A Little House In Bakah Jerusalem

"Step this way to the future," the guide said. He was actually directing us to move in front of the rightmost panel of Marc Chagall's marvelous tapestry he created for the Knesset aka the Israeli Parliament Building. The large middle panel depicts the Jewish past, the left panel is the present, and the right panel is the future. It's mostly green-the future, that is.

But the guide may as well have been describing modern Israel. I don't know the exact statistics, but Israel has massive ...

(Day 9, Jerusalem) So, 4:15 a.m. came around again. This time, we really did drag ourselves into the darkness. By 5:00, we were at Masada, heading up the appropriately named Snake Path, a hint of light spreading slowly from behind the Jordanian mountains on the far side of the Dead Sea. The climb was grueling and often steep. It was already warmish, and we got a good workout indeed. Around the 600th step, we paused (again) to see the sunrise (a rarity for me), which was lovely. In under an ho...

(Day 10, Jerusalem) Our first full day in Jerusalem, and the plans called for us to make the most of it. We had already prearranged for a full-day guided tour of the walled Old City of Jerusalem on the recommendation of an Israeli friend, Malka. A cab ride took us to what is (really) called the Dung Gate, the closest--out of seven in total--to the Western (formerly Wailing) Wall, the "Kotel" in Hebrew, the holiest spot in Judaism. There we found our guide Jack, a friendly sixty-something Brit...

(Day 11, Jerusalem, Friday 5/29) On Shabbat (Sabbath: sundown Friday to sundown Saturday), Jerusalem, steeped in religion, pretty much shuts down. No public transportation (although there are taxis), traffic is extremely light, and you'll be lucky to find a few restaurants open, let alone any museums or other sights in Jewish West Jerusalem. So we had already planned our escape to an Arab suburb for Shabbat (tomorrow). But it only occurred to me belatedly that the Shavuot (Pentecost) holiday ...

(Day 12, Jerusalem & Abu Gosh) Sabbath in Jerusalem: a good opportunity to get out of town. First, though, we took my friend David's advice and headed to some of the most religious neighborhoods in this very religious city, to see what it looked like at its extreme. The streets of the neighborhood were actually physically blocked off by police gates and other obstacles to prevent any traffic from passing through and violating the strict rules of the Sabbath. (In the past, disputes over th...

(Day 13, Jerusalem) Sunday is a workday in Jewish Jerusalem, so it was back to regularly scheduled programming: sightseeing, in what is called the National District, a hilly ridge in West Jerusalem, where national institutions and government offices are located. We started at the Israel Museum (passing through the usual security and weapons check--did I mention we had to do that at the movie theatre, too?). Although the main exhibits were closed for renovation, we wandered through the rest. F...

(Day 14, Jerusalem, Monday) Bus route 99, a red double-decker that is open-air on top, makes a big circle around Jerusalem. It kind of screams "tourist," but we thought it would be a good way to see the city, hit a number of spots, and save on cab fare. So we went to the nearest stop, the Haas Promenade (the "Tayelet"), which has a sweeping view of the city from the south, and caught the bus. The driver provided earphones for the recorded audio portion, which was offered in a choice of eight ...