middle east current events

See Jerusalem a City of Contrasts

Sharon A

The Talmud teaches that there are two Jerusalems–Jerusalem above and Jerusalem on earth below.

This week more than ever the contrast of what’s happening on the Jerusalem streets was extreme.

Life continues even as people wait anxiously for the news of hostages released from Gaza.

The new buildings tower and grow above the streets.

While the light rail track construction has wreaked havoc on the streets below.

There are protests across from the Knesset to release the hostages.

There is also a “Tent of Heroes,” which remembers the soldiers who fell in battle. This morning, a young widow with three children spoke of her husband who was killed in Gaza by an RPG a year ago.

The slide show in the background showed the faces of others who lost their lives this past year. It is hard to watch, so much lost talent and potential.

The poster on the side of the building had an offensive adjective above “WAR” which was edited out rather quickly with white cloth.

I had time to take multiple photos of it as we sat in traffic at night. All day the Jerusalem streets were blocked due to the multiple protests near the entrance to the city.

Finally, renovation work on the Wohl Rose Garden has resumed after a long break.

Even the grounds of the Monastery in the Valley of the Cross are being landscaped after years of neglect.

First Station is to undergo a major renovation. Now most of these stalls wait for tourists to return.

The US Ambassador moved out. The new one should arrive and present his credentials soon.

New community projects are moving along as buildings are renovated.

Look up and Jerusalem, Israel is thriving despite over a year of war.

Today, as I walked along the Israel Museum, the Knesset was getting a power wash, flowers were blooming in the park, and a Muslim man was praying under an Israeli flag.

But, look up and see the yellow ribbon calling for hostages to come home,

and below on the park grounds, the face of one murdered, but not forgotten.

Some of the Armenian gift shops were open again.

But, other shops closer to Zion Gate are still shuttered.

The Armenian parking lot was full,

but the roads near it were empty,

missing the cars

and the crowds for this time of year.

However, the stickers remembering fallen soldiers fill the metal doors of Jaffa Gate.

A few tours listen to the history of the stones and destruction of old.

There are people at the Kotel, Western Wall,

on these sunny warm winter days,

where the Western Wall Heritage Foundation is doing work again.

Digging up the Plaza to work underneath the stones.

Fewer holiday visitors make taking photos easier.

But I would rather see the plaza outside of Jaffa Gate filled with tourists.

I am certain the shops in the Old City would like to see those tourists back.

Even in these days of extreme stress and war, the Roman Cardo pillars stand to remind us of the past.

The dome of the Tiferet Israel Synagogue rises above the Old City to remind us of rebuilding for the future. The last synagogue destroyed by the Jordanian Legions in 1948 is finally nearing completion.

The birds are singing. The sun is shining.

Next Year in Jerusalem – we’ve been saying it for a very long time.

January 2025 Hanukkah and New Beginnings in Jerusalem

Sharon A

For 2025, I saw a cartoon with two doors.

The one on the left says, “Disengage and hope it turns out ok for you.”

The one on the right says, “Fight for what’s right.”

RJS plans to keep engaging for 2025, as it has over the past years.

There were lovely days and nights over Hanukkah, with warm sunny days and cool nights.

So many lights lit up the Jerusalem streets for eight nights.

Crowd at Mamilla Mall for candlelight on Hanukkah

Crowds filled Mamilla Mall for live music, dancing, and donuts almost every night.

Programs for children were held in small venues and

Jerusalem Cinema City had special activities in addition to the regular holiday movies.

However, on the sixth night, it rained.

Rain poured down most of the day. Jerusalem managed ballistic missile attacks in the middle of the night better than the flooded roads and gridlocked traffic with cars and buses full of Hanukkah partygoers.

We finally got through the traffic congestion and arrived at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus –

but oops, we found the wrong Hanukkah celebration, in the wrong building.

Instead, our party was in the new Gandel Rehabilitation Center, for wounded soldiers and their families and the OneFamily volunteers who come each week to help from their war injuries.

Only in Israel? The basements of hospitals are ready for attack with underground emergency units.

Activities, good food, and music filled part of the lower level for the special Hanukkah celebration.

Nefesh Be’Nefesh held a special family celebration for Hanukkah.

When I saw this man at the party I thought he was an actor. When I saw him leaving, I decided to snap a photo of the best Hanukkah costume of the year.

There are still no nature photo walks at the still-shuttered Wohl Rose Garden near the Knesset.

“Bring them home now” signs line the Rose Garden and many Jerusalem streets.

Celebrations private and public, the war on many fronts, and the 100 hostages are always in mind.

The fallen Israeli heroes, over 825, include 85 since Sinwar was eliminated in Gaza.

Sitting home, reading the news, or scrolling on social media, the UN agencies’ lies and obsession against Israel are appalling. For over a year, the Red Cross has not helped Israeli hostages including children.

The clear weather is not good for farmers, but great to get out and walk and see what’s new.

Gan Sacher, Sacher Park has new information signs.

Old City walls near Jaffa Gate for second night of Hanukkah

Jerusalem Old City walls were illuminated with projections the same as two years ago.

“Hanukkah of gold and of light” was Jerusalem’s new Hanukkah message this year.

The Outline Festival 2024 is continuing into 2025. “Unknown” is what is ahead for the new year.

