November 11 remembering

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For Armistice / Remembrance / Veterans Day let me show you where some of the soldiers of the Great War are buried or memorialized in Jerusalem.
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At the outbreak of the First World War, Israel (then called Palestine) was part of the Ottoman Empire, and it was not entered by Allied forces until December 1916.
The advance to Jerusalem took a further year.
The Turks surrendered the city to British General Allenby (but first to two British army cooks) in December 1917.
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The Jerusalem War Cemetery is the British military cemetery on Mount Scopus.
Of the 2,515 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery, 100 of them are unidentified.
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For more about this beautiful place, see my posts under ANZAC.
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On Mt. Zion, in the backyard of Bishop Gobat School, under lock and key, is the Jerusalem Protestant Cemetery.

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It was owned by the British and German religious congregations and contained the graves of 114 British soldiers, buried from March to December 1917 by the enemy, and then, until February 1918, by the British forces.
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(Many famous Christian civilians are buried here as well.)

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The Protestant cemetery even has this (enlarge the photo if you can read German) for 15 members of the local congregations who joined the German-Austrian Wehrmacht and lost their life during World War I.

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In the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot, you will find (if you know what to look for) a small park in front of a playground.

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The Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission was set up only toward the end of World War I. Before they starting making centralized and uniform cemeteries, it was common for their soldiers to be buried near the battlefield where they fell.

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So, as Yad Ben-Zvi Walking Tour Guide explains about these markers shown in the photo above,

"In World War I, the bodies of 290 Turkish soldiers were buried nearby in a common grave. Between July 1918 and June 1920 Indian soldiers serving in the British army were interred close to the common grave of the Turks.

They were buried in two different common graves since 31 of them were Muslims and 47 were Hindus, Sikhs, and Gurkhas.

The tombstone over the Muslim grave bears an inscription from the Koran, while above the other common grave is an inscription in Sanskrit.

The names . . . are recorded in the chapel of the British cemetery on Mount Scopus."

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Sigh . . . so many young men, sent from far corners of the world to fight and die and be buried in the Holy Land.

Let us remember them.

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Life in the Old City

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I was shocked to see this in a narrow lane in the Christian Quarter of the Old City.
(Actually all the streets of the Old City are narrow.)

Once I showed you some of Jerusalem's wall anchors by which steel rods INSIDE the old buildings pull the walls together so they will not collapse.

But this in the photo above is the opposite. The buildings are being pushed apart from the outside.
Rather disconcerting to walk below. Or to live in.
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Quarries in Israel

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A quest for quarries today, for ABC Wednesday.

First, let's see two ancient masonry stone quarries in Jerusalem.
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The photo above was taken underground during the Jerusalem Light Festival, hence the eerie blue color.
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This is the huge quarry beneath the Old City from which Herod the Great took the "Herodian stones" needed to renovate the Temple and its retaining walls, including the Western Wall.
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We call it Zedekiah's Cave, but, as a fascinating article in The New York Times says,

"For the Freemasons, the cave is definitely Solomon's quarry, making it one of the most revered, perhaps the most revered, site of their international secret society. The organization considers King Solomon the first Freemason, and its tradition of doctrines, passwords and symbols derives from the building of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. In the absence of the Temple, Freemasons revere the quarry, and they hold an elaborate ceremony inside the cave once a year. "

This thousands of years old quarry was found when I worked at a salvage dig of a Canaanite cemetery.

Today the area is covered by the awful Holyland Park residences.

Moving on to modern quarries, here's one in the Givat Shaul neighborhood.

It looks like the cement mixers fill up on site and drive out to their construction site.

Today the apartments and yeshivas have come right up against the old quarries.

The area used to be Dir Yassin . . . .

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Further north, toward Haifa, this quarry is biting into Mount Carmel.

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The Jerusalem Post reported in 2008 that our Minister of National Infrastructures "warned that there would be shortages in raw materials by 2020. There are currently 80 working quarries in Israel, and about a thousand which have been tapped out and are in need of rehabilitation. However no new quarry has been approved by the national planning council in the last 14 years."
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But my favorite quarry photo is this memory of the great five days I lived in the village of Darajat, studying Arabic.

