Jerusalem Diaries:In Tense Times

Shavuot: Only in Israel?

2013-05-16T00:33:00.002+03:00

Shavuot: 4:15 a.m : Breathing in the blessedly cool pre-dawn air, I join the flood of thousands of Jews on the darkened streets of Jerusalem hurrying to the Kotel, drawn like iron filings to a magnet.

Many are wearing white on this holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah, the symbolic wedding between God and the Jewish people.

[Illustrative photo: Not taken on Shavuot]

We hear Hebrew, French, Russian and Spanish, but predominantly English as the crowd floods down Agron Street past the U.S Consulate building and its sleepy guards, before the crowd gathers force and takes over the Mamilla Mall area. Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger is there with an entourage, but most of the non-Hebrew speakers don't recognize him.

The Tower of David and Jaffa Gate rise in front of us, outlined by spotlights. It’s 4:35 a.m as we surge forward through Jaffa Gate and divide–some heading down the steps of the David Street shuk, the rest of us stepping off to the right, past the Tower of David to the St James Street turn-off that leads into the Jewish Quarter.

There are only four entryways into the Kotel plaza and they’re all completely overwhelmed by the number of people pressing to get in. There’s barely room to move as more and more people surge in from each of the four entry points.

I don’t go down to the Kotel plaza: Unlike the Women of the Wall, I can't get into prayer mode with pressing crowds and onlookers. I take up a position at the railing just in front of the gold menorah overlooking the plaza adjacent to the last flight of steps leading down to the Kotel. It’s the best place to take in the majestic transformation from night to dawn over the Temple Mount.

The sky is an exquisite shade of deep midnight blue, with the floodlit ancient structures of eastern Jerusalem standing out in stark outlined contrast.

It takes about 15 minutes for the heavens to begin to change hues and turn slowly from a midnight blue to a lighter, overcast blue in the cool dawn. Chattering starlings swoop around the walls, and the voices of the throng rise in prayer.

5:15 a.m: I’m having trouble finding an empty seat at any shul in the Old City. Every synagogue is already packed as I make the mistake of lingering a few minutes too long to watch parents clutching the hands of their sleepy but awed kids, and listen to the expressions of amazement of American students as they round the stairs and absorb the sight of the largest gathering of Jews they’ve ever seen.

Menachem Tzion synagogue in the Jewish Quarter

The atmosphere is light, almost light-headed you could say, from lack of sleep, as young and old congratulate each other for making it through the night.

At the nearby Yeshivat Hakotel the women’s section is completely packed, with dozens standing and others sitting on the stairs. I pull a chair from an empty classroom and manage to plant it in front of a window just below the entrance to the women's section that looks out over the rooftops, the kotel and the Temple Mount. Every rooftop overlooking the kotel has a minyan and the sounds of prayer waft over the Jewish Quarter.

Walking home via Zion Gate, past the Cinematheque, the Arab traffic flows as if it's a regular day--in fact, it's Nakba Day, and there are disturbances at Damascus Gate to mark the secular date of the day after the anniversary of Israel's independence.

All is peaceful in my end of town, and I’m back home before 8 a.m, for coffee and cheesecake, grateful that the nearby Hartman Institute has scheduled a couple of classes in the late afternoon.

One of the things Jews in the Israel of 2013 do in increasing numbers is to observe the centuries-old Kabbalistic custom of Tikkun Leil Shavuot, a night dedicated to Jewish learning, as well as to show up en masse at the Kotel. It's not only the observant community that marks the all-nighter custom. Secular Israelis spend the night at educational venues all over the country discussing Jewish texts and ideas.

In contrast, a writer in Tablet Magazine asks "Why the holiday of Shavuot is all but ignored across America."

Is Shavuot another indicator of the widening gap between Israel and the Diaspora ?

Yom Yerushalayim in Three Dimensions

2013-05-08T17:48:00.001+03:00

Yom Yerushalayim--Jerusalem Day, the day marking the anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, has many dimensions.

There's a saying that there's a Yerushalayim shel malah and a Yerushalayim shel matah. Roughly translated, that means a spiritual, mystical Jerusalem and a down-to-earth, day-to-day Jerusalem.

On Yom Yerushalayim, it's possible to experience both these dimensions plus a third dimension, that I would call the Yerushalayim shel historia--the historical Jerusalem.

Mapping the 1,000sq. meter quarry uncovered in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood

Last night, to mark the start of Yom Yerushalayim, I headed up to the Mount of Olives to join hundreds of people who came to offer up prayers of thanksgiving and hope at Yeshivat Beit Orot, the hesder yeshiva and neighborhood that's been a mainstay of Jewish presence at this ancient site for more than 20 years. Click here for photos.

The Yerushalayim shel malah experience continues today with the Rikud Degalim--Flag Dance Parade that brings tens of thousands of mostly young people who make their way dancing and singing through Jerusalem to reach the Western Wall plaza in the evening.

