Chodesh Nissan,
Passover in two weeks,
beautiful time to be out on the Jerusalem, Israel, streets,
as here on the steps of Yemin Moshe.
שבת שלום
חודש טוב
Author: rjstreets
After Elections and Jerusalem Marathon
The 2015 Israeli election is over.
President Reuven Rivlin has sent letters to the various
political parties inviting their leaders to come to Beit Hanassi,
starting on Sunday, March 22, 2015
to indicate their preferences for forming a new government.
Over 4,250,000 of these little slips of paper,
each with Hebrew letters representing a political party,
were put into little blue envelopes
which were then inserted into a slot in
cardboard boxes,
and were counted by hand.
What a low-tech method for a Start-up Nation!
Some emerging facts are surprising.
Who would think that an Arab village would have
the highest percentage of voters for Bibi?
77% of voters in Al Naim voted Likud.
We knew that the head of elections was an Arab Supreme Court Judge,
and now the Joint Arab list has even more than the
10% representation than they had in the last Knesset–
so much for apartheid.
The last RJS post with 30 photos broke all the rules
of blogging, it was very long,
but the marathon was such a big and colorful event.
Photographers waited at the marathon starting and finish lines
and all along the routes, so that millions of photos were taken.
This photo was by far my most popular in the social media.
Some people may be tired of seeing pictures of runners,
but there is one photo I want to make sure gets seen.
Team ALEH posed for photos on the track
at the start of the Community Race.
For this special 800 meter event,
5000 people participated representing many organizations.
Police officers were lined up ready to “run” with
children, all with severe disabilities, from ALEH,
One police officer was holding a child’s hands,
ready to be the first off the starting line.
Then he stepped off on his way,
using a special harness called “Upsee.”
This child was able to “run” in the Jerusalem Marathon.
We may still be using paper ballots,
but one Israeli mother invented this device,
got it manufactured,
and changed a child’s life-one step at a time.
She has more clever devices on the way,
and I cannot wait to see what Debby comes up with next.
Start Up Nation at its best.
Now that that the marathon is over, it is time to prepare for Passover,
but there is more than just cleaning to look forward to next week.
There is the Jerusalem Arts Festival
and the long-awaited new nature reserve,
The Valley of the Gazelles, is slated to open.
As always, there is so much happening in Jerusalem,
however, the more things change,
the more some seem the same.
Jerusalem Marathon 30 Photos
Again this year, some love it and some hate it.
The Fifth International Jerusalem Winner Marathon
was run on Friday morning.
While I love some aspects of this event,
at the same time some parts are hard to like.
With over 26,000 runners from 60 countries,
in many various races, many streets were closed to traffic.
This year I tried to take fewer photos,
and ended up with over 300.
Then I hated trying to get down to just a few to share.
You see how long it took to publish this post.
Now I hope you will enjoy a few favorites.
My favorite selfie was of these two men
whose finish time was not as important as their photo.
There were many good causes that raised money,
but Shalva was the first.
Shalva took part in the half-marathons before there was a full marathon.
Walking with children of ALEH were uniformed police.
ALEH was first at the starting line for a special “race.”
Please take a minute to look and appreciate
the police officer and child on the left.
Amazing.
I am so proud to know the woman whose
design made it possible for that child to “walk in a marathon”
I hate that there were too many great causes
and charities, and I had to cut out many pictures.
Chai Lifeline had a large group with bunches of balloons,
lots of walkers and great spirit.
One Family’s red shirts could also be seen everywhere.
Karen Or was walking again this year.
These girls got my attention,
they seemed to be having a great time,
I am not sure which group they were with,
but photos of them are going viral.
The crowd in the park was so large
and colorful, but it was hard to get a good photograph.
So many people.
So many came from around the world.
The media was interested in the half-marathon winner.
But my favorites visiting runners were
this man and his wife from Philadelphia, PA.
They came with 6 family members,
just to run in Jerusalem marathon races,
to raise funds for lone soldiers,
and to celebrate his 80th birthday this week.
Thousands of runners passed the finish line,
and entered the Gan Sacher lined with water bottles.
In the park there were teams of supporters;
AACI,
the Lone Soldier Center in memory of Michael Levin,
and Yachad were just a few of dozens.
While the marathon winners were popular with the news crews,
there was more going on.
The annual hand bike race, for example,
and exercises and music and of course – food.
Two finish lines were confusing to new comers.
The finish line for only the full marathon was at one end of the park,
lined with supporters,
here as the third and four place Israeli winners came in.
The men’s full marathon winners had their moment of glory
and got trophies from Mayor Nir Barkat.
The 10K and 5K runners were coming
up the hill to the finish line,
with the Knesset in view in the background
in crowds of thousands.
I did not find all of my family members,
and I did not see friends from near and far who ran
for the first time,
yet this one man I had seen at the start,
there he was again as he came into the home stretch.
“If you can dream it, you can do it”
seemed like a perfect motto to start this day
and this smile a good one to end with.
Photos had to be cut to keep this from becoming another marathon.
If you want to see more of Jerusalem Marathon 2015,
additional pictures are posted on RJS Facebook page.