Jerusalem Weekend Pass

• Hamshushalaim (or khamshushalayim, or h.amshooshalaim or some similar transliteration) can be loosely translated "Weekend Pass in Jerusalem."
• This annual event, three weekends at the end of November and beginning of December, consists of free or greatly reduced admission to attractions plus special walking and bus tours.
• http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/Humshsh/all.htm has the details. http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_main/defaultnew.asp?lng=2 is the English version of the Jerusalem website.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Noticing Jerusalem

• The 174 articles in this blog are a guide to noticing Jerusalem.
• Look up at the stonework around the windows, at the balcony rails, at the roof gardens, and the floors added to older buildings.
• Look down at the tiles in courtyards.
• Look out at the views of the mounded southern hills and the eastern hills that tease your eyes with the chance that you have seen the Dead Sea to the east.
• Notice the little shops still holding on among the chain stores, the odd pieces of sculpture, the trompe l'oeil murals, the seasonal changes of wild flowers in open fields and fruit in the market.
• Visit the little museums. Go to concerts. Don't let the language intimidate you. Ask for help in English, and you'll get it, with a little garbling.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Monster

• HaMifletzet in Kiryat Hayovel (http://www.israelfamily.org/photogallery/Israel6-7-8/slides/HaMifletzet-The%20Monster.html ) is a nonarchitectural monster, well enough known to be featured in the small, excellent, and rarely-seen pamphlet published by the Jerusalem Municipality Tourist Division.
• In a shady park (a project of the Jerusalem Foundation.), HaMifletset is a tall, piebald monster, whose three tongues are slides.
• The 18, 20, and 24Alef (from the Israel and Biblelands Museums) bus stop nearby. Ask a fellow-passenger where to get off for hah-meef-let-set. In your question, use as few words as possible. When you get off the 18, go right. It is about a block from the bus stop. You can ask anyone "HaMeeletst?"and get directions.
• If you walk back to the bus stop, continue a block, cross at the T-junction, and turn right, you will see to your left a good, kid-friendly, little restaurant with tables outside and inside. Childrens will notice the dancing cows on the pillar outside. The restaurabt will also package for you you a freshly-cooked take-out meal (the common Hebrew expression sounds very like take out, and the owner and staff speak enough English to explain what's available) for a very reasonable price. You can get shawarma or regular food.
• Farther along the street, next to the supermarket (Hebrew: "soopehr") is a pizzaria.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

More for Kids

• Children like many of the same Jerusalem sites that adults do, thogh often for different reasons.
• Kids into role-playing games will like both tunnels from Rehavia to the Valley of the Cross, especially (until about age 12) if you call them mysterious. These tunnels are wide and short enough that claustrophobes do not mind them. The monastery(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_the_Cross and http://members.bib-http://www.md.huji.ac.il/vjt/98.htmlhttp://www.md.huji.ac.il/vjt/98.html ) is not only a monastery, but it looks like one -- tall walls, banners flying. You can climb the hill and walk behind it with the kids making up their own adventure stories, or with you telling them about Queen Helena (http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/helena/Helena_Mother_of_Constantine.htm ) and about the building's history, which is full of intrigue.
• Up toward the Israel Museum you will come upon one of the fantastic animals (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/fantastic-animals.html ).
• Of course they will like the cable-car museum http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/jerusalem-cable-car.html ) and the windmills (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/windmills.html ).
• If you can play recordings of songs that relate to what you are seeing, and tell them what the words mean, even better. One of the shops selling CDs can, for example, sell you a copy of the wonderful song about Montefiore (sung by Yehoram Gaon, lyrics by Chaim Chefer, music by Dov Seltzer), and there are several songs about Jerusalem's walls (though they refer to walls built 1500 to 2500 years before the current walls) suitable for playing if you gather courage to take well-behaved children onto the walls (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/on-walls.html ).
• See http://www.hebrewsongs.com for links to songs about Jerusalem with words and where to buy them on the Internet. But I think it is more fun to go into the little CD shop near Agripas on Mahaneh Yehuda in the Shouk and, by sign language and key words, sample music.
• The Davidson Archaeological Garden has much to delight cildren and adults, including the movie (which alternates a Hebrew version with and English version). In the garden you can go up onto a short section of the wall. Plan on spending at least two hours. The audio tour has some excellent sections, and can really get you into being on a Herodian street or in an Ummaid palace.
• At Ir Daveed (http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/index.html is a beautiful but frustrating website), the City of David (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/city-of-david.html ), you can arrange a tour specially for children. This manages to be interesting for adults, too. In summer, you can go through the water tunnel with kids who are tall enough. All year you can go through the dry tunnel. Do not go through the tunnel if the child dislikes enclosed spaces, or if you do!

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Entertaining Children

• Children like the energy-saving lights in Jerusalem stairwells. They push the button to trun on the light, wait on the landing until the light goes out, push the button again. One races ahead to push the button o,n a higher landing. That extends the time the light is on.
• For a child used to the family car riding a bus is an adventure -- a city bus where you give the driver money and get change and the printer prints out your ticket. You can keep the ticket as a souvenir. The bus starts moving before you get to a seat. It winds back and forth through narrow streets, up hill and down. Who needs Disneyland?
• Taxis. Another treat! "Good thing I'm a city kid and I can hail a cab" goes the song. (Googl ehas failed to identify the source.) It's magic for a midwestern kid. I wave my hand and a car stops, ready to take us anywhere.
• The shouk (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/abundance.html )can be almost too exciting. "What are those men shouting?" asks an eight-year old. He stands very close to me. "Bananas two and a half shekels a kilo," I tell him "Clementines three shekels a kilo." He moves a little away from me and listens. "Yes," he says. "I hear 'bananas' and 'kilo.'"
• For kids who don't like strange food, there's pizza. Many pizza parlors squeeze fresh juice (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/juice.html ).

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

birds

• Tucked away near the Knesset, Israel Museum, and Bible Lands Museum (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/free-lectures.html ) is a bird observation and banding station overlooking a small pond. "The site is one of the few traditional birdwatching areas in Jerusalem that has not been harmed by development, and is centrally located."
• In addition to local birds, migratory birds land here.
• At http://www.jbo.org.il/Eng%20index.htm note that the scroll bar is on the left. Of all people, Jimmy Carter is pictured watching birds.
• The same group also organizes bird watching at Mamilla, which is quite close to hotels. Check http://groups.yahoo.com/group/janglo/messages for announcements.
• http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/fantastic-animals.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/frogs.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/cats.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/gazelles.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/two-horses.html for more about Jerusalem animals, real and fantastic.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

All Together Now

• If you can only come to Israel once, come to Jerusalem during Succot.
• In the morning, dispatcher to taxi drivers, "More taxis to the train station, more, come as many of you as can."
• Where Shlomtsion HaMalka meets King David, families, couples, individuals – waiting for the walk sign, surging across the street, along Agron’s shaded sidewalk to merge with the stream along the Jaffa Road, they walk faster than the cars, the taxis, the buses, stuck in gridlock, all headed in one direction.
• Happy people, dads pushing kids in strollers, big sisters herding younger siblings, black coated men in belted silk coats and wearing shiny brown fur hats, women in their best long skirts and fine-tailored jackets, men in jeans holding their children’s hands, women in hip huggers, long-haired little girls in pinafores, others in sun dresses or shorts, boys running ahead, reined in with a shout, fai-skinned red heads, dark-skinned Ethiopeans, pesionairs, teenagers, cellphones, "We’re near Sha’ar Yafo," "We took the train," "We left the car in Rehavia, "I see you; we’re over here."
• Crowds and crowds, splitting to go down through the souk or round through the Armenian quarter, the religious holding long celluloid carriers with palm fronds and myrtle and willow, boxes protecting chosen citrons; the secular Jews surprised in their company, all towards the Kotel.
• Then masses go out the nearest Gate to the City of David, below the Old City walls, lining up for tours, numbers beyond expectations, beyond the guides’ capacity. "Come back tomorrow. Early." Good nature prevails. There’s plenty to see, walking round the excavations.
• At six, beside the Ottoman Railway station, ten shekels to enter where 30 restaurants, or 40, cook out. Eat in the Shouk sells "Persian Goulash," Yehezkeli" offers fried haloumi cheese, Pisces does things with salmon, there’s tamarind juice and limonana, a wine bar, shwaarma, felafel, kebabs and kubeh, dim sum, empanadas, gefilte fish, crepes, Belgian waffles, brownies, cotton candy. Booths sell crafts. Bands play.
• From 4 PM, families stream through the security checkpoints into Liberty Bell Park, met by jugglers and stilt walkers, a comic ballet duo on a small stage, Irish dancers from Ra’nana on a larger one.
• Hand-crafted glass for sale, and jewelry, and toys, and pottery, and drawings, and books. Hotdogs and hamburgers, juice and soda, and beer with few takers.
• A drummer has brought a dozen giant tablas for kids to sit on and help make joyous rhythms. In a circle o a large mat kids come and learn, and switch, and parents sometimes drum, and for four hours the white-robed man keeps drumming, sometimes singing, and the energy builds and ebbs and builds higher.
• In a tent a circus. In the "amphi," puppets.
• We stopped by the best Irish band I’ve ever heard. The leader played the Irish pipes sweetly but with vigor. A compelling percussionist. A woman fiddling with quick skill. Two guitarists. The leader switches to a long recorder. Back to the pipes. Familiar tunes with newer beats. We crowd around the barrier. They take a break. We pull up chairs from scattered tables.
• The band returns and shares its energy. Behind them teenage girls appear and disappear. Oblivious to all but music, they jump and dance.
• The band moves from tune to tune. Two girls, three or four years old, slip through the barriers onto the platform in front of the band, left hand in left they turn and turn the way kids can, around and around without out falling down. A toddler runs up and runs around them, and three more little girls, dancing like iron filing when a magnet is moved beneath a table.
• Then a man comes around the bandstand in khakis and a t-shirt, shod in proper Irish dancing shies. Still on the tarmac, his feet begin to tap. Up he goes onto the platform and does the Irish steps quick and riveting, and the children whirl, and he taps and clogs and leaps across the stage, always in the space where the children are not.
• Walking home, we pass the banners whereby the Inbal Hotel welcomes three tourist groups. How lucky they are to be in this city in these days! "I hope," I say, "that they got away from the package tour and went down into the park."
• From the hotel, they must have heard the music. "The entire universe is a very narrow bridge, and the essence, the essential principle, is not to be afraid, at all."
• See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/red-rock.html http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/unexpected-february-entertainment.html http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/06/prtforming-arts-in-jerusalem.html http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/20/succa.html

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Sherover Promenade

• Signs, on white cardboard the size of printer paper, appeared along the streets, pointing to the Tayellett (Promenade) in Talpiot and promising activities for the Succot holiday. Without a map, but with a vague recollection of the location and of a newspaper ad for the event (dates but no times) I set out on foot. Along the Hevron Road there were two or three small signs, and then a large brown arrow pointing in the direction of the Tayelet when I was about ready to give up.
• At a bus stop I saw a sign for the number 4. "The 4 doesn’t go here," I thought, even as I noticed that the sign for that line was in Arabic, while the list of destinations for the 7 and 8 were in Hebrew. Jerusalem has two bus lines, and this stop was one of the overlaps.
• I reached the Tayelet (http://www.blogger.com/(http://www.s-aronson.co.il/Gabriel-Sherover-Promenade.html ).
  I’d forgotten how beautiful the view is. I do not think memory is great enough for such beauty. Heartfelt thanks to the Sherover family. Breathtaking is not a strong enough description of the view.
• Go. See it. Take the number 8 bus southward, or hail a taxi and say, "AhTayellet Armohn AhNot-seev" or "Sherover Tayellet."
• There, before us, the [Old] City, surrounded by hills, with buildings, all-white at this distace, spread like robes around her.
• Today you could rent a pedal buggy (such as I’ve seen along the Chicago lakefront), and perhaps these are always available. You could also rent a Segway. (I don’t understand the appeal.) Kids on the grass were learning to drum, sitting on tablas (Miriam’s drums).
  Walking tours headed down into the Gehenna valley, others to nearby water sources. I bought a ticket for a tour on an open-sided "safari" vehicle.
• We drove along the old cease-fire line through Abu Tor, a village split between the Kingdom of Jordan and the State of Israel at the end of the War of Independence. Jews moved into the houses that the State of Israel controlled, Arabs stayed in the Jordanian-controlled homes, across the street from each other. The guide tells a sweet tale about a nun's false teeth dropped from a blacony across the border and returned to her through the cooperative efforts of the Jordanians and Israelis, but I have heard it told by another guide about Notre Dame, where it makes more sense (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/even-licensed-guides.html ).
• Then it was down into the Hinnom Valley, around "Mt. Zion" (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/jerusalem-cable-car.html ) to the Kidron Valley, and to the bottom of the Mount of Olives, where Jewish burials go back over two and a half millennia. It is a place of legends and stories about Absalom and Napoleon, Ovadia MiBartinura (who reported on the grinding poverty of Jerusalem Jews in the 14th century), and a family of cohanim (priests) whose name (mentioned twice in the Bible) is still barely visible on the mausoleum where generations of them were buried over 2000 years ago.
• On a Hebrew Jerusalem tour there are always people on who add their own experiences. "My grandmother lived in [the Arab village of] Silwan," said one woman, and we heard how Jews came from Yemen to Jerusalem and lived first in caves near the (then small) Arab village, staying among Arab neighbors until the War of Independence.
• On the 50 NIS note is the fourth paragraph of Agnon’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1966/agnon-speech.html ) about his relationship to Jerusalem. The guide read it to us. I don’t know who thought to put this on a banknote, but I thank that person, too.
• (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/haas-and-goldman-promenades.html describes the continuations of the Sherover in either direction.)

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Art and Pasta

• Each year, Jerusalem holds an Italian Festival, draped in Italian colors and bright with music, food, and good humor. They call it Art and Pasta.
• In the piazza next to the Italian Museum crowds sample the pasta of three Italian chefs or eat Mediterranean-but-not-Italian wraps from The Coffee Shop across Hillel Street. Commedia dell’Arte actors stroll and dance among baby strollers, children, young parents, grandparents, teenagers, tourists, locals, and everyone else.
• When night falls, slides of Italy illuminate the screen at the back of the small amphitheater in between concerts by a musician of strange instruments (funnels, saw, broom, balloon, and more). A boys’ group sings Italian lustily. A klezmer band performs on the balcony. Children make pasta crafts. (See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/unexpected-february-entertainment.html )
• Inside the small but excellent museum (http://www.jija.org/ENGLISH/JIJA/Museum/Museum.html ), along with permanent and changing exhibits, is the gorgeous Conegliano Synagogue (http://www.jija.org/ENGLISH/JIJA/Synago/synago.html ), transported from Italy in 1951. A sign on museum’s side reminds us that the Jews of Rome have their own version of the liturgy, developed in their community, which was hundreds of years old before Rome morphed from republic to empire. The synagogue has an active congregation and is sometimes also used for lectures., which is how I know that the pews are as uncomfortable as benches designed for human sitting can get.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Fantastic Animals

• Fantastic animals have emerged from rock in Jerusalem parks, the art of one sculptor or more, paid or not – a mystery. One is in Independence Park, very close to Agron St. Another is in the park on Elazar HaModai, next to Beit Elisheva. (http://www.e-map.co.il/eng_index.asp will help you find these.)
• http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/frogs.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/two-horses.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/gazelles.html have more about Jerusalem animals live and fantastic.
• (As I write, an expert on the radio is talking about the danger of a large earthquake. Generally, he says, there is a major earthwuake in the area abiout every 90 years. See http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/water.html about the advice I am following.)

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Fountains

• Like everyone respectful of dry air, I carry a water bottle. ( See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/water.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/water-on-jerusalem-day.html ) I’ve learned the location of drinking fountains where I can refill it: the playground at Kikar Magnes, the small plaza at the corner of Ussishkin (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/jerusalem-street-poetry.html ) and Narkis, the shaded park on HaGdud HaIvri, the landscaped expanse between the King David and the Lion Fountain.
• The Lion Fountain itself is dry. A guide said that a taxpayer sued the city, complaining that water in that fountan, across from the Bell Park and the Scottish Church, was being used improperly for laundry. He took it to the Supreme Court. And won.
• Children used to splash in its beauty. Now it is just undistinguished sculpture.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Montefiore's Windmill

• Who paid for Montefiore’s windmill? (See http://www.jr.co.il/pictures/israel/jerusalem/jer055.htm
  for several pictures.)
• In 1836 Lady Judith Montifiore kept a journal of her journey with her husband, Sir Moses Montefiore, from England to the Land of Israel. It’s full of surprising descriptions of travel through Europe, communities along the way, and Jewish communities 180 years ago in what is now the State of Israel. A savvy publisher could sell a good many copies, but for now you can find it only in a rew rare book collections.
• From the journal, it is clear that her husband gave large amounts of money to Jewish communities often for projects to provide employment. The story goes that he had the windmill built outside the walls of Jerusalem both to provide employment and to lower the price of flour. It seems, though, that he did it with money contributed by Judah Touro from New Orleans.
• Did the windmill provide employment? Did it ever grind grain? For a long time it was thought that the Windmill never worked, but in fact it does seem to have been operational for several years until a new steam mill, in the German Colony less than half a mile away, undercut its prices.
• For a wonderful song about Moses Montefiore see http://www.bus.ualberta.ca/yreshef/jnf/jerusalem/jersong/montifiore/montisong.htm where you'[ll find a rhymed English version of the lyrics and a link that lets you hear Yehoram Gaon singing the Hebrew version.
• From the overpass near the Cable Car Museum you get a good view of the windmill. See http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/jerusalem-cable-car.html
• See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-jerusalem-neighborhood.html http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/windmills_19.html

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Jerusalem Cable Car

• The arrow on Hevron St. says, "Mt Zion Cable Car." Don’t get your fare ready! It points to the Cable Car Museum. Walk back a little towards the windmill and go up the ramp to the middle of the overpass. From there you’ll have a good view of the cable, running from the old eye clinic building to Mt. Zion (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/on-walls.html ). Right up against the building at this end of the cable is the car. The cable is new, but the car is the one used to evacuate the wounded and to supply Mt. Zion in the War of Independence. Generally the museum is open by appointment (02-627 75 50).
• The wheel and gears for winching the car back and forth are in place. Until 1967, the mechanism was maintained in working order "in case it was needed again."
• The museum includes photocopies of the military forms setting up the project and assigning the engineer. An army runs on its paperwork.
• The photograph of the engineer, Uriel Jefetz, made me think how happy he looked to have a technical problem worth solving.
• See http://www.gemsinisrael.com/e_article000003947.htm

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox