A retirement center with ambiance

The good thing about having our main streets torn up in preparing the rails for the tram is that I walk more (by foot is now faster than by bus) and discover more of Jerusalem.
I never knew this graceful building was there, just across the street from the ruins of the old Schneller Compound.
Turns out that it is a retirement center.

Some 50% of the residents are Anglos, I just now read.

In case you want to sign up for an apartment there, see this review or the official website of Beit Tovei Ha'ir. I don't even want to think what it must cost every month.

The six-storey complex has 220 units in various sizes. Each apartment has a balcony. Great views of Jerusalem all around.

Don't you love arches? They add a softening touch to a city built all in Jerusalem stone.

Lara Longstocking

My friend Lara, an outdoor, semi-independent cat who lives down in the woods.

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Only the back of her legs have black "stockings."

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It is Saturday night and another round of Camera-Critters is starting up. Funny how a hundred bloggers always find new and nice animals to post every week.

Weekend drivers

From the west side of our hill you can look down on this road. It winds through the Soreq Valley. On Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings during the summer it is a Mecca for motorcyclists. Click on the photo to see how numerous they are!
The sound the engines make, reverberating off the steep stony walls of the narrow valley, always seems in sharp contrast to the quiet, relaxed atmosphere of Shabbat.
Religious Jews do not drive on Shabbat and many non-religious stay around home to rest. Public transportation does not run either. So the bikers pretty much have the road to themselves.
BTW, in Israel we do not have Sunday off. Sunday is just the first day of the work week.

(Same road without zoom)

I haven't heard them much this autumn. But today is (and all week was) unseasonably warm, a sunny 24 C or 75 F, and the bikers are out in full force to feel the sun and wind on their face.

On the fringe

Seen yesterday in the narrow lanes of an old Jerusalem neighborhood near the shuk.

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Freshly laundered, just in time for Shabbat. Arba' kanfot (the "four-cornered garment") is also called tallit katan. Religious men and boys wear it all day in order to keep the commandment to wear a garment with tsitsit (fringes), written in Numbers 15:37-41 and Deuteronomy 22:12.
It is worn between the undershirt and the shirt, although some Chassidim have their arba' kanfot over the shirt.
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Shabbat began so early today. The candles had to be lit at 3:59 (always must be at least 18 minutes before sunset).
Shabbat shalom, Sabbath peace to you.
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With gratitude to the heavens

The big celestial news was, of course, at the beginning of the week when the crescent moon, Jupiter and Venus got together. I posted on Monday (different shots), too excited to wait for SkyWatch Friday.

This was the awe-inspiring beauty we all really needed to be shown, following the hard times on earth in those days.
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Let's go see what other bloggers posted for SkyWatch Friday.

Tear gas, burning olive trees, etc.

One of the hardest things for the Peoplehood thing we all talked about yesterday is when young Jewish police-men and -women have to drag young Jewish students out of a house, the ownership of which is legally contested, as happened a few hours ago in Hebron. It is so hard on all of us to see and hear such scenes. And so traumatic for both the draggers and the dragged.

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And now some of the youth are going on to terrorize the Palestinian residents of Hebron and make trouble in the West Bank and who knows what else.
Your television will soon be showing the evacuation of the "House of Contention" and whatever else happens soon. If you want to see the Israeli media coverage of it you can go to the Jerusalem Post or Ha'aretz. If you don't want to see it at all, I don't blame you.

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Thanks again to all you readers of this blog who enrich me with the ideas and feelings you share in your comments. Long live dialogue.

My thanks to you, blogger-friends

What a week this was. Last Wednesday the terror began in Mumbai. Yesterday brought a bit of closure, as Israel buried the six Jews who were killed in the Chabad House. Three of the victims were laid to rest in the old cemetery on the Mount of Olives.
It was a heart-wrenching day, with tens of thousands of mourners at the funerals.
Namlevy made an inspiring 2-minute video on YouTube, dedicated to the Chabad House hostages.
I think one is missing from the video, because her body was found later than the other five. Fifty-year-old Norma Shvarzblat-Rabinovich was a Mexican Jew who had planned to make aliya to Israel to join two of her children who had already moved here. She had spent the past few months touring India, and had planned to fly from Mumbai to Israel on Monday, the 18th birthday of her son, Manuel.
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For those dreadful three days of unknowing, we here worried and prayed a lot. For all the many there in India who were killed and wounded, of course. But in a more personal way for our Jewish brethren. Because of Jewish Peoplehood, Jews everywhere feel like family, everyone of us is responsible for the wellbeing of the other.
I don't know, maybe it is hard for normal people to understand this feeling. Normal people are spared this burden and/or blessing of being a People, a nation scattered in a big diaspora.
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I asked for your help last week and you gave it. Thank you, dear blogger-friends around the world, for all your support and counsel! It was so wonderful how the tragedy brought us all together. And the other good thing to come of all this was my getting to know the Indian bloggers, some of them right in the thick of things in Mumbai. God bless you all.

