Summer 2011: Jerusalem, Israel

August 19-29, 2011 -- The last stop on my summer 2011 journey through Europe and Israel was my favorite city in the world—Jerusalem. I arrived on a bus from Beersheba on the day the ancient city launched its first modern light rail line. In the city of miracles to the three Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—it is a miracle that light rail is finally rolling along Jaffa Road. The project had been beset by delays and controversies over issues ranging from the route passing through Arab East Jerusalem to accusations of financial mismanagement to archaeological findings during construction.  But these setbacks were overcome and on a warm Friday afternoon in late August, before the stores closed and the streets emptied at sundown for Shabbat, more than 40,000 curious passengers crowded onto the trams free of charge.

Light rail has transformed Jaffa Road—West Jerusalem's main artery from the Old City to Mount Herzl—into a traffic-free, pollution-free, pedestrian paradise. Rumbling buses and honking taxis have been replaced by quiet and clean trams ferrying Jerusalemites to their destinations.

The hostel I stayed at is centrally located just off Jaffa Road, next to the Davidka Square light rail stop in the heart of Jerusalem. Abraham Hostel is blessed by an amazing location within walking distance of the Old City, Mahane Yehuda Market and Ben Yehuda Street. The staff is friendly and there are lots of social and cultural activities to get to know Jerusalem, Israel and fellow hostelers. I took a beginner Hebrew and Arabic class for example. I've taken Hebrew classes before, but learning a bit of Arabic was something new and interesting. There is also a kitchen where meals are cooked by hostelers daily, and there is Shabbat dinner for the many non-Jewish travelers from around the world who have never experienced the day of rest and spiritual enrichment. And there is a small bar offering Israeli beers and a pool tables as well. There is an Arab tour guide named Joe who helps out at the hostel, cooks amazing meals and plays a mean game of pool. Joe is one of the friendliest, most down-to-earth people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Overall, an awesome, affordable hostel. I can't recommend it enough.

From Davidka Square I rode the light rail up Jaffa Road, past the bustling Mahane Yehuda Market, the busy Central Bus Station, across the Santiago Calatrava-designed Chords Bridge, to the end of the line at Mount Herzl where it was an easy walk to the Mount Herzl National Cemetery. Theodore Herzl, the founder of political Zionism and the modern state of Israel, is buried here. Prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir and Levi Eshkol are also buried at Mount Herzl, along with presidents and other dignitaries. Mount Herzl also honors Israel's war dead and victims of terrorism.

Monument to the Memory of the Victims of Terrorism

From Mount Herzl it is a short walk to Israel's national Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem. There is a connecting path explaining the triumphant rise of the Jewish state of Israel from the ashes of the Holocaust. I took a different approach to visiting Yad Vashem this time—instead of walking through the indoor exhibits, I spent my time there exploring the outdoor memorials such as the Garden of the Righteous, which honors non-Jews who risked their owns lives to save Jews from the Nazis and their collaborators during the Shoah. I also visited a temporary exhibit titled "Architecture of Murder: The Auschwitz-Birkenau Blueprints," which features architectural documents the Nazis used to build the largest death factory the world has ever known and the ultimate symbol of evil in human history. The Auschwitz-Birkenau blueprints are incredibly disturbing to see up close, as the cold, clinical, bureaucratic nature of the Nazi killing machine comes to light. These blueprints on the surface appear no different than a modern-day drawing of plans for an office building complex or college campus. Except instead of housing for students, the plans called for wooden barracks, which were actually horse stables, where inmates would face appallingly overcrowded conditions. The barracks were meant to house 250 people, but contained as many as a thousand. But the photos of slave laborers constructing the gas chambers and crematorium is perhaps the most disturbing. Could they have known that they were being forced to build with their own hands the machinery that would so quickly and efficiently end the lives of a million of their co-religionists and fellow human beings because of a genocidal, racist policy called The Final Solution?

