Ancient Amphitheater Rocks as Shalit Returns Home

Ancient Amphitheater Rocks as Shalit Returns Home

On the night that Gilad Shalit returned home from 5 long years in captivity at the hands of Hamas, a massive concert was held in the Shuni Amphitheater. The amphitheatre is part of the larger Jabotinsky Shuni Park, located along the southern ridge of the Carmel mountains near Zichron Ya’akov and dating back as far as Talmudic times.

Through the years, Shuni changed hands many times (from Roman to Byzantine to Crusaders to Ottoman rule). In the first half of the 20th century, it served as the training camp for the underground movement Etzel.

This Jewish Standard article describes the experience of ancient and modern as they meet at Shuni:

The sounds of this ancient Roman rich men’s club, where entertainment was allegedly provided by naked swimmers bathing in a luxurious mosaic-covered Olympic swimming pool, has given way to very different sounds over the last two millennia. These include the sounds of bombs and gunfire, of acts of terror and pain…It is now after 10 a.m., and Shalit must be on his final journey home. The sound of suffering for him and his family has come to an end. While the celebration is heard all over the country, at Shuni it is the silence of the past that echoes.

(The Sounds of Silence, full article here)