Short and simple today,
Happy Passover,
חג שמח
Shabbat Shalom
שבת שלום
current-events
New Color in Jerusalem
Passover preparations and Israeli children
being out of school on vacation all week,
plus the arrival of holiday visitors,
are keeping people very busy.
The 120 members of the 20th Israeli Knesset
were sworn in yesterday,
and then they all went on a month long recess.
There were two special ribbon cutting events
that I want to make sure you know about.
Sunday was the special launch of an
environmental program called the “Green Knesset.”
The dairy cafeteria inside the Knesset building has
large windows to let sun in to heat the room and floor,
and special shading to keep heat from sun out in summer.
But now the “Green Knesset” has added
special bins for recycling,
and at meetings water will no longer be served in bottles,
saving 60,000 plastic bottles per year.
Water, paper and electricity are to be conserved.
No more large mountains of paper for the budget,
as each member will get a disk on key instead.
Those responsible for the first stage of the
sustainability project gathered together on the Knesset roof.
Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein, smiling on the left side,
was the featured speaker
and was honored to cut the ribbon on the roof
in the middle of the 1,406 solar panel field.
The next day a very different green project was opened,
the Jerusalem, Israel, nature reserve – the Gazelle Park.
The area where gazelles had roamed free,
did not go to real estate developers,
but back to nature and the people.
On opening day, thousands of all ages attended,
walking nature trails,
and listening to stories near the restored Orchard site.
The water system is designed to sustain the plant and animal life.
In Israel, the end of winter means green grass,
dotted with colored wild flowers.
This was the only gazelle I saw on opening day,
but real ones are to have an area in which to roam free once again.
Mayor Nir Barkat was smiling and posing for photos,
and the ribbon was cut by First Lady Nechama Rivlin.
This Passover one does not have to drive or sit in car for hours to visit a park,
as the nature reserve is large, free to the public,
and open from 7:00 am to dark, 7 days a week.
Happy Spring Holiday.
פסח שמח
Happy Passover!
Israeli Opera in Jerusalem Shuk
When Shakespeare wrote
that ‘the whole world is a stage,’
somehow I do not think a cheese shop
or fruit and vegetable stand was what he had in mind.
However, the Israeli Opera had
performers in Machane Yehuda Market,
the shuk on Monday singing arias.
The man selling nuts was smiling,
as was the green grocer across the way.
So was I after they found my cell phone.
Trying to get a good shot with so many photographers
pushing in the crowded and narrow alleyways,
I almost lost my phone there.
There was more than one place used as a stage,
some shoppers were determined to keep going,
while others in the market became part of the show.
“L’elisir d’amore” by Gaetnao Donizetti
is to be performed in the Sultan’s Pool the end of June,
and some Jerusalem shoppers got a preview.
As cameras rolled,
one girl in the crowd was serenaded to by this opera singer,
but after an hour the surprise show was over,
and it was back to time for holiday preparations.
Mountains of fresh garlic have arrived in the shuk
and piles of fresh fruits and vegetable are ready,
and one fresh fish store was really popular.
I loved this sign,
this store is ready for Passover and
NO ONE is to bring in anything that is not for Passover.
Now if only my house was nearly as ready.