The Yerushalayim shel matah side of things is the huge traffic tie-ups and street closures that accompany the day...

For a taste of Yerushalayim shel historia, I went to visit a quarry used in Second Temple times, that's about to be covered over by a new road that links French Hill with the recently opened Route 20 in the northern part of the city. The huge 2-meter long stones cut out of the rock were probably used in some of ancient Jerusalem's public buildings, says the lead archaeologist. She showed us a 2,000 year-old key and tools used by the stone cutters of Second Temple times.

Whichever way you want to experience Yerushalayim, it's yours.

Lag B'Omer--the only 2-day chag in Israel

2013-04-27T23:25:00.001+03:00

One of the (many) great things about living in Israel is that every festival besides Rosh Hashana is celebrated with one day, not two, like in the diaspora.

All of a sudden this year, the very minor Lag B'Omer holiday has become a two-day event.

Why? Because the chief rabbinate decided that there was a chance that preparations for the evening's bonfire festivities might start before the end of Shabbat, so they mandated that Lag B'Omer this year should be celebrated on Sunday evening, and kids should be given an additional day off school to recover.

Lag B'Omer in Jerusalem

Needless to say, the message didn't impact those who pay no heed to directives from the rabbinate, so now the country has to endure two nights of pollution, noise and general disruption.

Combine the ubiquitous bonfires with a nasty heatwave that's descended on us, and the results are not pretty.

In a Jerusalem park

The evening is still young but several vehicles at the UN compound in Jerusalem have already gone up in flames.

The weekend edition of the Makor Rishon newspaper published a graphic of the Lag B'Omer effect:

• Pollution in Jerusalem during Lag B'Omer is 6 times the normal
• 3,600 tons of wood are burned
• the average building site loses 15,000 NIS worth of material as kids raid the sites for bonfire starters
• 450,000 people descend on Meron, the burial site of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai
• 80 people are injured every year on Lag B'Omer in addition to the 200 who suffer from smoke inhalation or other fire-related injuries at Meron
• 500 fire trucks are on alert with 300 volunteer fire fighters on call...

Now, times two....moadim l'simcha!

Yom Haatzmaut and US-Israel Relations

2013-04-16T20:42:00.003+03:00

Israelis learned about the terror attack at the Boston Marathon just as Yom Haatzmaut (Independence ay) celebrations were getting underway all over the country. The celebrations immediately follow Yom Hazikaron, our memorial day, whose official title is 'Day of Remembrance for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terror.' Is there any other country that observes an annual day dedicated to commemorating those who killed in terror attacks?

Israelis of all stripes were quick to send condolences and messages of solidarity to their American friends and relatives as well as to the people of Boston, but US-Israel relations go on here at every level.

I found that out this morning at an unobtrusive army post near Beitar when a small group of mostly American immigrants and visitors volunteered to crank up the traditional mangal barbecue grill for the soldiers who were on duty patrolling and protecting the surrounding areas and had to forgo the national day off.

Frying up burgers for the IDF

Organized by the indefatigable David Landau (himself an American oleh) of Standing Together, we were part of a mass of 700 volunteers who spread out to IDF bases all over the country to help the soldiers mark the day with some moral support along with an array of grilled meat, pita and salads.

Volunteers and chayalim: Coordinator David Landau in white shirt on right

At "our" post, the soldiers are all miluimnikim--reservists, who take a month out of their normal lives every year to see duty wherever they're needed. In their late twenties to late forties, the soldiers are a microcosm of Israeli society. More than a quarter of the group are Russian-speakers, some who came to Israel as kids, and others who made aliya as adults. Several of the guys wear the knitted kippa of the national religious community, and there are a couple of Ethiopians and a mefaked (commander) who's a third generation Israeli.

Vladi, 43, is the procurement guy for the unit. Born in Kiev, he spent two years mandatory service in the Russian Army before making aliya and serving again in the IDF.

As we were preparing lunch and shmoozing with the soldiers, they told us that one of the main jobs of their unit over the past few years has been to host and train with US soldiers who are manning the Patriot missile defense system.

"We sleep in the same rooms; eat the same food and became really good friends with them, "says Andrei, a 32-year-old high-tech worker from Netanya, who is planning a trip to the US next summer to visit his US friends.

When we needed an opener for a large can of pickles, Avi, another member of the unit, pulled out an American army knife given to him by a US Army friend and dealt with the can.

As the volunteers flipped dozens of burgers and hot dogs outside, the soldiers came in to sit down in shifts as they finished their patrols. "You don't know how much you've made my day," said Oren, a tall, dark-skinned reservist as he took a bite of a home-made cookie made by one of the volunteers from Jerusalem. "I've been here for 4 weeks and hoped to get home today..."

All the soldiers were effusive in their thanks, but in fact, they gave us, the American volunteers, the opportunity for a meaningful Yom Haatzmaut and the chance to express our gratitude via some US -style hamburgers, hot dogs and cookies.