(For more about it, see under my label Darajat.)

Our Bedouin hosts took our small group up the mountain for a hike and to see the quarry in the Negev desert where they work.

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Hope you don't have dust in your eyes after looking at all these quarries. Shalom!

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Mamilla Mall by night

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For the weekly That's My World tour, let's stroll down Jerusalem's Mamilla Mall at night.

It is so lit up that I never used the flash.

A bride and groom were walking with some friends.

Behind them, a "pillar of fire," if you needed warming.

"Little Red Riding Hood" by Sara Knoll.

Not often that you see a didgeridoo in Jerusalem.

Behind the busker is the Old City wall, Jaffa Gate, Tower of David.

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Before there was the mall, there was the church.

It is an impressive sight tucked in between all the stores.

I think it is the French Hospice of St. Vincent de Paul.

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The mall by night is quite nice.

Of course, I never go into its fancy stores. Taking photos is more fun--and it's free!

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The Global Day of Jewish Learning -- today!

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Every day is supposed to be a day of learning.
But today, November 7, is the first-ever Global Day of Jewish Learning, meant to unite Jews from across the globe in celebration of our shared culture, texts, and history.
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With the motto "One world, one people, one day," Jews in hundreds of communities in 45 countries are going to sit together in groups or in families to study and discuss "The Big Questions."
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The Global Day of Learning is a project of the Aleph Society, which has drawn many organizing partners into the effort.
Today is the day that Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz will bring to completion his monumental commentary on the Talmud.
A Time magazine article explains his work and his surprising life story.
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Photo from the Aleph Society website

Rabbi Steinsaltz is a world-renowned teacher, philosopher, social critic, and author.

He is a champion for open access to Jewish learning, and his life's mission has been to give Jewish texts and learning back to the Jewish people--in a way that we can understand it.

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Click here to learn what's inside the Steinsaltz Center in Jerusalem pictured above.

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If you'd like a sample shiur (lesson) in English, see this video of the Rabbi teaching the Talmudic page about Tu B'Av, when the girls of Jerusalem go to dance in white in the vineyards.

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Bridge shadows and trams

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Shadows of four of the 66 steel cables on Calatrava's Bridge of Strings.

(My gift to Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday.)

Catenary masts have sprouted all along the bridge.

The overhead wires were just recently electrified.

Now we anxiously await the first test of the new trams going over the bridge on their own power.

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A photographer at work (or at play) in the shadow of the bridge.

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(The bridge being for Louis la Vache's Sunday Bridges.)
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The 119-meter bridge mast towers over the parked, still-not-ridden-in trams.
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More shadows! Of both bare and leafy trees waiting to be planted along the route of Jerusalem's light rail.

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Hopefully the system will open in April and we will get our first pictures from inside the carriages.

Meanwhile, these new signs of progress are exciting!

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A dog operator and his dog

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I go fruit-and vegetable-shopping at Jerusalem's open air market once a week, but this was my first time to see a police dog patrolling the shuk.
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The Border Guard policeman saw a pile of bagged refuse on the ground inside a little side alley and took his dog there to sniff around.
The team was so intent on doing their job professionally and quickly that the man did not hear my request for photo permission the first time. I had to run after them and ask again in a louder voice.
He was nice to stop a second and agree to a photo, and even had the dog sit down so I could get the "Police dog" sign.
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I was shocked last week when the Al Qaida of Yemen mailed a concealed bomb to the Chicago synagogue in which I grew up.
Actually the package was addressed to the small congregation of gay Jews which now shares our building by the lake.
Just imagine if the box had arrived and exploded and killed and destroyed. Oi!
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Seeing the police dog sniffing for bombs in the Mahane Yehuda market makes me feel even safer these days.
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I share this dog with Camera-Critters Sunday.
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Shiny new trams!

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Old-fashioned laundry drying on the line is reflected in the futuristic window of Jerusalem's brand-new tram, especially for James' Weekend Reflections.

This week I was excited to suddenly see several trams parked next to the Calatrava bridge. My first time to meet them!

The country's first light rail is to start operation in April 2011.

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This photo is a mess, but conditions were difficult [but not as difficult as with the other tram, which still had opaque coverings stuck on all its windows].

