Jerusalem photos

Did you see another International Jerusalem Winner Marathon?

Sharon A

One day, sirens sounded, and people headed to shelters off the Jerusalem streets.

Then, Pesach, Passover, ended with a ceasefire announcement.

Put away the Pesach pots and pans and dishes, and boom, back to normal?!

April weather had been unusually cold.

But the next day, when the sun was shining, people returned to the Jerusalem streets.

Overnight, the blue and white Israeli flags were seen flying in the breeze.

Seeing the new flag on the car mirror was a sure sign of the season of the Yoms.

For Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Martyrs’ and Remembrance Day, the official state opening at Yad Vashem on Monday night was recorded. With the constant missile attacks since Purim, Homeland Security regulations had limited the size of events and the need for adequate shelters.

President Herzog speaking at Yad Vashem

Hundreds of guests outside in the Warsaw Ghetto Plaza did not happen this year.

The event was broadcast with all the annual elements, but no live audience.

Leading up to Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror, President Herzog hosted families of fallen soldiers at an annual event supported by the IDF Widows and Orphans and Yad L’Banim organizations.

Fallen soldier Moti Shamir’s mother told how he would stand with his Holocaust survivor grandmother for the siren each year. Shamir’s daughter, born after he was killed on October 7, sat on her mother’s lap.

So many new stories with over 350 widows and 900 orphans since October 7, 2023.

Each of the eight families shared stories of their lost son, daughter, or sibling.

They also brought an item to share; one family showed the Herzogs a shirt.

One mother shared a story of a policewoman and a stuffed toy.

Yom HaZikaron begins tomorrow night, Monday, April 20, 2026.

The Michael Levine Base Ammunition Hill ceremony has people sitting outside. This year, it is recorded. There were doubts about the safety of 1000 people seated outside with no adequate shelter.

However, for Yom Hazikaron, there are many smaller community-centered commemorations throughout Israel.

What a week this was with the transition of going back to school after 6 weeks.

The biggest event to end the week was the 15th International Jerusalem Winner Marathon.

The races were originally planned for before Passover and then rescheduled for April 17, 2026.

Decisions were made down to the last tense minute, to run or not to run.

By Thursday evening, thousands had come to Cinema City to pick up their race kits.

Remember, people signed up to run in Jerusalem before the ceasefire was announced.

The marathon EXPO was held at Cinema City, and people were shopping.

It had one new feature this year that was popular.

All the runners’ names were posted on a sign, and they could take a selfie.

Can you see that there were fewer names at the top of the blue row for the full marathon than the other, shorter, much more popular races?

The green section is the 10-kilometer race, which had so many runners that it was divided into 3 start times.

Red was the half-marathon; all registered full runners could participate in that race.

There was no full marathon this year due to the hot weather forecast.

In previous years, the marathoners came here as I went to the starting line.

The barriers left along the street were very different this year.

All start times were moved up an hour, and the first runners took off in the dark.

The air quality did get very bad, and running later was a health hazard.

The entrance used by full marathon runners to enter the park was closed.

The full marathon finish line was empty when I got to the park.

The VIP tents on the side were not open this year.

However, the marathon finish was popular this year. Almost everyone took photos.

Only runners were allowed in the park, not their supporters, due to security.

The organizations’ booths were not allowed to set up in Sacher Park.

Homeland Security had limited numbers and encouraged runners to leave as quickly as possible after their race.

The Remember Roey running group managed to get a small table set up.

This year, many running groups were in memory of fallen soldiers.

Many of the organizational groups were smaller, with international runners unable to come.

Less celebrating, less congregating, and less music – no full marathon, but the races went on.

At the starting line for the 10-kilometer races, it was very crowded.

Thousands of runners lined up and waited for their start.

The enthusiasm was not muted by the weather or war.

Preparing for this marathon was done in a sprint.

Supporters were out at the crazy earlier hours.

All runners at the finish line were winners.

Without the booths, food, and family and friend supporters, runners were filling the park, able to rest after their race.

The 15th International Jerusalem Winner Marathon was held, with tens of thousands of runners participating in the shorter races. Only one case of heat exhaustion was reported.

On the way home, I saw this smiling duo coming toward the finish line.