The Jerusalem Passover-Obama Mix

2013-03-19T17:43:00.001+02:00

If you've never heard an Arab calling out "alter zachen" ('old things') in Yiddish, then you've never experienced pre-Passover preparations in Jerusalem.

It's part of the clean-up mania that grips the city in the run-up to the Pesach holiday. I remember the days when an old, wizened guy would traipse around the neighborhood regularly looking to pick up anyone's old shmattes - today, they drive around in a pick up truck before Pesach and Rosh Hashanah, mainly looking for anything with metal.

Meantime, our municipality informs us

The Sanitation Department will heighten its activities, double its shifts and add more garbage collection vehicles, compression vehicles and various cleanup tools to its schedule.

The Sanitation Department crews are working to clear out waste and garbage dumps discarded by residents in the city neighborhoods, as part of the Passover cleaning operation.

The department will carry out a thorough cleaning, sweeping and rinsing of the Mahane Yehuda Market, Malchei Yisrael Street, Bukharan Market, Mea Shearim Market, the Old City`s Markets, the city center and commercial centers, using modern cleanup vehicles adapted for this purpose. The operation extends to the commercial centers in neighborhoods throughout the city, using sweeping and rinsing vehicles.

In addition to the above, the Sanitation Division will operate a project of scrap collection and mechanical sweeping all over the city, on its the main roads, entrances, outskirts and neighborhoods, as well as manual sweeping in the neighborhoods, including cleaning and sweeping alleys, terraced street passages and bus stops throughout Jerusalem.

Just so happens that all this cleaning would have had to be done anyway in anticipation of the Obama visit.

Feverish efforts are underway to complete at least the outer restoration of the new Waldorf Astoria Hotel, located on the corner of Agron and King David Streets, a few blocks from where President Obama will be staying this week.

And flower beds and barricades stand at the ready.

Once Obama departs for Jordan on Friday, just hours before Shabbat, Jerusalemites will be able to ease into the Passover holiday in a spruced-up, cleaned up city, ready to receive whomever else in the world might feel like dropping in for a visit.

Jerusalem Runs All Out: Marathon 2013

2013-03-01T11:14:00.003+02:00

Patriotic runners...

A perfect weather day for the 20,000 runners from all over the world who turned out to run the Jerusalem Marathon, the half marathon, 10K and 4k community runs.

Some unique sights at the run...

See, we don't sit in the yeshiva all day..

First woman full marathoner

Regular Friday morning activities carried on

In case anyone should get lost...

"I get all the boring jobs, may as well practise writing tickets"

The lead full marathoner just before the half way point

Shushan Purim aka Second Chance to Party in Jerusalem

2013-02-25T11:31:00.000+02:00

As the rest of the country returns to talk of a third intifada and Bibi's coalition impasse, Jerusalem parties on--it's Shushan Purim, the Purim that the rest of the world celebrated yesterday. In walled cities, for intricate halachic reasons, Purim is celebrated a day late. Street scenes are many...

Sale: 4 bottles for 100NIS

Women's megilla reading

Remember your half shekel, says the sign over the tzedaka box

An intimate home megilla reading

Check-out at the local grocery store

A little pre-Purim entertainment

It's Springtime in Jerusalem

2013-02-13T23:59:00.004+02:00

One of Jerusalem's outstanding urban parks is the Valley of the Cross in the Nayot neighborhood, that spans the area between the Israel Museum and the Botanical Garden.

Surrounding the 11th century monastery that's populated by a tiny number of monks, the park is at its best at this time of year when the kalaniot and cyclamen appear together with the blossoming almond trees scattered about the area. A true urban oasis...

A true urban park: the Rasko neighborhood is visible in the background

Monastery of the Cross.

Blossoming almond trees

Israel Museum in the background

Some Surprises at the Jerusalem International Book Fair

2013-02-12T22:28:00.000+02:00

Jerusalem is on the international book fair circuit, so every two years the Binyanei Hauma Convention center is taken over by dozens of publishers, several book stores, numerous hopeful authors, some successful authors and a handful of editors who come to breathe in the heady intellectual and commercial atmosphere of the book world.

The 2013 Jerusalem International Book Fair opened yesterday, and like its predecessors featured an eclectic mix of events.

What's surprising is that the Fair has become a place where observant, ultra-orthodox and secular Israelis find a meeting place.

At the Literary Cafe

Facsimile of a page of the Moss Haggadah on display at the fair

Hundreds of English speakers turned out to hear British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at the launch of his latest book.

British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks with author diplomat Yehuda Avner

The British Chief Rebbitzen...

Rabbi Dr. Benny Lau greets the Chief Rabbi

Professor Moshe Halbertal

Jerusalem Deals with Snow

2013-01-10T19:07:00.000+02:00

Jerusalem is getting back to normal after a stormy week that brought torrential rain, high winds and finally, a blanket of snow that transformed the city into a quiet, white wonderland.

