our first stop was to see my great aunt and uncle, vicky and nokkie. this was a touch of what it was like for me coming to israel as a kid--lots of stops at family, lots of tea and coffee and cake. vicky is the sister of my late grandmother charlotte. she and nokkie moved to jerusalem in the early 80s from a country town outside Cape Town (where i used to visit them a lot on weekends as a kid). most of their kids, grandkids and greatgrandkids live in israel, many in jerusalem. vicky said that when they moved to jerusalem a quarter century ago she would refer to it as a a "mosaic" where she would walk around the old city and see orthodox jews, arabs, franciscan monks ...
vicky and nokkie |
in a mosaic, of course, the different stones don't always really fit very perfectly together. and mosaics are also extremely low-resolution images because the stones (or tiles) are pretty large. the thing is though, in imagery, the finer the dots the greater the resolution. but here, the smaller you break down the dots the the image just seems to degrade.. you get lower resolution. so it's tough to get a clear image of this place
because this is not just a mosaic of jews and muslims and christians... every group is broken down into many, many subgroups. and every group is constantly changing and alliances shift.
for example, according to our guide who took us around the old city of jerusalem, it's not a good idea to try to go to the bathroom in the church of the holy sepulchre because it hasn't been fixed in 100 years because the eastern orthodox, armenian apostolic, roman catholic, coptic orthodox, ethiopian orthodox and the syriac orthodox can't quite agree who should deal with it.
welcome to jerusalem.
vicky and nokkie are very observant jews... but as you can see from their clothes they are not ultra-orthodox (nokkie wears a kippah/yarmulke.. but you can't see it in this picture). behind them is a table by the front door of their apartment.. on it is a t'zedakeh box (a charity box) and guests can drop money into it to support a religious school (a guy comes by every month or so to take the money and give them a receipt) ... when this same guy first brought the box by the door and asked them to keep it vicky wanted reassurance that it was a school that sent it's students to the military. while this might make her sound truly extreme in another country, here it is a actually means something else. many people here resent the fact that many students in the ultra-orthodox schools are exempt from military service and can live their lives here without giving what is considered the most basic amount back to the state---serving in the army.
are you starting to get a sense of the intricate layers of meaning in this place?
there's more
the area where vicky and nokkie live, ramot, is, according to many, a "settlement". many others call it a "neighorhood" or "suburb" of jerusalem. people need to be careful about their language here.. including news organizations that are often subject to intense letter-writing campaigns if they piss people off
get into a debate with somebody.. or even start searching for "facts" online... and you end up in a warren of he-said, she-said that goes back forever and ever. this is what makes it really tough to get a clear picture of jerusalem (and indeed all of israel) because everybody wants you to see THEIR picture...
the sculpture garden was pleasant to walk around in. here's a piece by fernando botero, the same guy who made the giant cat in rambla raval in barcelona that arel and dorian are climbing on in the masthead of this blog
|
ok. breathed enough? here's a bench from the sculpture garden
|
we then walked out of the dung gate (nice name... it was the gate the ancient residents used to cart out their garbage) and to the "city of david"
|
. kristin wrote about the tunnel we went in. here are some pictures. |
outside the tunnel
|
from the van heading up thru silwan
|
back thru the dung gate and to the western wall
|
bar mitzvahs were in full swing. dorian got some candy
|
it is a tradition to leave a note in the cracks in the western wall (some people believe they are leaving a note for god or the messiah). here arel and dorian write notes.
|
and put them in cracks in the wall
|
fanta comes in either arabic
|
or hebrew
|
the cauliflower only comes in hot pink
maybe the cauliflower and kristin's shoes can form a group together. that would be very jerusalem. oh wait, one's a vegetable. one's a shoe. ain't gonna happen.
|
flowers and oranges
|
a reminder
|
walking |
looking |
as we approached damascas gate the view of the dome of the rock
|
this is the looking at the market on the inside of damascus gate. we go down in a sec
|
in the market in the muslim quarter... sweets
|
more sweets
|
more sweets and a poster
|
a cat on al wad street
|
we ended at the church of the holy sepulchre dorian was really tired at this point. it was all too much religion for kristin (as she's said) but i like it in there.
|
one of the domes
|
here is a mosaic (an actual one) of jesus being washed after being removed from the cross
|
this is where, apparently, he actually was washed. pilgrims come here and bring things from their town to be blessed on the stone.. then they take the things back home again.
|
this might look like someone who works there... but it's just a guy in a nike hoody. he's standing at the cave where, according to what many believe, jesus was buried and came back to life
|
we soon left the old city.. had a coffee..
here is a final picture of us and our guide..
|
next morning on derech beit lechem ... headin' outta dodge (after a nice breakfast with danny, julie and gang)
|