international women’s day – The Real Jerusalem Streets

The Best of Purim in Jerusalem

March 12, 2023March 12, 2023Sharon A

Purim in Jerusalem, Israel, is so very strange every year.

Purim is celebrated the day after the rest of the world- on what is called Shushan Purim. The street sign for Queen Esther is not really upside down.

Shushan Street sign in Jerusalem, Israel

There is also a street called Shushan Street – it’s near Safra Square.

Things feel different as the rest of the world has moved on and in Jerusalem, we are just finally getting started with the upside down.

Clowning around and colorful clowns abound.

The demise of Haman was announced but not mourned on this sign posted on a message board at a local community center.

After weeks of preparation, Shushan Purim went by with too much happening to capture it all. Nachlaot and many Jerusalem streets were bursting with costumed crowds, but here are a few favorites…

Best little guy costume

and an even cuter littlest one!

Not only little dinos, but space men were popular this year.

NASA better watch out for these future astronauts.

Best big hair,

Best big blue mask,

the very best big ears,

and the best underwear for a hat.

Jerusalem synagogues were filled for the readings of Megilat Esther.

Beer, wine, and booze were found inside and outside on the streets.

Chabad again sponsored multiple Megillah readings at night and all day long on King George Street and around.

But also in Jerusalem community parks hundreds assembled to hear the story of Esther repeated at night.

And there were musical events before and after the Megillah was read. How nice to see that on the Jerusalem streets where protesters usually shout against the Prime Minister, people sat quietly together to celebrate Purim.

The Megillah is read by night and by day,

and more young women have undertaken the reading of the Megillah at special readings for women.

This year Jerusalem’s Shushan Purim day of celebration coincided with March 8 and International Women’s Day, so no new piece this time.

Therefore, I thought I’d share a women’s event held on March 9th at Shalva.

A Playback Theater experience with workshops especially for women.

Led by Toby Klein Greenwald and her expert drama and therapist cohosts, right after Purim, 100 women impressively participated in performance and movement and powerful improv workshops.

Plus, the Shalva building has many inspirational sayings lining its walls.

Where else on Purim would you enjoy such a lovely view while delivering a Mishloah Manot dinner to a friend, when stopped at a traffic light?

Purim is finally finished on Jerusalem streets.

Now the Jerusalem Marathon signs for Jerusalem street closings are up.

Tens of thousands of runners are registered to fill the Jerusalem streets on Friday, March 17, 2023. One of the finish lines is ready and the full marathon finish in Gan Sacher, Sacher Park, is being built.

My Purim hair/costume is put away until next year.

Pesach prep has begun.

Always something positive happening on the Jerusalem streets, when are you coming to see it?

International Women’s Day in Jerusalem

March 10, 2020Sharon A

Oh, how some things have changed over the years.

When did you first hear of International Women’s Day?

Back in 2011, International Women’s Day coincided with Israel Apartheid Week.

Israeli Apartheid? was the blog posted in honor of women in Jerusalem.

In spite of coronavirus – COVID-19, this year I have been to multiple events featuring Israeli women doing amazing things.

Signs for International Women’s Day (IWD) appeared. In Jerusalem, not only March 8, 2020, is to be celebrated, but events are planned for the entire month of March.

The Jerusalem Marathon 2020 finish line was up near Gan Sacher, Sacher Park.

The construction in the park was nearing completion.

However, the March 20 marathon races have been postponed until October.

IWD events did not involve a large number of international participants and were held, though perhaps with fewer attendees than would have been expected.

United Hatzalah of Israel inaugurated Israel’s first pink ambulance with a specific mission to treat women.

Inside of United Hatzalah pink ambulance — Photo credit: United Hatzalah

The ambulance will be operated by a crew of female volunteer EMTs and paramedics. It will respond to any type of medical emergency but will prioritize responding to incidents in which there are female patients.

Women volunteers of United Hatzalah pose for group photograpn — Photo credit: United Hatzalah

Female volunteers of United Hatzalah posed recently for a photograph.

At the Herzl Conference held at Har Herzl, I had a chance to speak with the United Hatzalah volunteers on duty watching for any sign of trouble.

Educator and Author Dr. Aliza Lavie, who served in the Knesset from 2013-2019, now heads the Herzl Center.

At the Herzl Conference on Zionism, President Reuven Rivlin participated, as did former US Senator Joe Liberman. A Theodor Herzl impersonator was on hand for photographs.

At Har Herzl on Wednesday night at sunset, we heard stories of women who fell in the establishment in the modern state of Israel as we toured the cemetery.

However, the main event was inside the education center to hear from seven women about their strong Zionistic visions and accomplishments, each with a unique story, Women. Leadership. Zionism.

