things you can do in Israel. Floating the Dead Sea, grabbing dinner and drinks in Tel Aviv, scuba diving the Red Sea at Eilat, hiking the hills of Bethlehem. But probably the most interesting place in the country is its capital city: Jerusalem. The city is a marvel of sights and sounds, of history and heritage, of tastes and smells. I have not thought about Jerusalem lately other than what I read in the news. I have not thought of it as a tourist destination. But this piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer reminded me how much I love Jerusalem, and how much I’d like to return. The piece does a fine job laying out many of the allures of the city, its well-known historical sites, the thriving markets, the taste of history and culture that hangs in the air. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back and spend a few weeks.