Around Jerusalem

Today we stayed close to home, our new apartment in Jerusalem. It's a vibrant area, close to the old city and full of things to see! More photos here.

Last night there was a guy on the street playing an Arabic oud, a big bowl-backed instrument that's no doubt an ancestor of the mandolin. And this morning, an old fellow was on a nearby corner, playing Hebrew and Russian songs on a mandolin. He had it strung with four strings, like a Russian domra, another hint that he might be one of the huge numbers of recent Russian immigrants. His prominent photo of Rebbe Schneersohn identified him as a Lubavitcher.

Everyone talks about how much Jerusalem has changed in recent years. There's construction everywhere, and a new city is emerging with modern buildings everywhere. A new light rail system is going in, for the first time. Nightlife (once hard to find) is growing, although the way people dress is, well, let's say you wouldn't confuse it with Milan or Paris.

All of Jerusalem seems to be built of the same stone, a beige limestone said to come from quarries in the West Bank. Some buildings though are made of concrete, and textured to look like limestone -- indicating they were built between 1948 and 1967, when Jordan occupied the West Bank and did not make the stone available. Some buildings look very old, so I have to remind myself that nothing was built outside of the old Jerusalem walls until late in the 19th Century! So, for old you really have to go to the Old City -- a big adventure we'll have to save a little bit longer.

There seems to be a bit of a rivalry between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem -- Israelis seem to have a preference for one or the other, one representing a secular, modern way of life; the other closely connected to religious and cultural traditions. There's so much to see here it's not clear how we're going to find time!

We met an old neighbor of Nancy's for lunch, and learned more about life in Jerusalem. The neighbor visited Israel as a teen, and told a story about how she reached the decision to move: it was just before the first Gulf war, and it was hard to get a flight home because of the crowding. Everyone knew the war was about to start, and many who had other places to go were leaving in advance of the beginning of hostilities. In the midst of all of this, a young American woman recognized her privilege: that she had another place to go, and that most people staying behind (and risking being attacked by Iraq's missles) had no such opportunity. Suddenly it seemed more important to stay and help the community which, as during the time of Israel's founding, was needed to ensure a safe harbor for the world's Jewry in times of persecution. That made me think about more recent mass immigrations, such as from Ethiopia, which have demonstrated again that this founding purpose is still relevant.