Table to Table

Table to Table is a growing Israeli organization that rescues food and distributes it to the growing number of needy people in this country.
I once joined a group of volunteers for a day of onion picking. Here I am pretending to eat a raw onion (feh!). "An apple a day keeps the doctor away; an onion a day keeps EVERYONE away."

You can see short videos at the Table to Table website.

To see other bloggers' "T" words today, click over to ABC Wednesday.

Following yonder star

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Tonight that IS my world, the sky right above the horizon! I've been out watching for hours.

My moshav/village nestles on top of a hill and on the terraced sides of the hill.
This is the view just two minutes' walk from my house, looking west.

At 5:00 p.m. this rare clustering of Venus, Jupiter, and the crescent moon was a sight to see!

The next time the three will be as close and visible as this week will be Nov. 18, 2052.
Gee, I won't be around by then . . .

By 5:33 the sky was black. 
The bright stars looked like a smiley face.

The moon got yellowish after 7:00. I think it is going to eclipse Venus--an "occultation" of Venus!

As the crow flies Bethlehem is only 25 miles from here.
With Advent just starting, this strange phenomenon in the sky could not but remind me of the Star of Bethlehem (even if I am Jewish).
Hey Christians, aren't you glad the three Magi looked up and saw, and GOT up and followed their star?
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Other bloggers present their world tonight at That's My World Tuesday. Take a look.
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Crusader circles

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Two circles in the floor, from Crusader times, 12th century.

One complete with an Advent wreath.

One with marks from water-drawing ropes of the centuries.
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The gathering of the greens

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Today, the first of the four Sundays of Advent, the Western Church begins a new liturgical year.
My friends went through our forest and in their garden to gather the symbolic greens for the Advent season.

Wishing a blessed Advent, that special time of watchful anticipation and waiting, to all our Christian friends. May it be a peaceful month leading into Christmas.

American Indian + Alaska Native Heritage Month

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Shabbat shalom, Sabbath peace to you.
Jews are not allowed to mourn on Shabbat, the day when joy takes precedence. And Chabad Chassidim are the masters of putting joy into Jewish practice, every day.
Let us therefore post something happy today.
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I was happy to learn from some USA bloggers that November is National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. And believe it or not, there is a way to justify its inclusion in a blog from the Hills of Jerusalem!
Meet Eric of Alaska! He has a one-man hairdressing place in the shopping center of the Beit HaKerem neighborhood of Jerusalem. He grew up in Alaska, met a Jewish woman in California, they married, and they made aliyah to Israel. Now he is the grandfather of little Sabras (native-born Israelis).
I love that story.

Eric is a soft-spoken, gentle gentleman. If you opt for conversation while he cuts your hair, then he has interesting information on all kinds of topics.

Don't you love the decor? Where else in Israel would you find polar bears, antlers, family photos of Alaska natives?!

If you ever need a haircut in Jerusalem, give Eric a call at 02-652-1267. You'll enjoy it.

Circles in the sky

The sky over Jerusalem last week.

Looking east from the Tower of David, we see the Old City with the tower of the (Lutheran) Church of the Redeemer and the gold Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, and on the horizon Mount Scopus and the Mount of Olives. If you enlarge the photo you can make out the arches of the Mormon university just right of the top of the white bell tower.

Same circles in the sky, but here we can see the gray rotundas of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Redeemer Church bell tower. Hebrew University Mount Scopus campus is on the horizon.

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Happy sky watching with other bloggers' new photos at SkyWatch Friday, starting tonight.

Turkey or terror?

A blessed Thanksgiving Day to all who celebrate it today.
We don't have this holiday in Israel. I daresay most Israelis have never seen a whole roast turkey and have no idea what cranberry sauce is.

Photo of a Heifer Ranch turkey by friend Kristine S. in Arkansas

Photo from Chabad.org News

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But what is weighing heavily on me and all Israelis for the past 18 hours is the chaos and drama going on (and on) in Mumbai/Bombay. Pity on ALL the dead and wounded. But many of the hostages are Israelis. And the Jewish couple pictured above, Rivka and Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, directors of the Chabad House in Mumbai, are reported to be unconscious, with terrorists controlling the house. The nanny managed to carry their child out to safety.

Rivki's father was on the radio this morning, asking everyone to say Psalms, to pray, for the rescue of all. God help them.

The horror of it all drains me of energy. I try to put it aside for a few moments and to post on some neutral or even happy subject, but it doesn't work. It is a dilemma for me as a blogger. Forgive me for often posting gloom. Can any of you give me advice?