In my neighborhood, the sheer weight of the snow on the Jerusalem trees made many bend and break causing damage to cars and the trees, but no injuries, apparently.

I reported all this for CNN who called from London to get the latest Jerusalem snow news.

I posted a full selection of photos here.

Now we're looking forward to a more normal weather week and a quiet Shabbat. It's back to Machane Yehuda shuk tomorrow for the pre-Shabbat shopping.

Bethlehem, our neighbor. Christmas or no Christmas

2012-12-25T19:01:00.001+02:00

Bethlehem lies just 5 miles south of Jerusalem. Every day, Arab workers cross the Rachel's Passage checkpoint (named for the nearby Rachel's Tomb) to come and work in the capital's hotels, hospitals, restaurants and building sites.

Unfortunately, Israeli Jews are forbidden to cross the other way into Bethlehem, since the Israeli authorities are not convinced that the Palestine Authority now in control of the historic town can guarantee the safety of Jews.

Tourists with foreign passports and anyone with a press card can easily enter Bethlehem via that checkpoint, and in the Christmas season thousands take the opportunity to make the 15-minute journey to what may as well be an alternate universe.

I've been going to Bethlehem every Christmas for the past decade or more, and every year the atmosphere is different, depending on the political winds.

Back in 2004, during the dark days of the second intifada, the place was dreary and deserted. Moslems took the opportunity to take over Manger Square on Christmas Day.

More recently, tourism picked up and there was more of a hopeful atmosphere, albeit overlaid with the obvious emigration of thousands of Christian Arabs from the town.

This year, with restoration of the old city almost completed; chaos in the leadership of the Palestine Authority; good weather and a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza seen by the Pals. as a victory, spirits were relatively high in Bethlehem.

The usual anti-Israel propaganda predominates in multiple languages in virtually every piece of material produced for the Christmas holiday, but the most outstanding impression of Christmas Eve in Bethlehem this year was the presence of PA security people. Police and other uniformed personnel stand on every corner, at every intersection and are stationed every 50 yards along the main streets and pedestrian thoroughfares.

Martyr poster on a Bethlehem street

What this signifies, I can't tell you--but it certainly creates a formidable atmosphere of authority.

PA security forces in Bethlehem

Outside the Church of the Nativity

To give you a feel for the town, I posted some pictures here and here and for those who have the patience to look through the larger collection, click here.

Preserving Jewish American Music: Honoring our History

2012-12-08T18:55:00.001+02:00

Most people think the narrative of the American Jewish experience began with the large Jewish immigrations from Eastern Europe of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Not a surprise, considering that over two million Jews immigrated to the U.S. between 1880 and 1920, which means that most American Jews are descended from those immigrants.

But the American Jewish experience has deeper roots and a chronicle of the entire spectrum of American Jewish history is being researched today by the Milken Archives through an examination of musical traditions of the American Jewish community.

The first Jews reached the shores of the 13 colonies in the late 1600s. These people, refugees of the Spanish Inquisition and their descendants, found a land where they could worship freely.

They established America's first synagogues including those in South Carolina, Rhode Island and New York. The early Jewish settlers spoke Ladino and adhered to Sephardic traditions of their native Spain and Portugal, preserving these customs in their liturgy. The Milken Archives have recorded some of these prayers and chants in their original forms and they can be accessed through the Archive's records.

Later Jewish immigrations included the German Jews of the early 19^th century who incorporated their own styles of worship in their synagogue services including, for some, the new Reform movement's approach. These services were augmented by the later Eastern European immigration. Archived materials and recordings of authentic German and Ashkenazi prayer styles are also available through the Archives.

The Milken Archive also looks at Israeli history through its music. Songs and poems of the early halutzim -- pioneers -- who expressed their dreams of building a Jewish society based on physical work and socialistic practices, were expressed in song and the Archives documents these pieces as well.

The Archive was started by Lowell Milken in an effort to preserve American Jewish Music. Jewish history can be brought to life through the music of the people who lived it. Enjoy!

25 Years Ago on the Mall: Speakout for Soviet Jewry

2012-12-05T22:27:00.001+02:00

CONTENTdm Collection : Item Viewer

Exactly twenty five years ago, a group of 15 activists flew from Seattle to Washington DC to join the mass rally on behalf of Soviet Jewry that had been finally convened by the Jewish establishment, after a great deal of prodding from Natan Sharansky.

The event was to send a message to visiting Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, that American Jews would not rest until all those Russian Jews who wanted to leave would be allowed to freely emigrate, and those who couldn't leave would be permitted to express their Jewish identity.

More than 200,000 Americans --not all Jews--gathered on the Mall in Washington to send that message.

