The holidays are over.
It is time to get “back to normal.”
The Knesset winter season has opened, and universities are back in session.
A rocket from Gaza destroyed a home in Beer Sheva overnight.
Thankfully the mother was able to run with her 3 sleeping children to a safe room.
In Beer Sheva schools are closed, as students are home for a “rocket day.”
On one Jerusalem, Israel, street, the Happy New Year signs were still up.
And building cranes were also up, way up, and back to the business of building.
The Montefiore Windmill is now open as a winery and tourist spot.
The missing Monefiore coat of arms seems to be back over the door.
After the holidays, weddings galore filled the days and nights.
Conferences and Israel 70-year missions are too many to list, enough to surprise Ben Gurion.
Two hundred international Christian media professionals came for a media summit.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and US Ambassador Friedman were featured at the opening event.
I met a woman from Canada, a radio team from Estonia, and sat next to a working couple from The Hague, all supporters of Israel.
These visitors were all excited and happy to be here.
Check out the security, still partially visible as I left the event at First Station.
After the holidays tourist buses were still lining the road on Har Hazeitim, the Mount of Olives.
Record numbers of tourists arrived this past year in Israel.
Ido Aharoni told the International Tourism Security Summit (ITSS) that Israel’s Main Value is its creativity. He used as an example actors in a theater group who bake bread on stage as part of the show. All the actors are blind and deaf, and use 1500 physical cues to perform perfectly every night in the theater.
Summit seems to be the new term for conference. Some of the slides at the ITSS were great.
This one I really appreciated. Who knew how many people are killed by falling coconuts a year?
The Inbal has been renovating, and the patio was lovely at night,
as was the view over the Liberty Bell Park with the Dan Boutique Hotel lit up in the distance.
As soon as the holidays were over, Angela Merkel arrived in Israel.
The German Chancellor, her delegation, and Israeli guests were served lunch at Beit Hanasi.
I wondered what Nobel Prize Winner Prof. Aumann said to Merkel as she entered the room with the Israeli President.
Other Nobel Prize winners were invited, and the only female Israeli winner sat next to Merkel.
Most people only paid attention to the German delegation in Jerusalem when streets were closed.
After the holidays, and traffic was back to normal, filling the streets.
Twenty-four new rabbinical court judges were sworn in this week at Beit Hanasi.
This photo of the President, Chief Rabbis and the head of selection committee has received attention for being all male.
But have you seen this photo? I am looking for good caption, open to suggestions.
This is only a fraction of what has been happening, and so much more is scheduled for after the holidays.
A Jerusalem favorite starts tomorrow.
Over 120 varied locations are open for free in the annual 100 Houses from Within
Municipal elections are at the end of October.
Signs were popping up everywhere.
This pop-up store front became a campaign location.
Holidays may be over, but much is still happening on the Jerusalem streets.
