A veneer of Jerusalem stone

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July Theme Day over at City Daily Photo is titled  "facade."

 Since the 1920s, when the British (as in British Mandate) made it mandatory, all new buildings in Jerusalem must be cladded with Jerusalem stone.

 

But as we can see with this little 19th century house in the old Jerusalem neighborhood of Nachlaot,  "It's all a facade."
What faces the street is handsome Jerusalem stone, maybe recently added;  but in the shadows lurk the original thick, simple, strong building stones.

You can click once or twice to enlarge the photo and decide which side of the house you like more.
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Yad Vashem, meaning

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The siren blared at 10:00 this morning, and everything and everyone in Israel stopped and stood silently for two minutes.
Yad Vashem, the Knesset, schools, and TV all had heart-wrenching ceremonies, speeches, and testimonies for Yom HaShoah, the day of remembering the Holocaust victims, heroes, and survivors.
UPDATE:  See a video of the siren and streets.

Did you ever wonder where Israel's Holocaust memorial's name comes from?
I noticed this sign for a little 1928 synagogue in Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem some years ago, and it was an Aha! moment.
It  quotes "Vanatati lahem beveiti uvchomotai  yad  vashem."

So, I found the verse comes from Isaiah 56:5, where God says

I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument [yad] and a name [va-shem], a monument and a name better than sons and daughters;  I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

Everyone should spend some time at Yad Vashem.

The little synagogue with the marble sign is for the Jews of Yanina.
Wiki helped me with this one:
"According to oral folklore Jewish communities inhabited the site of the modern [Greek] city of Ioannina [or Yanina] as early as 70 C.E.
. . .  There was a Romaniote Jewish community living in Ioannina before World War II. The Nazis deported the majority of them (1,860) to concentration camps during the final months of German occupation in 1944.
Almost all of the people deported were murdered on or shortly after 11 April 1944, when the train carrying them reached Auschwitz-Birkenau."
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(Linking to Signs, Signs meme.)
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Knock knock

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This pretty house in the old Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem is always prettiest in the spring.

As was usual on doors in the old days, the Hebrew letters inside the star of David say ZION.
I always wanted to try one of those fist/hand doorknockers.
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Sun is going down now.  Time for the quiet of the Sabbath.  Shabbat shalom!
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(Linking to Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.)
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Crossing the Supreme Court Bridge

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The Supreme Court Bridge leads into--you guessed it!--the Supreme Court building.
The courthouse was dedicated in 1992 but the bridge was not added until 2005.
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It is only for pedestrians, who walk on the lower part.
I got off the bus at the Central Bus Station and walked over to the court in less than 15 minutes.
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The architects, Ram and Ada Karmi, explain that the location of the Supreme Court at the entrance to the city, near the Central Bus Station, emphasizes its accessibility to all Israelis.
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In biblical times, the entrance of a city is where the judges sat and judged on Mondays and Thursdays.
As Deuteronomy 16:18 says, "You shall appoint magistrates and officials . . . in all your gates . . . and they shall govern the people with due justice."
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From the bridge you can see the old Jerusalem neighborhood of Nachlaot.
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Happy "Sunday Bridges" and bon dimanche to Louis la Vache and all the meme participants.
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It's all a facade

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The shadow-producing spikey things in the concrete of this new yeshiva are, I presume, what the cladding will be fastened to the wall with.
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For sure they are good for Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday.
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Since the 1920s, when the British (Mandate) made it mandatory, all new buildings in Jerusalem must be cladded with Jerusalem stone.
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But as we can see with this 19th century house in the old Jerusalem neighborhood of Nachlaot, "It's all a facade."
What faces the street is handsome new Jerusalem stone, but in the shadows lurk the original thick and strong building stones.
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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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A lion under the bench

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After clicking on this photo you should see a shadow lion on the stone.
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This lion of Judah, Jerusalem's symbol, is for Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday.
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The benches are in a little garden inside Jerusalem's old Nachlaot neighborhood.
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I was surprised to see that armrests had been welded onto the benches.
Wonder why. Maybe to help the elderly or handicapped folks get up off the bench after they've been sitting a while?
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I hope they give the metal a smooth coat of red paint.
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Silk screen on porcelain Pictures in Stone

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Would you believe? This little (now white) house is where former President of Israel Yitzhak Navon grew up.