Standing (r to l) Dr. Lavie, Shoshana Keats-Jaskoll, Olga Israel, Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoun; Seated Bat-El Papura, Emily Winkler, and Naava Shafner.

Each of the speakers could be more than one story, but there were other IWD events.

At the Jerusalem Cinematheque posters of women lined the walls.

March 3-5, in honor of IWD, lawyer, producer Paula Kweskin Weiss hosted a film festival at the Cinematheque featuring women. Founding The 49% media production company with the intent to feature women, this festival’s theme – women’s storytelling as an act of courage.

The last night of The 49% Film Festival Kiverstein Institute sponsored a documentary film on Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom. After the film, the director, as well as Fleur Hassan-Nahoun, participated in a panel discussion of women in politics led by Peta Pellach.

Female agriculture students working in fields before establishment of Israel — screenshot

Women were trained to work in agriculture, as seen in a screenshot from a 1934 archival film.

Today in Jerusalem women are involved in startups and hitech. At the old Beit Alliance Building, with a new sign announcing future housing towers, there was another IWD event on Sunday morning.

International Women’s Day: Fundraising as a female founder was the topic of the MassChallenge Israel sponsored program. Miriam Schwab (on the left) shared her experiences of the founding of her WordPress startup Strattic to a mostly female audience. Yonit Golub Serkin, Managing Director of MassChallenge Israel, moderated.

In the startup world, organizations like MassChallenge provide mentors at its incubator, as well as necessary advice and support to both men and women.

Research shows women in the early days of the establishment of Israel had more equality in numbers. Eleven women served in the First and Second Knesset, and in the 1950s, that was considered advanced.

On the local level, women are involved in politics, and ten percent of municipalities are led by women. On a national level, the numbers of women in Knesset are down. One thing women are lacking is political mentors. It is much more difficult for Arab and Haredi women to get involved in politics, and the new Women’s Party started too late for Knesset 23.

Not wanting to leave you with a political story, I took a walk around to see what was happening on the Jerusalem streets with COVID-19 filling the news feed.

People were out, young and old, shopping and eating, and preparing for Purim.

And after all the winter rain, below the Israel Museum, the vegetation in the Valley of the Cross was picture perfect.

9 New Photos of Arab Israeli Women

March 6, 2019Sharon A

Time for something new!

What news and new photos to post for International Women’s Day?

In the past Israeli Apartheid Week was making headlines at the same time.

In honor of International Women’s Day, Israeli Apartheid was first posted eight years ago.

Women in Saudi Arabia can now drive a car. Haneen Zoabi is no longer running for the Knesset.

But otherwise that viral post with 24 photos of Arab women stands true.

The blog titled 15 Real Photos of Arab Girls is still going since March 2012.

In the last 3 years alone, those girls have received over 26,000 views.

And three years ago there was the blog called 18 New Photos of Arab Girls.

Those glorious palm trees at Kikar Safra, Jerusalem Municipal Hall, have been gone for over a year, but Arab girls and women still shop of Jaffa Road.

Women are represented at the top of the Israeli legal system. Both the past and present heads of the Supreme Court, as well as the Minister of Justice are women.

The Israeli Supreme Court has two women serving as justices besides President Esther Hayut.

This photo was taken on the day Hayut officially took her position.

Judges are sworn in at Beit Hanasi, the Israeli President’s Residence, including this group of new Qadis, Sharia Court Judges.

While Muslim women were in attendance, there was no female judge appointed that day.

These men entered an all-male Israeli Sharia Court System. Ayelet Shaked said she wanted females also, and a year later Hana Khatib was sworn in at Beit Hanasi.

Not many women were present at Beit Hanasi when Arab security and police conferred.

But women were the focus of this media conference on Israeli version of #MeToo in Tel Aviv.

So what else is new to share in honor of International Women’s Day?

This photo of shopping in a Jerusalem supermarket before Passover is not new.

However, the fact that more Arab men are going shopping in Mamilla Mall is new.

Arab women eating in Jerusalem restaurants is not new.

However, I still refrain from showing them clearly.

Unless they are in my face like this young women; I often wonder where she is today.

More young women are running, this was a Jerusalem Women’s Night Run. The Jerusalem Marathon is a week away, and when the rain clears participants are out running and training.

In the Israel Museum this old photo is displayed, part of the story of Heftizbah Babayoff and family, who arrived in Jerusalem by camel in the 1800’s, from Bukhara.

What a contrast with this young woman who was sitting near the walls of the Old City, working on her laptop computer.

Women have come a long way in Jerusalem, Israel.

Where will we be next year for International Women’s Day?