Jerusalem Crowds Arrive for Shavuot and Music in May

As usual, things were happening in Jerusalem, Israel, and on the Jerusalem streets–good things that don’t make headlines.

With the Shavuot holiday starting on Wednesday night, tens of thousands of visitors were arriving from around the world to celebrate.

Shavuot time is also when the end-of-school-year events are held. Universities hold ceremonies for graduates and doctoral presentations.

However, my week began with a somewhat smaller-scale end-of-year event in the Hinnom Valley across from Jerusalem’s Old City.

Led by student guides, we left First Station, crossed the road, and went up the hill using those not-quite steps on the right side of this photo.

I had wanted one day to climb up to the lookout spot called Givat HaTakanah, Bible Hill, a popular photography venue. Here we were with costumed students leading the way and making dramatic presentations for their families on the history of these historic sites.

Going down a less steep path we arrived at one of the most fascinating sites near the Begin Center, Ketef Hinnom again, but with a younger guide.

In this burial area from the First Temple period, the finds included silver amulets engraved in old Hebrew with the text of Birkat Kohanim, the Priestly Blessing.

Walking thru the valley, one can see the bucket attached to the wire across, where food was sent to the Old City under siege in 1947.

Walking further, here is a closer look at the suspension bridge shared two weeks ago. The end-of-year party with loud music, ended hours later, but I had already gone home.

Only in Jerusalem can the past and present and future come together on-site, not just a story acted out on a stage.

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This week there was more music at Beit Hanasi, as the Israeli President accepted credentials from new Ambassadors to Israel.

An Israeli artist born in the USSR, Moshe Tamir, made these woven tapestries, a triptych, which were recently hung in the main hall – from the left, a menorah, Jerusalem, and tablets of the Ten Commandments.

After presenting credentials, each delegation met privately with the President in off-the-record sessions. The Ethiopian women had such beautifully embroidered garments, I thought I would share one view.

At the repeated official ceremonies, the IDF band had a lot of music to prepare. Here’s a short video with some of the music and flags.

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These red and white flags were also up this past week. Not for an official arrival of a President, but for the elaborate Georgian (as in the country, not US state) Day celebration held in Jerusalem at the YMCA.

At the invitation of the President of Azerbaijan, President and Michal Herzog are off this week for a state visit to Azerbaijan, a Shiite Muslim country bordering Iran.

During the visit, there is to be a signing ceremony for a cooperation agreement in the field of health between the State of Israel and Azerbaijan.

Time to stop negative Israel is isolated and doomsday headlines?

Also this past week, at a venue near the Old City walls, was a special pre-Shavuot event for women.

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‘Find your Waze, From the A for Anxiety to Aleph of Anochi‘ was the headline for a talk by Michal Oshman. You can find her Ted Talk online, she shares quite a personal journey and story.

Pianist Okana Yablonskaya was a highlight of the program with her exceptional musical interludes in the program.

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Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan Nahoum was a guest speaker. I found it interesting that Leo Dee’s father knew Fleur’s father and uncle years ago.

And Rebbitzen Chana Canterman of Chabad Talbiyeh who organized and hosted the program, knew Lucy Dee from when she was a girl in London.

In his remarks, Rabbi Leo Dee mentioned the need for “two” – one example, the piano alone needs the hands for beautiful music.

The evening was dedicated in memory of Lucy, Maia, and Rina Dee hy”l.

As Rabbi Dee spoke his father and daughter held hands.

These events were held prior to Shavuot, when bakeries were busy, not only with preparing cheesecakes but sweets by the thousands.

May be an image of cookies, babka, crumbcake, oatmeal cookies and coconut macaroon

I even made time to do a little baking of my own.

Three years ago with the pandemic, the Jerusalem streets were too quiet.

It’s so good this year in Jerusalem, people arrived from around the world over the holiday weekend, and over 100,000 gathered at the Old City and the Kotel, Western Wall.

Once again people filled the Plaza and the air with musical sounds of song.

15 New Things Above and Below the Jerusalem Streets

It was another roller-coaster week on the Jerusalem streets.

The sounds of children playing and birds chirping resonated from the Jerusalem parks as one walked by on the spring-like Shabbat morning.

It was only at night, after Shabbat ended, that we heard the devastating news of death and terror not so far away from our tranquil neighborhood.

However, I have decided to focus on what you did not hear about, not the “conflict” which garners international media attention, but what’s new.

My week started at the Kotel, Western Wall, where as usual, various groups of people of all ages from around the world were gathered.

One Jerusalem scene was perfect for black and white.

This colorful group of international Lutheran clergy was entering the Old City by Jaffa Gate to attend the ordination of the first Arab woman. Notice the international media reported that it took place in Jerusalem, with no mention of Israel?

Media reports called her a “Palestinian,” but did not note how the numbers of Christians in the Palestinian-controlled territories have plummeted under PA rule, whereas they have increased in Israel.