The trams were parked right next to each other, so you can see the windows of the second one through the windows of the first one.

The bright sun was shining straight into my eyes, but it does highlight the seats, still wrapped in bubblewrap.

Orange and yellow mesh netting was strung along the tracks, I couldn't get right up to the window; and so you have the netting, a wall, me, and apartment buildings reflected.

Guards were guarding the trains; I couldn't get any closer.

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CityPass Jerusalem Light Rail Transit states that the initial rolling stock are to be 46 Citadis 302 100% low-floor units manufactured at Alstom's Aytré factory in France.

Each train will include two carriages, meaning a total capacity of 228 passengers.
Each carriage has 56 permanent seats and 8 folding seats.

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Oi veh! That comes out to 4 passengers per square meter!

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White on blue

The Jerusalem sky is still a bright blue, as seen through Calatrava's Bridge of Strings.
Rain and winter just don't want to come.
T-shirt weather continues. Today was hot, windy, and a too-dry 10% humidity.
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Shalom to all the SkyWatch Friday folks.
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The Mount of Rest---Har Hamenuchot

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The white bits you see on the two slopes are only part of Jerusalem's largest cemetery, opened in 1951.
As the official municipal burial ground, Har Hamenuchot accommodates free burials for Israeli citizens, although the choice of plot is left to the municipal chevra kadisha (Jewish burial society) and if a spouse wishes to be buried in the adjacent plot, he or she must pay for the second plot.

An elderly neighbor died Tuesday night, in her home, in this moshav (collective agricultural village) of which she was a founding member.

She was a real pioneer in 1949, when this future lovely village was but a barren hill.

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From the Chevra Kadisha vehicle the covered body is brought by stretcher into the "beit hahesped." (In Hebrew this means, literally, the house of eulogy.)

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The name of the deceased and the time of the funeral is written in red on the digital sign above the beit hesped (funeral chapel).

I read that in busy times each funeral is given a half-hour slot.

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The funeral chapel is simple: one long bench with fold-up seats along the side wall for men and one along the opposite wall for women, a lectern, and a bier on which the stretcher is placed.

(The man on the bench, one of the Orthodox Jews who lead the funerals, was waiting for the mourners to arrive.)
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When it was time, the body was carried in, the son said the Kaddish prayer, and the collar of his shirt was torn as a sign of mourning.

The men of the family carried the stretcher back to the van, Kaddish was said again, and then the body was driven as close as possible to the grave site while we walked to the plot.

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More prayers, very moving actually.

Then the moment of truth when the body is laid in the grave. We in Israel do not bury our dead in a coffin. It is a very striking realization of the fact that from dust we came and to dust we shall return.

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The men who are willing and able take turns returning the loose earth into the open grave with a turia ( hoe).

A temporary sign with the deceased's name is stuck in the ground.

After the official part of the burial, each one comes close and puts a pebble on the fresh grave as a final goodbye.

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Yes, the founding generation of the moshavim and kibbutzim and of the State of Israel is passing on.

I thank them for their dedication, hard work, and idealism that gave us a home.

May they rest in peace; and may we, the living, also know peace.

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Fish and newspapers

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This poor guy was staring at me, at eye level, at Mahane Yehuda market.

The fishmonger even has his own card, David Dagim Ltd. [dagim = fish].
There are many fish sellers in the shuk but David seems to be the favorite.

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Look at those newspapers hanging on a hook and remember what they always say about yesterday's newspaper: It's only good for wrapping dead fish.

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P is for pillbox

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P is for pillbox in this contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Jerusalem still has about four old pillboxes. The one above is on Hebron Road.
They are remnants of the British Mandate Period, and someday Jerusalem may turn them into mini-museums.
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The British built pillboxes throughout Eretz Israel during the Arab riots of 1936-39.
These guardposts were meant to protect the main roads.
They were made of concrete and had a steel door, a slit from which to fire, and a flat roof.
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This modern structure outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center is meant to recall the old pillboxes and the struggle.

This more recent pillbox in near the Jerusalem neighborhood Gilo, overlooking the West Bank village of Beit Jalla.