However, new buildings have risen above the Jerusalem streets.

Too many Jerusalem streets are dug up for construction and the future light rail tracks.

New bus stops are going up in new locations to add to the construction confusion.

The Real Jerusalem Streets aims to keep sharing what’s real, what’s happening in Jerusalem, Israel.

Not all is good, but with the sun shining and days getting longer, there is hope for better days.

If you want only good news, go to my friend Michael’s Only Good News Israel

However, to end with one good thing – the views and positive comments on this simple video from Sukkot Birkat Cohanim, keep coming.

May 2025 and 5785 bring blessings for all.

October in Jerusalem Ends with High and Lows

Sharon A

Oh, what week it was on the Jerusalem streets to end the months of October and Tishrei!

Many times this past year, RJS repeated it was a”roller coaster” and “up and down” week.

Exhausting and wearing are words that come to mind from the experience of getting up from the lows.

After a slow start to the last week in October, here are highlights from the Jerusalem streets.

The Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem hosted an academic symposium on October 29, 2024.

The ‘KUMA‘ exhibition that opened in May is closing soon. The legacy of the brilliant young artist Eitan Rosenzweig, hy”d, who fell in battle, should be shared worldwide.

The Jerusalem streets have been much quieter than the north and south of Israel, but the signs for shelters are posted in the museum.

A well-researched presentation by the impressive Dr. Izabella Tabarovsky at the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem Academic Symposium focused on the Denial of Jewish Peoplehood and Jewish Connection to the Land of Israel in Late-Soviet Propaganda.

The former Soviet dissident who spent 9 years imprisoned by the Soviet authorities, Natan Sharansky was a keynote speaker.

He was highlighted along with Professor Gil Troy, who presented “The Promised Land versus “Settler Colonialism”: Land, Indigeneity, Identity and Creativity in Zionist Thought.” A study of how and by whom the term “settler-colonist” developed.

Maori Sheree Trotter, PhD in history from the University of Auckland, is a founder and co-director of the Indigenous Embassy of Jerusalem which had an impressive event in February.

Multiple speakers and delegates could not attend because of air travel cancelations.

Shadi Khalloul from Kfar Birem made his presentation on Zoom because of illness. An Israeli Aramaic Maronite born near the border of Lebanon who served in the IDF as the first Christian paratrooper in 1995, he founded the NGO – ICAA. Who knew that Aramaic is still being taught?

As the full-day program continued late in the afternoon, Dr Charles Asher Small spoke on “The Implications of Antisemites Defining the Jew: From Indigeneity to Colonial Settler.”

To close the day, co-convener Prof. Wayne Horowitz lectured on “Indigenous Narratives of Land and Sky-Modern and Ancient, Arctic Canada and the Land of Israel.” From this graphic of Abraham’s hometown of Ur, he developed the connection of Indigenous Peoples’ narratives to their land by song and dance.

Think of the Jewish agricultural holidays we recently celebrated and the words of “Hatikvah.”

It was a very thoughtfully presented program with much information and videos to be published.

On Wednesday night, at Beit Hanasi, the Israeli President’s Residence the first award ceremony for Civilian Heroes of October 7, 2023, was held.

A large screen and stage were constructed in the back garden. With the clock and season change, it was dark and colder than recent nights.

The President awarded cousins Ismail, D’Haish, Hamed, and Rafi Alkarnawi for their bravery in rescuing Israelis on October 7 under heavy fire from Hamas who had invaded Israel.

The set was elaborate and the program included musical interludes slow and solemn.

Most of the awards went to the relatives of deceased civilians who acted quickly on October 7 to save others, like Moshe and Eliyad Ohayon hy”d, from Ofakim.

The President wanted not only Jews, Druze, and Bedouin heroes honored, but children as well.

Former Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubenstein’s committee was tasked with investigating and selecting from 200 nominees down to 60 then 20 finalists.

One bright point of the evening were the young children present.

Their presence conveyed the feeling – Am Yisrael Chai – the People of Israel Live.

But always present is the yellow chair and the faces of the hostages still in Gaza for over a year.

On the Jerusalem streets, it is hard not to remember the 101 remaining hostages.

The Shiva of Rabbi Avi Goldberg hy”d concluded with thousands coming to pay condolences to the family of the latest Jerusalem resident fallen. They came all week and late into the night after Shabbat.

One woman who came to offer words of comfort to Rachel, the young widow, was Hadas Loewenstern, mother of six children under bar mitzvah age. Her husband Elisha Lowenstern hy”d was the 405th to fall in Gaza “fighting for our lives”. She has repeated her story in numerous recorded messages to give strength to others, especially those who have received the dreaded “knock on the door” from the IDF.

It’s a good day when “cleared for publication” is not the first item on the news, as the number of fallen rises toward 780.

A favorite sight this week on the Jerusalem streets was a young border policeman taking flowers home with his talit bag over his shoulder.

So as the sirens sound north and south, and Israelis run for shelter, in Jerusalem, Israel life moves along.

The new signs are posted for the end of November Jerusalem Oud Festival.

The oranges are full on the trees along the Jerusalem streets. And if you look closely you could even find Halloween decorations.

Oh, what a month October was!

Hoping November is a quieter, less rampageous month.