For me, the December event came shortly after the second of three trips I made to the USSR to visit refuseniks and families of Prisoners of Zion. Like many other parents, I went to the rally with my two kids, who were then 11 and 9. It was part of their Jewish education.

There are a host of memories of that day--for me one of the most outstanding was hearing Yosef Mendelevich, former Prisoner of Zion, who was not beholden to anyone nor any establishment group, yell out: "Linkage; Linkage; Linkage!" while the Jewish leaders on the dais behind him visibly blanched.

Yosef Mendelevich today

An odd English word for a non-English speaker to be yelling--but Yosef was adamant about proclaiming a view that was not then popular with the Jewish establishment; that linkage of trade and human rights was the only way to ensure freedom for his fellow Soviet Jews.

The 1987 rally most certainly was not the culmination of the Soviet Jewry movement--there would be a long road ahead before there was anything approaching free emigration or a resurrection of Jewish cultural and religious rights. But it was most certainly a memorable day of solidarity and Jewish unity.

Years later, Natan Sharansky would be the driving force behind an even larger gathering that took place in January 2001along the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem to protest American efforts to divide Jerusalem. A crowd estimated at between 3-400,000 Israelis showed up for the peaceful rally.

Part of the crowd at the January 2001 Jerusalem protest

To this day, many of us former Soviet Jewry movement activists are still close friends and tend to look at the world the same way. Many of us are vocal today in the campaign to combat the delegitimization of Israel.

December 6 1987 helped shape our agenda for the coming decades.

Ashkelon and Ashdod: Holding Up Under Fire

2012-11-20T07:53:00.000+02:00

A visit to Ashkelon and Ashdod and the surrounding areas brought home the price being paid by Israelis living in southern Israel who are under the continuing Hamas bombardment.

The level of preparedness and ability to withstand the terror onslaught is impressive. The physical, economic and psychological damage is palpable and in many cases visible. I posted photos here. Please take a look and share. A few more below...

IDF on a road in the south

IDF reservist in Ashkelon

Damage to an Ashdod apartment building from Hamas rockets

David and Nachman Sharara in Ashdod: "Everything is fine. God will protect us."

Damage from a Grad rocket that landed in an Ashkelon school yard yesterday

International Media Fall for Another Hamas Hoax

2012-11-18T12:23:00.000+02:00

Elder of Ziyon and other astute media watchers connected the dots to uncover the latest Palestinian media hoax.

CNN, the BBC and a host of other international media outlets reported yesterday on the tragic death of a small child in Gaza, asserting that he was killed by Israeli air power.

In fact, the poor kid was killed by a Hamas rocket that fell short of its Israeli civilian target.

What to do about it? Twitter is the vehicle of choice here to get maximum attention in the shortest amount of time..

You Know Sukkot is Coming to Jerusalem Because...

2012-11-15T15:58:00.000+02:00

1. There's a constant clang of metal poles and the sounds of hammering are everywhere as Jerusalem’s apartment dwellers hurry to build their sukkot and squeeze them into small balconies, odd-shaped gardens and otherwise derelict rooftops.

2. The tourists have landed! All those luxury apartments that lie deserted during 50 weeks of the year are suddenly populated and lively. Overwhelmingly religious, English or French speaking, the proud apartment-owners jam the city’s take-out places and restaurants. The well-heeled visitors may be seen in packs wandering up and down Emek Refaim Street and through the glitzy Mamilla Mall talking to friends on their I-Phones in English or French at top volume.

A Jerusalem sukkah

3. Despite the way this year's Sukkot holiday falls out with its broken-up chol hamoed days, almost every Israeli non-profit organization worth its salt has scheduled a fund-raising and/or familiarization event for the intermediate days of Sukkot, aimed at capturing the attention of the wealthy temporary Jerusalem residents.

4. Real estate agents are taking a deep breath before their busiest week of the year as they prepare to pitch their over-priced wares to eager foreign buyers. Each of the many luxury residential building projects around town has managed to put up billboards depicting the completed construction and inviting prospective buyers for a tour of an unfinished building site.

5. You can’t get on a bus or ride the light rail without being poked in the rear by someone’s stray lulav.

6. The sweet smell of etrogim in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda is overpowering. Huge crowds descend on a lot on Jaffa Road near the market to vie for the most shapely lulav and etrog.

How big is YOUR etrog??

7. One enterprising bookstore is offering “Machzor rentals” for tourists who inadvertently left their holiday prayer books at home.

8. You’ve never seen such gaudy sukkah decorations in your life—unless you’ve been to WalMart on Christmas Eve. Kiosks manned by bearded Haredim are selling gold, green and red tinsel hangings, made in China, and exact replicas of Christmas decorations in the old country.

9. City workers have spent the last few weeks in a frenzy of tree-trimming. The municipality deposits huge piles of schach (palm fronds for the roof of the sukkah) in major city squares, and citizens are invited to take as much as they need for free.