Remember the first full successful marathon?

A woman was killed nearby by a bomb less than 48 hours before the start.

The same feeling this year.

Relief.

Accomplishment to start and to finish.

Winners all.

More Marathon photos on Facebook

Hope to see you next year in Jerusalem!

Photos from the last week of November in Jerusalem

Sharon A

On Nov. 30, Israel marks the Day of Departure & Expulsion of Jews from Arab Countries & Iran.

Almost a million Jews were expelled from their countries of birth after 1948, 850,000 from the Arab world & 100,000 from Iran. This fact of history and ethnic cleansing has been ignored for too long.

Sign 29 November Street

Kaf tet b’November was on Shabbat this year.

Why is it important to share the Jerusalem street sign again every year?

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181, the Partition Resolution, to divide Great Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948, when the British mandate was scheduled to end. The Jews accepted. The Arabs declared war.

In 1977, the General Assembly called for the annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The UN has become consistent in rewriting and inverting history.

Jerusalem doesn’t have fall colors like the US Northeast. However, these leaves were near the Knesset.

Oh, oh, the Jerusalem streets, with construction most everywhere, making it hard to drive or walk.

The new signs promote the use of the expanded bike lanes. I saw three bike riders at one time last week.

We had heavy rain and a couple of grey days. Again today, it was sunny, and then came heavy rain.

It was a good time to stay home and bake to fill the freezer on a rainy day,

However, when the sun comes out, so does the colour along the Jerusalem streets.

At the beginning of the week, I was back at the National Library of Israel, and the sun was shining.

Finally! The timing was right to get a photo of the shadows in the form of letters.

This display was back to the original before the Iron Swords War.

This was for a tour group, after almost two years without the faces of the murdered on October 7 on display.

The last three hostages are now down to two. One is a Thai worker, Sudthisak Rudalak.

Police officer Ran Gvili was murdered on October 7, and his body was taken hostage.

Will they ever be released to come home?

The main lobby was quiet; it is usually full of large tour groups.

From that lobby area, visitors usually take this image to post of the National Library of Israel.

However, this time I was escorted upstairs to a small conference room for a special presentation by three researchers. Avi Shmidman, Daniel Stokl Ben Ezra and Nachum Dershowitz are the principal investigators of the MiDRASH project.

For centuries, in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, Old Cairo, the Cairo Genizah contained more than 300,000 handwritten pieces from the 9th to the 19th centuries.

They have used AI and Machine Learning to transcribe and share from the Cairo Genizah fragments.

Soon, the results will be available online through the National Library for researchers around the world.

For those wanting something less academic, NLI is hosting children’s events during Hanukkah.

Thursday night was Thanksgiving, a holiday mostly celebrated with Black Friday ads and not turkey.

But AMIT held a Thanksgiving dinner at the Jerusalem Inbal Hotel to celebrate 100 years of educating Israeli children. The attendees were mostly American, with a large percentage of them olim.

I went for the Thanksgiving-themed food for Friday night dinner.

It was interesting to see the photos of Thanksgiving and Shabbat posted on social media again. For two years, many refrained from posting their weekly gatherings as hostages were held starving in Gaza.

There are only two hostages presumed dead known to be left in Gaza, and for many, it’s back to normal.

However, the war is not over. Newly wounded have joined the long list of over 20,000 soldiers.

As we were reminded at the AMIT dinner, 66 fallen soldiers were students, as well as 3 AMIT educators.

Hadar Goldin, the longest held hostage, was kidnapped and killed during a humanitarian ceasefire 11 years ago, and finally returned for his long-suffering parents to have a proper burial.

There is what to be thankful for and hopeful for on the Jerusalem streets.

What will happen next? You never can predict.

Hope to see you soon, this year in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Day 2025: Photos mainstream media did not share

Sharon A

Why did The Real Jerusalem Streets start 15 years ago?

Because what I saw walking on the Jerusalem streets seldom matched what the media shared.

Now, there are close to 15,000 photos published on The Real Jerusalem Streets’ old photo essays.

At first, I avoided the annual Flag Parade/March on Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, because of negative stories in the media. Then, year after year, I walked the parade route.