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Sometimes . . .

Sometimes stuff saddens me.
Today I searched for information from our region about International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women. I mulled what to post, what not to post. Sigh . . .
Sometimes you just don't feel like posting anything.
Sometimes sad news comes, like this afternoon, when Patty informed us that Abraham Lincoln was taken to the hospital with a collapsed lung. Abe, the Ohio blogging friend and mentor of all, the no-holds-barred commenter, hardly able to breathe? Such shock, as if he were kith and kin.
Then I did in fact recall the long-suppressed childhood memories of my mother with her collapsed lung struggling for enough air, opening the back door of our Chicago apartment, hoping the freezing wind would give her one good deep breath.
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So friends, when we look up at the sky and breathe in the sky-air deeply and easily, let us give thanks and not take it for granted.
Be well, Abraham. You have so many friends out here.
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Other, hopefully more cheerful words and photos for letter S are over at ABC Wednesday.

Camel at the gate

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Welcome to the Jaffa Gate, last rebuilt in 1537 by the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, during the Ottoman rule.


Just inside the gate the "bagel" seller is always ready to sell you a sesame seed-covered roll with a little folded paper full of za'atar spice to dip it in.

The gate opens into the enchanting Old City of Jerusalem.

The only chance to get a photo of Jaffa Gate without tons of people is just before sunrise.

Once in a while a camel will be sitting just outside. Jaffa Gate is the only opening in the western part of the Old City wall. So what you see behind the camel is the western, Jewish part of Jerusalem, sometimes called the New City.

I didn't see the Arab camel "driver" anywhere around when I walked by. This father just started piling his kids on the (fortunately!) patient animal.

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For a short history of the Jaffa Gate you can click on BibleWalks.

And there is a really cool 3-D panoramic presentation of the gate and the Citadel here!
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(That's My World Tuesday is a growing new meme where friendly bloggers give you a free tour of their local world. Join us, it's fun!)

The first wildflower

The vegetation is still brown and dry after the long hot dry summer. And still no rain in sight.

But down in the woods the first little wildflower has just pushed through. It gives hope!

Yahrzeit of John F. Kennedy

President John F. Kennedy was killed on this day, 45 years ago. Thanks to blogger Webradio in France for posting JFK's photo today and reminding me.
Our Yad Kennedy was built in 1966 with funds donated by Jewish communities in the United States. It is 60 feet /18 meters high and has the shape of a tree stump, symbolizing a life cut short. The mountaintop memorial is made up of 51 columns, each bearing the emblem of a state of the Union, plus the District of Columbia.
At 830 meters above sea level, it is one of the highest places around Jerusalem. The panoramic view in all directions is breathtaking. It is very quiet.
Also breath-taking, literally, is the climb up the mountain. What you see in the center of the photo is my village, my starting point for the hike.

I always seem to reach the Kennedy Memorial after it has closed. But I think that inside is a bust of the President and an eternal flame.

When the shocking news of his assassination came, I was just a freshman in university in Chicago. He had been a big inspiration to us college kids. May his memory be a blessing.

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Horses at the Old City wall

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A horse standing alone in a trailer next to the Citadel of Jerusalem?!

Na . . . not a real live horse. But a bit of a mystery.
I was with a fast-paced guided tour group and could not go over to investigate.
Four hours later it was gone.

Maybe he came to visit his brother, the statue just outside the Tower of David Museum of Jerusalem History.

Here Richard the Lionhearted faces Saladin!
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More about Crusaders in the Holy Land in yesterday's post.

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To see bloggers' live animal photos you can visit Camera-Critters meme.

Knights then and now

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II bestowed honorary knighthood on our president yesterday, appointing him Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George. Since Shimon Peres is not a subject of the Commonwealth, he (thankfully!) did not have to kneel upon receiving the honor and he may not use the title "Sir."

He is the first Israeli to be knighted. Mazal tov, congratulations Mr. President!

Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom, GPO ([Israeli] Govt. Press Office) in today's Ynet

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All this business of titles and honors is quite foreign to modern Israelis.

And knights?! The last time we had knights in the Holy Land is when Europe's Crusaders came riding in, killing and plundering.
They massacred the Jews as well the Muslims of Jerusalem.
Their kingdom here was short-lived, from 1099 to 1187.

(Click to enlarge for easy reading.)

The exhibits are in the wonderful Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem.

From their website:
The orders of knights combined two Christian ideals: chivalry and chastity. Four such orders were based in Crusader Jerusalem: the Templars, the Hospitallers, the Teutonic Knights and the Knights of St. Lazarus.
The orders, each in its own way, took responsibility for the safety and well-being of pilgrims, and the treatment of the wounded and the lepers. Some of the orders provided an important military force to defend the kingdom as a whole.