Work on the Tower of David is still not completed.

Some of the Old City streets were still quiet in the morning hours though the tourists are noticeable back on the Jerusalem streets.

The work on the restoration of the Tiferet Israel Synagogue is covered up but rises tall above the street in the Jewish Quarter. The construction to replace the structure that was destroyed by the Jordanian Legions in 1948 has taken years to complete.

Here is a reminder of how it looked for decades before work began.

Finally, the work on the Kotel Plaza elevator was underway. Those steps never were convenient for disabled individuals or strollers, or anyone.

The Kotel Plaza is being dug up (again) for new infrastructure work.

This is how the work looks from above in the Western Wall Heritage Center.

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The work beneath the new Center building is not completed but is still an impressive look back centuries in time.

We were on our way to hear from the Rabbi of the Western Wall  Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. He gives his interviews in Hebrew and has them translated into English.

However, outside another famous rabbi not usually in the area was spotted. Rav Reuven Feinstein was leaving with a group as we arrived.

Also impressive is the newly enclosed Kotel Plaza area for women to pray quietly away from the elements. I have been watching the space for years and wondering what they were doing.

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But the main part of this visit was to see what was new under the Plaza.

Remember that I reported on a tour of Hanukkah 2021, that this area was not open to the public. Well, now it is, though excavation work is not ever complete, there is always something new to find going down.

Here’s a short video – with 4,000 years condensed into under 4 minutes.

It is not easy to condense so much history in a sound bite.

Sharing a few new images of the ancient space under the Kotel Plaza,

on the new Western Wall Heritage Great Bridge Tour.

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The ancient amphitheater that was never completed is now exposed.

The tour ends with the model of the Second Temple and the view of the Wall’s large stones under street level in the distance.

One photo of the new synagogue at the Western Wall, but there was so much more at the Kotel perhaps for another time.

Hard to miss it, Gan Sacher, Sacher Park is getting a big makeover.

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The signs are up for registration for the Jerusalem Marathon in March.

It’s only weeks away and Gan Sacher is the starting point and finish line.

Jerusalem gets discovered below the streets, and buildings rise above.

Things are not black and white, not just conflict, much more is happening on the Jerusalem streets.

And with the warm winter weather, color, lots of colors as flowers are blooming early before Tu Bishvat this year.

When are you coming to see on a Jerusalem Photo walk?

Jerusalem Colors and Crowds of Sukkot

With so much to do in Jerusalem on Chol Hamoed Sukkot, it is hard to find the time and energy to keep up.

There is certainly too much to share in one post today.

However, one of the main events in Jerusalem, Israel, is the Sukkot holiday Birkat Kohanim at the Kotel, the Priestly Blessing at the Western Wall.

A crowd with tens of thousands of people packed into the Kotel Plaza on Wednesday morning.

But to get to the Kotel this year was really aliyah l’regel. With streets in the Old City closed to cars and the shuttle from First Station only starting at 10:00 am – it was walk up or go home.

So people walked up the mountain path toward Zion Gate.

The view was quite impressive, the sky was bright blue, and it was a lovely time to walk in Jerusalem.

On the way, you pass a memorial stone for fallen soldier Shlomo Cohen.

Families were walking together, as were these two young women carrying lulavim.

One man was walking alone talking on his phone. So many people were coming and going on a road usually full of cars to the Old City.

And a few people stopped to rest along the way.

How do they count so many people walking in and out of the Old City?

It had been a few years since I was at the Kotel for Sukkot Birkat Kohanim.

But I wasn’t going to miss a chance to watch from the roof of the Aish HaTorah building.

People stood at every vantage point above the Kotel Plaza.

It was nice to see from above and not be packed into the crowd below.

Some people decided to listen from a shady location just outside the entrance and not come and stand in the sun-filled crowded Plaza.

Crowd control has greatly improved in the past 10 years, with marked exits.

What a crowd, so many people wanting to be in a small space!

Of course from my vantage point on the rooftop location, I took zoom shots.

‘Selfies’- on the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock in the background.

A group of Jewish tourists walked above as the prayers were said below.

Sukkot prayer in front of a model of the Jewish Temple on the Aish roof.

A woman above on a roof in the Old City unfurled an Israeli flag.

Everywhere, all around, people and sukkot!

And at night the Kotel Plaza was packed again with tens of thousands for the Remember Hakel event, to mark the special Torah reading once every seven years at the end of the Shemita cycle.

Sukkot in Jerusalem was such a colorful time again this year in 5783.

The Israeli President’s Residence reception on Sukkot to the public had some colorful moments, but more on that later. Off now to more events before the holiday week is over, which I plan to share next time.

My video from the Birkat Kohanim on Wednesday.

What a colorful week, with so much happening on the Jerusalem streets!