But this hatred and intolerance sadly did not disappear with the defeat of Nazi Germany. Before my tour group was about to walk into the Old City, a visitor who had just walked out of Jaffa Gate started angrily and loudly ranting and raving to us about how nothing in the Old City is Jewish, that there is no Jewish history in the Old City and that it is all Muslim. I guess he missed the Western Wall and Temple Mount, or the many historic synagogues in the Jewish Quarter. To deny Jewish history in Jerusalem and the rest of Israel is antisemitism and must be forcefully countered with the facts. Israel protects and respects Christian and Muslim holy sites. We walked past important Christian places such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and important Muslim places such as the Dome of the Rock. In contrast, the Tifereth Israel Synagogue in the Old City was blown up by the Jordanians during the 1948 Arab-Israel War. Visitors today can walk through the ruins of the destroyed synagogue.

Arab boy, Muslim Quarter

Bar Mitzvah, Jewish Quarter

A big thanks to the New Jerusalem tour guide David from Chicago, who gave us an enlightening tour of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City.

The next day I decided to take a trip on the new light rail to the end of the line at the northeastern Jerusalem suburb of 'Heil Ha-Avir (Air Force Street). Along the way the train makes a stop at the Old City's Damascus Gate and then makes stops in the Jewish neighborhoods of Shivtei Israel, Shimon HaTzadik, Ammunition Hill and Givat HaMivtar before travelling through Palestinian Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem with stops at Es-Sahl, Shuafat and Beit Hanina. The last stops on the light rail line are in the Jewish areas of Yekuti'el Adam, Pisgat Ze'ev Center, Sayeret Duchifat and 'Heil Ha-Avir.  Contrary to the criticism that the light rail route passes through Jewish "settlement" areas and Palestinian Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, the light rail provides a great service to both Jewish and Arab citizens of these neighborhoods, making it more accessible for them to travel to other parts of Jerusalem. Should Israel not provide world-class public transportation to its citizens because they happen to live in a neighborhood that the international community, not Israel, declares an illegal settlement? Thankfully for the people of East Jerusalem—both Jew and Arab—the state of Israel decides its borders, not the United Nations or European Union.

I rode the light rail back towards Jaffa Road, stopping at Givat HaMivtar to walk up to Mount Scopus, where Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University are both located. Mount Scopus offers spectacular panoramic views of the entire city of Jerusalem.

There are many misconceptions people have of Jerusalem. Some view it as a hostile war zone where violence is common. Others see it as a backwards, ultra-religious city of constant tension. The reality, as always, is somewhere in the middle. Are there suicide bombings? Sometimes. Is there tension between Jews and Arabs, secular and religious? Sure. The reality is that Jerusalem is a diverse, tolerant, modern metropolis with big-city problems that big cities have around the world. When viewed through the chaotic lens of the media, Jerusalem can seem like a scary place. But it is really the place where I walked through the Hasidic Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Sharim and later walked through the Palestinian Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. And guess what? No Orthodox Jew spit on me. No Arab threw a rock at me. All I saw was everyday people living their everyday lives.

Panoramic view of The City of Peace from Mount Scopus.

I ate a falafel on Ben Yehuda Street, walked through Jerusalem's tent city social justice protest, rode on a bus to The Israel Museum across from the Knesset, saw the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Shrine of the Book, was awed by the model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, rented a bike and pedaled through the empty streets of Jerusalem on a summer Shabbat Saturday across the Chords Bridge, up to Mount Herzl and then down to the ancient Christian village of Ein Karem and was wrapped in tefillin and prayed at King David's Tomb on Mount Zion.

Jerusalem is an amazing city—important to the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The political, cultural and spiritual capital of Israel. A city built up and destroyed and built up again countless times over thousands of years. A bustling, modern city and an ancient city that shuts down on Shabbat. The only way to experience the "center of the world" is to hop on a plane and see for yourself!

אני אוהב ירושלים . Ani ohev Yerushalayim. I love Jerusalem.

Click here for more observations from Jerusalem on Green Forward Blog.

Here are more pictures from Jerusalem. Click here to see the full photo set on Flickr.



Here is a musical video montage of Jerusalem's new light rail system.



Here is video of a Bar Mitzvah song and dance procession heading through the Old City's Jewish Quarter towards the Western Wall.



Here is video of a panoramic scene of Jerusalem from Mount Scopus followed by a shot of the Western Wall and Temple Mount.



And finally, here is video of me bicycling across the Chords Bridge and up to Mount Herzl on a Shabbat Saturday when the streets are empty and the light rail line is not in service.