So after much planning and last-minute concerns about minimum numbers, we set off in May for a day learning about the historic Hijaz railway, finishing off in the beautiful old Templer village of Bethlehem of the Galilee.
I must commend ESRA members for their punctuality. With pick-up points at Hutzot Hamifratz, Haifa, Zichron Yaakov and Yokneam the schedule was rather tight. But all our passengers arrived early to meet the bus and to the minute we rolled up to our first venue, Elroi.
Elroi was restored by a group of passionate railway enthusiasts who were actually born and brought up in the village. One of them, Nachum our guide, explained that Elroi was settled by Kurdish immigrants. In 1904 Elroi Halt was built - trains didn`t stop there but travelled so slowly that passengers could just jump on board. In later years the women also wanted to use the train and with their heavy traditional Kurdish dress were not able to make this jump. So the villagers petitioned the railway authorities to let the train make a short stop at the station.
After the Emek railway was discontinued in the early 1950s the station fell into disuse and was designated as a site for an oil pipe. Nachum, an adult by then, stood in front of the bulldozers and stopped the work until he got permission to form a non-profit organization to restore the station as a historic site. So with a lot of crowd-funding he and his colleagues, all volunteers, got the railway lines re-laid and purchased old rolling stock from all over the country. In one of the carriages they have arranged artefacts from that period and pictures of the working railway of 100 years ago and in that carriage visitors can sit and watch a short film describing the restoration. The original waiting room holds timetables on the walls and although the walls have been re-painted we could still see the names carved by the kids of Elroi (including the then pint-sized Nachum) when they used the halt as their playground, the arrival of a train being the highlight of the day.
Kfar Yeshoshua, our next stop, was originally a major station for the Emek railway. Since it is part of the "National Association for Preservation of Historic Sites" the stone buildings, the water-tower and the machinery that produced the steam to feed to the engines have all been lovingly restored alongside the historic track. A model railway showed us the original route which went from Haifa to Damascus, with plans to continue to Medina.
After a much-needed rest and lunch at Alonim with its choice of restaurants, we continued to Bethlehem of the Galilee, first of all to visit the popular spice shop and then to meet our very entertaining guide Kobi who lives in one of the old Templer houses.
Kobi, recommended by the Karmiel Branch, had successfully guided their group some years ago. Our tiredness was forgotten as he told us the amazing history of the village. In the latter part of the 19th century the Templers had settled in several locations in Palestine and had indeed contributed a great deal to the development and economy of the area. However prior to World War 2, the British found that many of them were Nazi sympathizers and expelled them, in some cases managing to exchange them for German Jews who were desperate to leave Germany.
Kobi also reported that there was a great deal of archeological evidence to support the claim that this was the Bethlehem where Jesus was born and not the present site near Jerusalem. [As a professional working with pregnant women, it always seemed unreasonable to me that Mary in her 9th month of pregnancy could endure such an arduous donkey ride on mountain tracks all the way from Nazareth to Judea.]
We were so fascinated by Kobi`s stories that we did indeed conclude the tour rather later than scheduled, but nobody complained.
Submitted Wendy Blumfield, tour leader and member of the ESRA Northern Region Travel Committee
