4 to Terra Sancta

• The 4 turns on to David HaMelekh at the Liberty Bell Park. In this lovely green area (with a replica of Philadelphia's Liberty Bell http://www.ushistory.org/libertybell/ ) optimists have for years been running programs to bring Jewish, Christian, and Muslim children together for theater projects.
• At Keren HaYesod, the 4 leaves David HaMelekh for the climb to Terra Sancta (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/walking.html ). There the street name changes to King George V ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/4-0n-king-george.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/george-v.html ) . I'm told that the municipality wanted to change the king from George V to David, but the name was too much a part of the city's fabric.
• This is the neighborhoodof 19th and 20th century writers. Along Keren HaYesod, the streets on the left are named after the Yiddish writer Shalom Aleichem ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/not-jaywalking.html ); the Yiddish and Hebrew writer Mendele Mocher Sfarim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendele_Moykher_Sforim); and the Hebrew writers Nahum Sokolov (http://xml.education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Sokolow ), Ahad HaAm ( http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9004112/Ahad-Haam) , and Smolenskin (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=863&letter=S ).
• On the right, after the Hebrew writer Mapu come Washington and Lincoln (pronounced Lincolen), included for their contributions to freedom. They encircle the YMCA, which is on David HaMelikh opposite the King David Hotel, a beautiful place of historical interest which serves the best breakfast I've had -- and in Israel, where hotel breakfasts are fantastic, that is praise indeed.
• If you get off the bus here, down Sokolow you'll find a lovely chain of parks leading alomost to Jabotinsky. Along Lincoln you return to literature with a street named for George Eliot (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/eliot/eliotov.html) and, if you stray onto Hermann Hesse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Hesse), one named for the inventor of Esperanto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._L._Zamenhof .
• http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/bus-4-names.html http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/number-4-bus.html http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/street-of-prophets.html

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox