Ballet Boys

An Israeli choreographer told us how he got into dancing. Although he started late, age 16, he tested into the then tiny program that lets draftees continue dance training while in the army -- recognizing how much of their career they'd miss if they had to stop for three years.

Then we watched the Norwegian film Ballet Boys. See it. One tiny aside. Towards the end, one boy moves to London to study. we hear him speak Engoish several times. Beautiful English. How do they teach English so well? Aunother: is Ballet the only profession for which success requires ruining your body?

Copyright 2016 Jane Fox

Number 9 bus

Crossing from the Central Bus Station after a day-trip to Beersheva and the Negev, I was surprised to see the number 9 bus. On the front it proclaimed Giv'at Mordehai as its destination. Good. That would take it through Rehavia. To be sure, when the man getting on after me asked whether the bus was going to Rehavia, the driver answered that it would take ong to get there. But I was already settled.

A turn left on Saei Yisrael, and I figured I'd get a tour of Sikhron Moshe on our way to Kiakh St. Instead we made a series of loops: around Romema, then Kiryat Bels, Kiyat Ganz, Ezrat Torah. I'd been to Romema, in jeans on a wet and cold winter day a few years back to retrieve a hat a tourist friend forgot in n apartment in one of the huge, many entried, apartment blocks. The other neighborhoods are similar. Eventually we reached Kerem Avraham through which I'd walked on a tour of Amos Oz's childhood sights.

Women and girls got on the bus and off at their destinations. "Did they sit in the back?" i was asked later. No, and no one hassled me.

Men and women got on, and off a few stops later. All the men were dressed in black, the women in black or dark grey, their mothers' and grandmothers' colors relegated to family photographs for now.

Eventually we turned on Strauss, continued to HaNeviim, and were on Kiakh. One black clad man remained. He got off on Ushishkin. Women and girls and men and boys in jeans got on. They have their own fashions.

The Kharedim ride the bus more than others do -- though their neighborhoods are now also full of parked cars. So each bus stop in their neighborhoods has long lists of buses, and no doubt when the number 9's ridership went down, someone, or a computer said, "We'll get lots of riders north of Derekh Yafo."

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Private Guides

• If you've done a guided tour of Israel and discovered that your choices for the next guided tour cover much the same ground, you can go around on your own, or hire a guide.
• Many sites offer English tours: for example, Ir Daveed (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/city-of-david.html ), the Israel Museum (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/model.html ), the Municipality (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/valley-street.html ). Egged's Line 99 around Jerusalem (http://www.egged.co.il/Eng/main.asp?lngCategoryID=2773 ) provides commentary in English as do the other tours run by Egged and United Tours (http://www.unitedtours.co.il/map.html ).These tours let you come to Israel on your own and pick where you want to go.
• Although you can find licensed guides on the Internet, I recommend contacting Beit Shmuel and asking to be put in contact with one of their English-speaking guides.
  972 2-620 3461 or Doron_yosha@wupj.org.il
• Yad Ben Tzvi has excellent guides, but I don't know whether the organizaiton will set up private tours. You can try them at 972 2 539 8855 or had@ybz.org.il
• Tell them what interests you: architecture, art, bakeries, crusaders, literary references, neighborhoods, nineteenth-century history, prophets, travelers to Jerusalem ...; or list things you want to see and learn about. Tell them how much you want to walk or climb and how sure-footed you are or are not.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Tiles

• In neighborhoods built between 1860 and 1950, look at the courtyard paving (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/love-and-darkness.html http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-jerusalem-neighborhood.html ). Sometimes you'll see lovely colored tiles.
• One guide said that these were moved from inside buildings when owners remodeled.
• Someone's going to offer to buy them up for very expensive American houses.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox