culture – Page 67 – The Real Jerusalem Streets

Jerusalem in June

June 24, 2014rjstreets

June in Jerusalem, Israel,

More than 20 International Mayors were just here,

and now the Jewish Agency Board of Governors are back.

The Jewish Media Summit 2014

opened Sunday night with both Israeli President Shimon Peres

and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in attendance.

The line to get past security moved slower than a snail.

But even without these exclusive events,

the school end-of-year extravaganzas, graduations and conferences galore

could triple book any Google calendar.

If you missed the Light Festival some of the best is here,

while the Israel Festival has too many programs to mention.

Shavuah HaSefer, the annual Hebrew Book Week

was back in its old location near the new First Station.

As every year, book lovers came out in droves every night from June 11 – 21

to browse and buy at bargain prices.

The Tower of David Museum has a new year-long exhibit.

Where else could you find

a fire-pan used by the Priests in the Second Jewish Temple,

an ad for “FIAT the car for Palestine,”

and this scene at sunset.

Over at the Israel Museum,

US twins Doug and Mike Starn and over two dozen mountain climbers

from the US and Israel crafted this big, really big Big Bambu.

Israel Museum visitors are going to love it this summer,

especially when it is free for children in August.

There is lots of sand this year at the Bloomfield Science Museum

and at the new “Jerusalem Beach” at First Station,

but that will be for another time.

This June,

“all are with the three terrorist kidnapped teens,

Nafatli, Gil-ad, and Eyal,”

“Shuvu Ahim, return our brothers”

is on our signs and on our minds.

Gush Etzion New and Old Views

June 15, 2014rjstreets

During the days before the “Oslo Peace,”

we drove through Bethlehem

to get to Gush Etzion from Jerusalem, Israel.

We visited

Alon Shvut, Kfar Etzion, Efrat, Eleazar and Neve Daniel

many, many times over the years.

The way, lined with rocks and brush, was not cultivated,

and was mostly barren hills when we first drove there.

Jews had settled in Gush Etzion before 1948,

but the Jordanian Legions wanted to conquer Jerusalem,

and the Jews were in their way.

The brave defenders of Gush Etzion put up a strong resistance,

but were badly out numbered.

This is the bunker in Kfar Etzion, into which a live grenade was thrown to kill

some of the last of the sick and women.

Today in Kfar Etzion you can see this stone in memory of the ל”ה,

the 35 men killed and their bodies mutilated

while trying to save the communities of the Gush.

Now the area is built up, but from 1948 until 1967,

the only surviving remnant in the area was

this one lone ancient oak tree.

This past Friday we participated in Gush Etzion Scavenger Hunt.

From this water tower,

we had a great view of the Har Etzion Yeshiva

and the community of Alon Shvut.

During the morning, we heard reports that two high school boys

who attended a yeshiva in Kfar Etzion had gone missing the night before.

(Turned out later that there were three teenagers.)

Those boys were somewhere

out there.

On Kfar Etzion we saw one of the first buildings built in the 1940s,

after 1967 it was rebuilt for four families.

This man was one of the children born in Gush Etzion.

The children were evacuated and survived the massacres of 1948,

but that is another fascinating story.

He returned after 1967, made his home in Kfar Etzion

and now tells his life story to visitors.

The Scavenger hunts of the Old City and Nahlaot were fun and educational.

Now with new, faster roads, Gush Etzion, is only minutes away from Jerusalem,

and with the kidnapping of three young yeshiva students,

it is now in the hearts and minds of all Israelis.

That is The Real Jerusalem Streets today.

Jerusalem Day: Israeli Flags and Parade

June 1, 2014rjstreets

Thousands of people are marching down 5th Avenue in New York City

for the annual Israel Day Parade #TogetherOnFifth,

after months of intense organization and planning.

On Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, we also had a parade.

Overnight all the yellow and white Vatican flags were gone,

replaced with blue & white Israeli and Jerusalem flags.

The streets were crowded with tens of thousands of people,

carrying thousands of flags,

for the annual Rikudegalim, Dance with the Flags

or Flag Parade.

Streets that were closed for the Pope were shut down again.

But this time people did not stay away,

Aleh students came in their wheelchairs.

Thousand of girls with Israeli flags

had their own place to sing and dance.

And these two guys were trying awfully hard to see them.

In the crowd it was hard to see, so sitting on shoulders provided a better view.

The buses blocked traffic so the parade could pass,

as the streets were filled with people long before the official start time.

The hotel balcony gave people a great vantage point.

Outside Heichal Shlomo, men and boys were packed in,

ready to march to the Western Wall,

to enter by same gate as the paratroopers did in 1967

when they liberated the Old City from Jordanian control.

With people coming in all directions all afternoon,

this parade may not have been as carefully organized

as the one in New York City,

but it was the ultimate blue & white photo-op.

I heard of girls who needed a police escort out of the Old City,

as glass bottles were thrown at them.

But though Yom Yerushalayim is not yet a national holiday,

people from all over the world came together to celebrate.

And on King George Street where the masses were having fun,

there was no violence, so it did not make the news.