The plaque on his house in the old Jerusalem neighborhood of Nachlaot says so.

Here, you can enlarge it and see him, the smallest boy in the 1925 photo.

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Talk about roots!

Former President Navon is descended from Spanish Jews who settled in eastern Europe after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and later moved to Jerusalem in 1670!

His mother's side, the Ben-Atar family, came from Spain to Portugal to Morocco; and finally to Jerusalem in 1884.
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Gilboa street (with the Navon house showing on the left) shows the tell-tale convex paving, meaning a cistern is below.

The little square at the end has the opening to the cistern, now sealed off.

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Navon loved his neighborhood so much that he wrote a play about growing up there.

Bustan Sfaradi (Sephardi Orchard) became a famous musical.
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Sir Moses (Moshe) Montefiore gave money to build the Ohel Moshe section of the Nachlaot quarter, and it is named after him.

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And guess where Montefiore was born!

In Italy, in Livorno!

This I learned from Italian blogger VP. You will enjoy his post http://livornodailyphoto.blogspot.com/2010/05/moses-montefiore.html

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As photo-bloggers, you will be pleased to know that dozens of such signs now adorn the neighborhood.

"Picture in Stone" is a project of Lev Ha-ir Community Center, which gathered family photos and historical testimony from those who lived or live there.
Photos of the original settlers, who left the security of the Old City in the late 19th century for the insecurity of New Jerusalem, are attached to the walls of homes, at the entrances to courtyards, and near the historical locations of schools, hospitals, orphanages, cafés, and more.

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By the 1970s the houses and the society were disintegrating. Lev Ha-ir began a process of restoration and gentrification.

And I believe the Picture in Stone contributed much to the pride of the place.

Nachlaot is now a charming and sought-after place to live, especially for artists, musicians, and--as one funny article claims--especially for "God 'n granola-inspired young American Jews, who lend parts of the neighborhood a feel of a Torah-inflected commune."

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The special technique of silk screen on porcelain is durable but expensive.

I heard from a tour guide who was showing her family's Picture in Stone that the families paid for them.

Even better! Good for them! Thank you!

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"Tolerance and good vibes"

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In A Bunch of Benches VP posted a different view of the benches in a new sitting place in Jerusalem's old and cramped neighborhood of Nachlaot.

This is the other end of the little park.
I thought the shadows of the still-empty pergola would be fun for Hey Harriet's Shadows on Sunday.
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Sitting in the shade with your laptop might be more pleasant than inside some of the old little houses.

Interesting how the long and narrow square is higher than the sidewalks on either side.

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Nachlaot has been undergoing gentrification and is getting to be a popular (and more expensive) neighborhood. Their website, http://www.nachlaot.com/, says that "tolerance and good vibes" would best describe the population mixture.

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Wherever you are sitting or walking today, have a nice weekend.

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Approaching evening

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Click to enlarge, please.

A mother hurrying home (or to the shuk?) as the sun sets on Jerusalem's Nachlaot neighborhood.
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Stooped

An old man in tattered clothes in Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem was loading his cart with old stuff a woman had brought out to him.
To recycle?
To sell?
To distribute to those in need (even more in need than he)?
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A street of a different stripe

ABC Wednesday post. See if you can guess which letter the group is on today. ;-)

Silly stripes on this girl's pants and top! Was she in pyjamas? Was she a jailbird?
She was perched on a stone wall together with her laptop, at the end of a shaded side street in one of Jerusalem's old neighborhoods near the shuk.
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Such was her street! Wouldn't YOU too prefer to sit in the sun and savor some privacy out on the stone wall, instead of sitting behind the shutters in one of these little apartments?
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So why the tin on several of the old buildings, you say? It is the old way of keeping some of the cold and rain at a distance in Jerusalem's chilly winters. Simple and cheap.

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Kindness in silence

This old house was new to me. I discovered it while roaming the old Jerusalem neighborhood called Nahlaot.

The sign over its door, the yin yang circle and SiLENCE, is not the kind of thing you would expect to see on a Jewish street.

The kind folks there have set up a whole feeding and watering station for passing animals.

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See more animal photos and stories at the weekly meme Camera-Critters.
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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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