It is no longer in use.
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This pillbox stands on the Israeli side of the checkpost beyond which begins the section of the West Bank administered by the Palestinian Authority.

Israelis may not pass through.

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For a little more on our pillboxes you can see 21c Israelity Blog and a Ynet article.

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The tram, the tram!

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I really got a charge out of this scene today!
The electric company had two trucks on the Herzl Street tram rails, and in each cherrypicker were two workers.
They were connecting the overhead wires that will power the new tram. Yay!
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It was so exciting that I got off the bus midway to the shuk in order to take pictures.
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A few hours later I was on the bus coming back from the market.
Suddenly I looked out the window and saw empty light rail cars sitting on the tracks!
My first time to see them in person!!


Are they not sleek and beautiful?!

They were parked just beyond the Bridge of Strings.

I suspect they will be tested on the bridge tonight, maybe, I hope . . .

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Two weeks ago, starting at midnight, a tram went on the bridge for the first time, but not on its own power.
The Jerusalem Post reported that "A specially-designed truck pushed the first train over the span, allowing exact measurements to be taken. They were 'static tests,' allowing the engineers to measure weight and stress on the structure.

It took a full two hours for the first train to cross, as engineers stopped every meter to take readings and make sure all was running smoothly."
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With the electric lines that were hooked up today, the next trial run can be dynamic tests instead of static tests.

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That's today's progress for That's My World Tuesday.
P.S. On the truck in the first photo is written chashmal.

I posted once about how modern Hebrew adopted this word from the prophet Ezekiel's mystical vision.

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Four-legged public transportation

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Public transportation for the tourist public

It is a must for tourists in Israel to take a ride on a donkey or camel.
With lots of photos taken, of course.
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The City Daily Photo group's Theme Day is about Public Transportation.
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants .

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Speaking of camels, want a good laugh?
As part of a new publicity campaign, our Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs released three video clips gently mocking French, Spanish, and English reporters for their alleged assumptions about the Jewish state. The idea is to teach Israelis traveling abroad or meeting foreign visitors how to counter stereotypes and spread good PR.
For the funny camel video, click on Clip 3 here.
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Bridge to the Mughrabi Gate

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For the sake of Louis la Vache's Sunday Bridges, I am going to call this weird contraption a bridge.

As a result of the combined effect of an earthquake and heavy snow in 2004, the original earthen ramp collapsed. A new wood and metal "temporary" bridge was put up in 2007.

Enlarge the above photo and you will see both the old and the new, side by side.

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The ramp leads from the Western Wall Plaza up to the Mughrabi Gate.

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This gate is the only opening through which tourists and non-Muslims are allowed by the Muslim Wakf to enter the Temple Mount.

Muslims enter through ten other gates.
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Their gold Dome of the Rock is on the left of the above photo.

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On the right of the Temple Mount is the Al Aksa mosque.

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Just to the left of the ramp is the section of the Western Wall where women are allowed to pray.

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There was an induction ceremony for soldiers the night of this photo, hence all the flags and people.

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This photo from Wikipedia shows the Mughrabi (aka Morocco) Gate from the inside.

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I learn from the BiblePlaces.com blog that Jerusalem District Archaeologist Yochanan Zeligman recently addressed a letter to Israel Antiquities Authority Director-General Shuka Dorfman,

in which he told of several incidents of stones fallling from the Mughrabi Gate and warned that “a danger exists to the crowd in the women’s section of the Western Wall Plaza, as well to those who walk on the temporary bridge, should stones fall from above.”

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That is not good news.

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More:

Good before and after photos of the ramp's collapse

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"The Real Story" of the problems of Mughrabi Gate access by Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem Region Archaeologist, Israel Antiquities Authority
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And also this, the story as written by a rabbi, but his comprehensive photos let us better understand the situation around the problem of the old ramp, the present one, and a possible future bridge.

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Dean the Dragon

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Wanting to join the bloggers' bandwagon for Halloween, but what to do if Israel has no Halloween?
Well, I DO have a photo from 2009 of grandson Dean dressing up in dragon and animal costumes in the fantastic kids' playroom at the Australian Museum.
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And the mirror gave us something nice for James' Weekend Reflections.
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Happy Halloween to all of you who live in a country that celebrates it.
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