Help yourself to schach in Jerusalem

10. Tens of thousands are expected at the Western Wall for the thrice-yearly observance of the ancient ritual of Birkat Cohanim –the Blessing by the Priests–that takes place during the intermediate days of Sukkot.

11. Hundreds more Jerusalemites and visitors will stand in line outside the official Presidential Residence on Hanassi Street in Talbieh to press the flesh with President Shimon Peres. Traditionally every Israel president opens the residence on Sukkot to greet the citizenry.

12. Like Christmas tree lots back in the US, empty city lots all over Jerusalem are taken over to sell sukkot of every size and description. Some are marketed by large companies and feature the latest space-saving technology and hardiest materials, while others are simpler affairs made of tubular piping and fabric walls. Every kosher restaurant in town has a sukkah of some kind and each boasts bigger and better holiday specials to entice customers.

13. Since the entire week of Sukkot is a national holiday you’ll have a tough time deciding which festival/event to take part in. There’s the Fringe Theater Festival in Akko; the Haifa International Film Festival; The Tamar music and arts fest at Ein Gedi; the Maayanot Festival: the Storytelling Festival in Givatayim and the Gush Etzion Festival to name just a few.

14. Touring the country is another favorite Sukkot activity and every political group is promoting trips to “See For Yourself.”

15. Not to be left out are those tenacious Christian friends of Israel—this year the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ) will bring thousands of people from 100 nations to attend their 32nd annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration. The Christian contingent dressed in costumes of their country of origin will also take part in another annual Sukkot event, the Jerusalem March, where tens of thousands proudly march through several routes in the capital on October 4th.

Not everyone is happy about the Feast, however. In 2007 Israel’s Chief Rabbinate’s Committee for the Prevention of the Spread of Missionary Work in the Holy Land issued a ruling forbidding Jews from participating in the Jerusalem march organized by the ICEJ. The committee wrote in its decision, endorsed by both chief rabbis, that halacha forbids Jews to participate in any of the Christian sponsored gatherings.

16. Another prominent group of tourists on the way over are refugees from the young American frum singles scene who make an annual migration to Jerusalem from the Upper West Side for Sukkot. Discreet meetings of earnest, well-scrubbed, modestly dressed, twenty and thirty-somethings take place in all the major Jerusalem hotel lobbies. A bottle of water or diet Coke on the table next to the guy's black hat is the give-away that it's a date.

17. And speaking of refugees–spare a thought for those 1,700 families expelled from their homes in Gush Katif back in August 2005. More than seven years on and the majority of them are not yet living in permanent housing.

Neither they nor any other Israeli who's listened to Ahmadinejad this year will need to be reminded of one of the essential messages of Sukkot –the flimsiness of our physical existence and our reliance on God for sustenance and shelter.

Today's Jewish holiday is...? Sigd Celebrated in Jerusalem

2012-11-14T16:23:00.001+02:00

Today is the 29th of Cheshvan in the Jewish calendar--a date not too many people outside Israel would recognize as particularly exceptional.

Here in Jerusalem, it's Sigd, the festival marked by Jews of Ethiopian origin, that celebrates their ancient yearning for Zion and their connection to Jerusalem.

Take a look at some of the photos from the day's event here.

As a bonus--here are some more photos from today's colorful celebration.

Entrance to the Tayelet facing the Temple Mount--sign in Hebrew and Amharic

Jerusalem Faces Change

2012-11-05T21:35:00.002+02:00

The face of some of Jerusalem's most historic neighborhoods is changing. Today, I ventured into the Bukharan Quarter for the first time in several months. Half of the market area is now a construction zone, with some of the beautiful old late-19th century buildings bordering Yehezkel Street demolished to make way for yet another complex of luxury apartments.

But the faces of Israelis living in the Bukharan Quarter haven't changed much.

A young troubador on a Bukharan Quarter balcony

Minding the store in the Bukharan Quarter

The owner of Felafel Teymani prepares a laffa bread

An old Yemenite Megillat Esther kept behind the counter of Felafel Teymani

L-R: The Baba Sali; Rav Shomo Amar...Can you identify the two on the right?

Hanging out in the 'hood

In the Bukharan Quarter

Waiting for mincha; the Bukharan Quarter

The shtreimel repair guy in the Bukharan Quarter

Secrets of Jerusalem's Streets

2012-10-28T00:23:00.001+02:00

Jerusalem has to be one of the most complex cities in the world. Each occupying power (and even wanna-be occupiers) has left their mark on the architecture of Jerusalem.

Millions of people around the world come on pilgrimage visits to the structures found in Jerusalem--Al Aksa; the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

For those of us who call Jerusalem home, who use the alleyways and boulevards of the city in our daily humdrum lives, the annual Houses from Within project gives us the chance to take a look at some of the more interesting places that are generally not open to public scrutiny.

I managed to hit seven of the more than 100 sites around town that were part of this year's offerings.