Yes, there was a crowded scene outside Damascus Gate.

There is also a known spot inside Damascus Gate where international media stand ready for a troublemaker’s winning photo and headline story.

Further along the Via Dolorosa route, closer to the exit to the Western Wall Plaza, it narrows to a crush.

So, what was the Yom Yerushalayim march really like this year?

This incredible view started my day on Monday of Yom Yerushalayim 2025. You see the tower of the YMCA, and in the distance is the King David Hotel. Jerusalem, beyond that in the distance, including the Old City, was occupied by Jordan from 1948-1967.

Going into that No Man’s Land on the other side of the hotel meant Jordanian sniper bullets.

Israeli Ethiopian memorial in cemetery on Mount Herzl

Yom Yerushalayim has also been hallmarked as a memorial day to the thousands of Ethiopians who died making the arduous trek from Sudan on their way to Zion. The memorial is in Har Herzl military cemetery, where an official ceremony is held in the morning.

Also, this year, in the morning, the Prime Minister and Jerusalem Mayor announced a plan to restore the Mamilla Pool, though the sign has been up for months.

Mamilla Pool with water after heavy spring rain

It does look a bit better after heavy spring rain, as published here in March 2022.

I wondered if the thousands of people on their way to the Kotel knew they had walked by it.

On Yom Yerushalayim, flags line many of the Jerusalem streets.

The walls of the Old City were illuminated with flags for the 58th year of the reunification of Jerusalem.

A giant flag was unfurled as the sky turned dark on Sunday night at the Kotel, Western Wall Plaza.

Smaller flags of Jerusalem and Israel were waved by the crowd of people of all ages.

Thousands filled the Kotel to pray with the special musical service live-streamed on YouTube.

Special visitor US National Security Secretary Kristine Noem made the Western Wall the first stop on her brief trip to Jerusalem. She was accompanied by security and US Ambassador Mike Huckabee. Janet Huckabee, wearing the bright jacket in a sea of black and white, hugged Noem on their way out.

This Jerusalem cat was out and on guard on Sunday night as people filled the Rova, Jewish Quarter.

After multiple morning prayer services, the main event on Yom Yerushalayim begins in the afternoon.

Blue and white is the preferred attire, and this woman agreed to show off her holiday dress.

Politicians appeared briefly on the Jerusalem streets along the parade route.

Not everyone wore blue and white, and for sure, not everyone was a teenage rowdy male.

While security was on high alert, this police officer shared his motorcycle with young admirers.

Thousands and thousands came out on the Jerusalem streets despite the high temperature this year.

With white shirts and T-shirts of all kinds, they marched through in groups from the starting point.

While an occasional politician made his way slowly through the crowd by car.

One smoke bomb, I did not understand, but another opportunity for groups to stop and sing together.

Media reports did not share the young families that participated.

This year, security had marching groups more regulated to reduce crowding.

You could find a bit of everything if you looked for it. Chabad with flags. Third Temple flags, and more.

How many photos did you see of the girls and young women on King George Street?

With flags, singing, and marching in such a crowd of thousands, I had to stop and wait to pass by.

One officer found a new way to make his way through the crowd.

This was the main live music stand this year on King George Street across from the Great Synagogue.

I made my way across the street to the stage to show the size of the crowd.

Despite the weather and high temperatures, people came in large numbers.

The thousands of girls gathered near Bezalel Street seemed to go on and on as they came by.

The thousands of marchers ended at the Kotel as Yom Yerushalayim at nightfall..

However, those peacefully praying, no matter how many more, are not considered newsworthy.

Signs line the Jerusalem streets, not only those celebrating Yom Yerushalayim, but also Jerusalem saying thank you to the reservists’ families during this difficult time of prolonged war.

Even with war, the skyline is changing. Jerusalem building goes up and up, as the roads back up with closures for light rail construction.

This year Yom Yerushalayim.

“Next year in Jerusalem” was in the ancient prayers in Ethiopia and is said until now.

Hope you can see the real Jerusalem streets yourself, soon.

Cheesecakes have been prepared for the holiday of Shavuot.

No downtime on the real Jerusalem streets.

Chag samech – happy holiday to all.