A Filipino tour guide to the Holy Land

By Volt Contreras
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:26:00 08/11/2009

MANILA, Philippines—With a name like Exaltacion Cruz-Schlossberg, she was meant to take you on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, bringing you to places where Jesus Christ walked, suffered and died, and where, based on ancient beliefs, the Second Coming would commence.

With her trademark “sunflower” umbrella keeping her cool under the Judean sun (and making it easier for her touring group to spot her in the crowd), Schlossberg said she believes she has fulfilled God’s calling.

“This not just a job, [it’s] more of a calling; [it’s] what God wants.” she said.

Known among Israeli friends as Romema, which is Hebrew for Exaltacion, she is the only Filipino tour guide licensed by the Israeli government.

If her visitor-clients are willing to listen, she can transform the Holy Land itinerary of sacred stones, iconic churches and olive groves into a poignant spiritual retreat.

Along with a keen knowledge of Jerusalem’s history, Schlossberg carries a Bible from where she reads a verse or two to help illuminate what Christ said or did at a particular site, and what His believers today can draw from the place apart from a souvenir photo.

At the place known in the Gospels as the Garden of Gethsemane, for example, she quoted passages from Matthew and then explained: “This is the place where Jesus could have said “no” to his crucifixion.

“I always encourage [tourists] to pray here because this is where Jesus had His last temptation,” she told the Inquirer during a recent tour.

Top spots

At the Basilica of the Agony, Schlossberg said the structure shelters the rock where Jesus perspired blood while in deep prayer. Nearby is the spot where Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus with a kiss.

At Shepherds’ Field chapel in Bethlehem, which tradition holds to be the spot where an angel announced the birth of Christ to shepherds, Schlossberg got her group to sing Christmas carols—never mind if it was still a few months away.

On the slopes of the breezy Mount of Olives, on the site called Dominus Plevit, “this is where Jesus wept for Jerusalem,” she said. Behind her stretched the low-rise panorama of the Old City and its most famous landmark, the golden Dome of the Rock.

With this breathtaking backdrop, she retraced how the great city rose, fell and rose again through centuries of invasions and conflicts while uniquely becoming host to three major religions—Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

“This city has seen so many conflicts up to this day, that if there would be World War III, it would probably start here,” Schlossberg said in half-jest. ”I pray to God it will never be divided again.”

Tragedy in the air

Schlossberg, a native Manileña, began her life-changing trip to Jerusalem, up in the clouds.

In September 1983, a Soviet jet fighter shot down Korean Airlines (KAL) Flight 007 when it strayed over prohibited Soviet airspace, killing all 269 passengers and crew, including Schlossberg’s father Alfredo and cousin Edith.

Schlossberg was then a successful accountant based in New York: the University of the East accounting graduate migrated to America in 1971 and married Bert Schlossberg, an American whom she met in a Bible study group in 1975.

Devastated by the tragedy, her widowed mother Roberta asked the Schlossberg couple to accompany her on an eight-day “consolation tour” of Jerusalem.

Where she belongs

“After the tour, on our flight back to the US, I could not stop crying on the plane. I shed more tears on that flight than on the day I left the Philippines,” Schlossberg said. ”My mind cannot understand it, but my heart could not deny it.”

When her husband asked why, her reply was plain yet firm: “I belong to Israel!”

Three years later, the “intense longing” was still there. By then, Schlossberg had taken to playing Hebrew music at home and “was still bugging” her spouse.

“Perceiving that there must be something beyond this longing, Bert said we should ask our Church [community] to pray with us as we seek direction from the Lord. He said that probably the Lord was leading us to immigrate to Israel.”

Moving to the Holy Land

The couple and their four young children (then aged between 2 and 12 years old) finally “uprooted” themselves, rented out their ”beautiful home” in America and moved to the Holy Land in 1988.

Although her husband Bert is a Jew born in Brooklyn who became a Christian in his teens, Schlossberg said “it was difficult when we started again.”

“The culture shock, the language difficulty, the high cost of living, the loneliness of having no family and friends, the absence of Christmas which ironically is not really celebrated [the way Filipinos do it] here,” she said.

Schlossberg herself lost 18 pounds adjusting to her new life. No longer was she the “ambitious ‘Exie,’ the Filipina in mini skirt,” of her New York days.

In that former life, she once literally fell ill due to stress and office intrigue following a quick promotion, she said. She often “felt empty inside” if not for the Bible studies.

The verse

In 1992, she thought of resuming her accountancy profession in Israel until she read this verse: “Go back to your own people and tell them the wonderful things that God has done for you.”

Did God, after taking her to America and then to Israel, want her to go back to the Philippines? she then wondered. She realized later that the verse meant fellow Filipinos in Israel.

“I dropped the idea of registering in an accounting school. I [asked] the Lord [for a sign]. I asked Him [for] a chance to meet the Philippine Ambassador. I had no idea who the ambassador was,” Schlossberg said.

Two days later, she bumped into then Ambassador Rosalinda de Perio Santos during Mass at Notre Dame Church in Jerusalem.

“That opened the door to a new beginning for me. ‘Amba’ and I became very good friends and had weekly Bible study meetings at her home in Herziliya,” she recalled.

She became more involved in the activities of the Filipino community in Israel.

She played host to visiting compatriots, among them the UP Singing Ambassadors and the late Sen. Blas Ople. She provided temporary shelter for Filipinos left homeless by employment problems, and gave spiritual counsel to Filipino patients in hospitals.

Tour guide

How she got an Israeli license to be a tour guide was also a result of Bible consultations and unexpected events.

Schlossberg had inquired about the job with the Ministry of Tourism in August 1994 although she was already a month late. Nevertheless, she had this inexplicable feeling that she could still make it.

A few days later, Bert came home with some big news: “Honey, there are two applicants who did not pass. You can still apply!”

She took the entrance test and worried about her Hebrew language skills. Yet one woman in the examining panel averred that somehow she “understood every word I said, and that changed the mind of the others [in the panel], including the archeologists.”

Touring nonbelievers

Schlossberg went on to finish the two-year course on tour guiding.

She said she enjoys her job, which she considers a calling. The only time it becomes “difficult” she said, is when she’s giving a tour to “nonbelievers” or tourists “who just want to hear the history... This is where Jesus prayed, and that’s it. It’s like the fire inside me is [being] suppressed,” she said of the experience.

She once accompanied a “group of mayors” from a communist country who warned her early in the tour: “No Bible, no Bible!”

Favorite pilgrims

Her favorite pilgrims, of course, are the Filipinos. “When we come together, we all sound like happy birds perking with life and excitement.”

“They are the easiest to guide and this opinion is shared by almost all tour guides in Israel. They are the most sought-after by guides, maybe in the same way that Filipino caregivers [in Israel] are most desired by elderly citizens and Filipino women are most pursued by Israeli men,” Schlossberg said.

For her kababayan (compatriots), she reserves a piece of Holy Land trivia: At the Church of the Pater Noster, written on its walls are versions of the “Our Father” in 116 languages, including four Filipino dialects— Tagalog, Pampango, Ilonggo, and Cebuano.

Filipinos are therefore amply represented at the Pater Noster, which also stands on the Mount of Olives, where according to ancient beliefs Christ “will come back, riding on a cloud.”