A pretty church in a pretty blue sky, for SkyWatch Friday.
That's the flag of Romania flying.
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Let's let Aviva Bar-Am tell the story:"You may find Mea She'arim a strange location for an Orthodox Patriarchate. However, by 1927 when the Romanian Church was anxious to gain a foothold in Jerusalem, the choicest sites inside the Old City walls had already been taken.
Instead, it bought property on Rehov Shivtei Yisrael, which was close to the Old City and nearly empty; only later did the street fill up with haredim.
Stand back to look at the reddish tint of the Patriarchate's beautiful stone structure and to note its stately lines. The entrance to the church is hidden around the corner behind the gas station, a gesture to the area's religious residents."
Haredim refers to ultra-Orthodox Jews.The Toledot Aharon group are among the most zealous of the haredim.
In the 1970s they built a yeshiva right across the street from the Romanian church. Oi veh!
In order not to see the two crosses, they built a windowless wall right in front of the facade of the yeshiva.
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At least that is what an older guidebook says.
When I walked there last week (for the first time), the Toledot Aharon yeshiva was undergoing some new construction.
Maybe things are changing . . .
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