Last night was the Genesis Prize Award Ceremony
at the Jerusalem Theater.
Great show and good food,
and plenty of music.
To go into Shabbat this week Klezmer style.
שבת שלום
current-events
June in Jerusalem
Fires are raging.
The sky is hazy.
The flags from Yom Yerushalayim,
Jerusalem Day, are slowly being put away.
The signs announcing dozens of options
for learning on Shavuot will soon be covered over.
The tens of thousands of visitors
who walked the holiday streets have gone home.
It is June,
and summer has arrived in Jerusalem, Israel.
The grasses are tinder, ready
to catch on fire and burn out of control.
But then,
there are desert flowers popping with color,
and the Lions’ Fountain looks tempting and cool.
In Jerusalem of contrasts,
the old Hansen House gates were opened to
Innovation of Amazon this week.
The animals from Design Week were still in its gardens.
I marvel at the changes at every new
technology event hosted at Hansen.
Changes are evident at First Station as well,
with a new sign Life is Beautiful greets on one wall.
While inside the area is being prepared
again to host the annual Hebrew Book Week.
The holidays are over.
It’s June graduation and conference time.
For the first time ever,
the Herzliya Conference opened at Beit Hanasi,
the Israeli President’s House, with international dignitaries
and Israeli political leaders,
and of course plenty of speeches.
I wanted to know
what MK Naftali Bennett and MK Aryeh Deri
were talking about that was so amusing.
Besides speeches and conferences,
there are too many musical programs to list.
And of course,
June is also wedding time.
Time to get ready to go…
Mazel tov
Yom Yerushalayim Jerusalem Day Favorites
Yom Yerushalayim,
Jerusalem Day is not your usual day in Jerusalem, Israel.
Special holiday posters went up along with Israeli flags.
Some streets were lined with flags
and Jerusalem banners.
It is gone now, but
the flower bed near Marcus Street looked like a flag.
Besides flags,
posters honoring soldiers who serve in the reserves
were posted along some main roads.
The remembrance day of Yom Yerushalayim
is for the military victory in 1967.
From 1948-1967,
Jerusalem was under Jordanian rule.
Access to the Old City and the Temple Mount,
and the Kotel, Western Wall was denied to Jews.
All schools have programs to celebrate
the miraculous liberation of Jerusalem.
The program we attended in Mekor Chaim neighborhood
did not emphasize the military victory,
but the connection of the Jewish people
to Jerusalem throughout history.
On Jerusalem Day,
the Tower of David is open to the public.
Live music greets the citizens of Jerusalem.
It was really hot this year.
Security officers tried to cool off by standing in front of the fans,
before Mayor Nir Barkat’s fans came
to pose for photos with Mayor and his wife Beverly.
But the biggest annual event on Yom Yerushalayim,
is the Flag Procession and Dance, called Rikudegalim.
The crowd on King George Street dancing
seemed smaller this year.
Maybe it was the heat,
or people were scared away by misleading media hype,
or perhaps people were at other programs.
The mobile library in Gan Haatzmaut,
Independence Park, was not busy.
Seeing long-time friends dressed in blue and white
is always a Jerusalem Day favorite.
The boys with Israeli flags in front of Heichal Shlomo
were as loud as ever and were not slowed down by the weather.
Security was obvious and everywhere.
Hundreds of young people in yellow vests,
helped with crowd control.
The media,
waiting for trouble at Damascus Gate,
were bored from this clearly non-violent event.
The chief of Israeli police was there too.
Posing for a photo with one of the boys marching,
not headline-worthy.
So to see for myself what really was happening,
I walked the whole parade route.
Oh, they were loud, singing such things as
Am Yisrael Chai and Ivdu Et Hashem B’simcha.
One young fellow tried to shake hands
with every security person he passed and say thank you.
This little girl had a perfect view
but I have no idea what she was thinking.
The crowd just kept coming and coming,
it was getting late, and I was getting tired.
Tens of thousands of people were on the
Jerusalem, Israel, streets all day.
There was no violence.
There was dancing in the ancient Roman Cardo.
50 years ago one could only imagine
Jews singing and dancing in the Old City.
As I went home they were still coming.
Bands played music late into the night
in multiple locations around Jerusalem,
but no one could go to all of them.
If you want to see more of Yom Yerushalyim
Facebook photos are HERE