Some of the highights:

Inside the old Jerusalem Train Station--built in 1893, due to re-open as a cultural and culinary center in April 2013

The original sign on the old Jerusalem train station

Entrance to the old Jerusalem train station

The Armenian Church on Emek Rafaim and Derekh Betlechem--built by the Templars in 1870s.

Residential quarters on the grounds of the Armenian Church

On the grounds of the Armenian Church

Houses from Within

Preserving the old and the new at 45 Rechov Haneviim

Achitect (L) and developer (R) for the apartment and boutique hotel project at 45 Haneviim

Part of the Bishop's House at 27 Rechov Haneviim

Inside the Bishop's House at 27 Haneviim

The gallery at 93 Jaffa Road

Window frames rescued from condemned Jerusalem buildings

Inside the gallery at 93 Jaffa Road

The owner in the courtyard at 93 Jaffa Road

Entrance to the gallery at 93 Jaffa Road

A Plea from the Heart--Please Act and Share

2012-10-14T09:18:00.001+02:00

I don't know Yarden and Stella Frankl personally, but I'm familiar with their community; Yarden's work and his passion for biking and blogging.

Please take a moment to read his latest blog entry (click on the link below) about the challenges they're facing; then do something to help and finally, share the message with your friends.

Tizku l'mitzvot,
Judy

My Wife Has Cancer — And I’m Going for a Bike Ride | Crossing the Yarden

Stella Frankel

Hoshana Rabba Visit to the Temple Mount

2012-10-07T13:50:00.000+02:00

You may have heard about the violence on the Temple Mount this past Friday, when Arabs started throwing rocks and small explosive devices at Jews in the Western Wall plaza below; and the deployment of dozens of Israeli riot police on the Mount who dispersed the angry hordes.

None of that prevented veteran Jewish activist Yehudit Dasberg of Alon Shvut from taking a group of women up to visit the Temple Mount on Hoshana Rabba, the last day of Sukkot.

Our small group of women was quickly joined by a dozen or so men, many of whom are also regular visitors to the holiest place in the Jewish world.

Starting off in the Kotel plaza at 7 a.m, we passed the sukka and thousands of people who had been up all night learning Torah in the tradition of Hoshana Rabba.

The sukka in the Kotel Plaza

Aravot...

Beating hoshanot at the Kotel

Yehudit Dasberg points out the Holy of Holies on an aerial photo of today's Temple Mount

Dome of the Rock from the west; approximate site of the Holy of Holies

Meantime, our group has waited in line with the bus loads of non-Jewish tourists from all over the world who are anxious to see the Temple Mount in the 3 hours per day allotted to visits by non-Muslims. Finally we gain access after a talking to by the Israeli police officer assigned to "look after" us. No praying, no bowing down, no prayer books--and walk fast past Al Aksa until you reach the eastern wall.

Dome of the Rock seen from the east

The inside of the Golden Gate--Shaar HaRachamim in Hebrew; the closed double gate on the eastern wall of the Mount, through which we expect Mashiach to appear

We are joined on this visit by Arnon Segal, 32, a resident of the City of David, who was profiled in the cover story of last Friday's Haaretz Magazine. Segal is a mover and shaker in the Temple movement who writes a column on Temple Mount awareness for the Makor Rishon newspaper.


*The foundation stone of the world--even shtiyah, lies under the chandelier inside the Dome of the Rock*

After an hour or so of walking around the Temple Mount, accompanied at all times by a phalanx of Israeli police as well as seedy-looking Waqf officials, our group exited via the Chain gate where, once beyond the barriers and the reach of the Waqf, we sang and danced and rejoiced at the opportunity to go up to the Temple Mount on one of the three pilgrimage festivals.

Arnon and Yehudit agree that more Jews need to take advantage of the fact that for some reason our generation has the possibility to be at the place never deserted by the Divine presence. The exacting halachic preparations and limited visiting times should not be a barrier, according to Yehudit, who leads groups at least twice per month. Contact me for details.

How Ahmadinejad's "Uncivilized Zionists" Celebrate Sukkot

2012-09-28T13:27:00.001+02:00

Preparations for the Sukkot festival that starts on Sunday evening are fast and furious all across Israel, even as Bibi tries to show the world where the "red line" should be drawn and Ahmadinejad berates Israelis as "uncivilized Zionists."

Click below to get a glimpse of those preparations in the only Jewish state on earth...

How Ahmadinejad's "Uncivilized Zionists" Celebrate | Judy Lash Balint | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel

Some more images of Sukkot in Israel...

Street sukka in Jerusalem

Burger King on Ben Yehuda Street used to have its own Sukka


The International Christian Embassies Feast of Tabernacles extravaganza

Israel's Yom Kippur: Feel It In the Air |The Times of Israel

2012-09-24T16:41:00.001+02:00

Want to know what it's like to spend Yom Kippur in Jerusalem? Click below...Gmar Chatima tova.

Israel's Yom Kippur: Feel It In the Air | Judy Lash Balint | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel


Kapparot in Jerusalem © Judy Lash Balint

How Can You Tell Rosh Hashana is Coming in Israel?

2012-09-13T23:06:00.004+03:00

I wrote a piece about the 10 ways you can tell Rosh Hashana is coming in Israel for the algemeiner website:

Hope you read and enjoy...meanwhile, here are some Rosh Hashana pictures to get you in the mood.

Selichot tour at a Kurdish synagogue in Nachlaot

A hat maker in the Bukharan Quarter gets ready for the holidays

Shofar on exhibit at the Bible Lands Museum


It's pomegranate season....

And here's a bonus factoid: Israel Honey Council head, Herzl Avidor reports that this year, 3,200 tons of quality honey will be produced in Israel, the product of 100,000 hives from all over the country.

Projections are that Israelis will use 4,000 tons of honey this year: 1,600 of those tons in the upcoming holiday month.

Living the Zionist Reality

2012-09-07T17:07:00.000+03:00

There's the Zionist dream and then there's the Zionist reality.

There are those who dream about living in Israel but can't quite make it for compelling personal reasons, or who just missed the boat when they had the chance.

Others, like Moshe and Rachel Saperstein, confront the reality. The Sapersteins came to the country when things weren't as comfortable as they are today. Fired up by the Six Day War, the young couple and their small kids arrived full of Zionist fervor and pride.

Fast forward to September 2012, and the dining room of a religious kibbutz in the southern part of the country. The Sapersteins, their grown children, a gaggle of beautiful grandchildren and a couple hundred friends and admirers have gathered on a warm Friday morning to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

Rachel and Moshe Saperstein with MK Aryeh Eldad

The story of the Sapersteins and their commitment to Israel is a story of strength, courage, steadfastness and commitment.

The price the Sapersteins have paid for their love of Israel would have made lesser mortals run back to wherever they came from. But Moshe and Rachel stayed--and triumphed.

Moshe was severely wounded in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but after a year in the hospital and five more years of rehab. he continued to contribute to the country in every way. In the mid-90s, with their grown kids thriving and independent, the Sapersteins decided to take another pioneering assignment, and they moved to Neve Dekalim, the largest of the beautiful Gush Katif communities.

They quickly established themselves as pillars of the community--Rachel teaching in the ulpana girls high school and Moshe relishing his retirement and using his time and talent to write about their experiences living next to Gaza for the rest of the world to understand.

Rachel became the de facto foreign relations representative for Gush Katif and every foreign journalist stationed in the area between 1997-2005 knew her name and spent time in the Sapersteins beautiful home.

The Gush Katif Viewpoint e-mail newsletters developed a massive worldwide following and Moshe's wit and story-telling ability became a legend.

Driving home one winter's day in February 2002, Moshe witnessed a lone terrorist at the side of the road fire on the car in front of him--mother of two, Ahuva Amergi, 30, of Ganei Tal was killed instantly. Without hesitating, Moshe drove his car at the terrorist, running him down, but not before the murderer fired off a few rounds hitting Moshe in the leg and his good hand. Rushed to Soroka Hospital, Moshe sustained serious injuries, but in true Saperstein spirit, he sued the Palestinian Authority for damages and won (don't hold your breath for the award to arrive in Moshe's bank account any time soon...)

But nothing was to prepare the Sapersteins for the most devastating blow of all--the Israeli government plans to "disengage" from Gaza in 2005 and destroy every last inch of the Gush Katif communities they had helped grow and prosper.

Anyone interested in Moshe and Rachel's activities during the months and years preceding the horror of the destruction can Google Moshe's name and pick up many of his heart-wrenching diary entries.

When the reality set in and the Sapersteins found themselves in the Gush Katif "temporary" housing refugee camp of Nitzan, Rachel set up Operation Dignity to help her fellow evacuees with their basic needs.

Back in 2009, we sat together at the ground-breaking for their new community, and here we are in 2012, and the Sapersteins, together with many Gush Katif evacuees, are still living in Nitsan.

But none of that mattered today, as Moshe and Rachel re-lived that fateful day in 1962 when they joined their lives together.

The simcha was overwhelming in the room at Kibbutz Ein Tzurim as Moshe and a radiant Rachel, preceded by Moshe's mother, their kids and grandkids, walked down the aisle again and took their place under a chupa of Moshe's tallit.

Rabbi Yigal Kaminetsky, former chief rabbi of Gush Katif, blessed Moshe and Rachel and their family before Moshe smashed a glass underfoot to a roar of "Mazel tovs!"

Friends and family pulled Moshe and Rachel into separate dancing circles to rejoice in the celebration of people who have led and continue to lead most meaningful lives. Taking their part in contemporary Jewish history--in fulfillment not necessarily of the Zionist dream, but rather the Zionist reality.

Moshe (center in suit jacket) and friends