Shalom (again) from Jerusalem

We went to Yad Vashem on Friday morning but didn't leave enough time; it closes at 2 p.m. before Shabbat. After that, we returned to the Old City for lunch and walked through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Then, in a twist on the traditional Shabbat dinner, Akiva, his son Danny, and Adam and I went to Arab eastern Jerusalem for dinner at a typical Middle Eastern restaurant, called Philadelphia.

We were somewhat sorry to report to Granny that we didn't light the candles or any of that. In fact, after dinner, Danny, Adam, and I went to the movies!

As Adam said, it was a day that went from the sacred to the (moderately) profane. But it was interesting to see how "the other half"--the more secular Jews--live, even in the Holy City of Jerusalem.

And now, without further ado, your cybertour continues...

Even now, three months later, it is difficult to describe our emotions on going to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial. We know it was something we should do, but even after Schindler's List, the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and even Life is Beautiful, the topic remains a difficult one.

Here is a picture of Adam by the Warsaw Ghetto uprising memorial wall.

The museum itself was quite informative, and several groups were there with their own tourguides (we sometimes listened to them, but some of the information was drivel while other information seemed more like a call to arms). Here, a rabbi (or at least a very religious Jew) gives a group of young women a tour of the memorial museum. He had some, um, interesting views.

Not unlike the D.C. museum, this one was packed with exhibits--too much to see or to absorb in one day, certainly. Here, Adam is contemplating the museum's exhibits.

Not too far in, I realized it was too difficult both technologically and in some ways emotionally to take pictures, so I stopped and just read, and read...

But then, at the end of the museum exhibit, there was this Passover hagaddah, made by concentration camp detainees to observe Pesach correctly, with illustrations of the camp rather than of the exodus from Egypt. I thought this was definitely worthy of remembering, as it was a symbol of hope and faith, even in such difficult times. It was quite touching.

Outside the museum there were several memorials, too. Here is Adam standing by the memorial to Jewish soldiers who fought against the Nazis in the war. I was touched by the fact that, as huge as each stone was, at least a few people had reached up and put small stones atop the lower blocks (for those who don't know, it's Jewish tradition to place a stone on the headstone or marker when you visit someone's grave, to indicate that you were there and paid your respects). The blocks had to be at least 7 feet high.

Another chilling artistic memorial to victims of the camps.

With six candles total and countless mirrors, the memorial to the 1.5 million Jewish children who perished in the camps looked like it was a room filled with thousands of flickering lights. An amazing memorial.

These were two other (outside) parts of the children's memorial.

After Yad Vashem, we took a bus back to Jerusalem. Before we got to the Old City, we passed the following modern metal artwork...

...by Roy Lichtenstein, donated to the American Friends of the Israel Museum by the artist in memory of Yitzhak Rabin. Notice how big it is (Adam is to the right).

Still, as with most modern art, we couldn't help but parody it somehow, as in the photo.

The Arabic script apparently labels the Jaffa Gate. Or maybe not, but we weren't able to read it; just appreciate its beauty.

We ate lunch in Samara, a Greek-Mediterranean restaurant just inside the Jaffa Gate; it's quite unassuming but delicious. We highly recommend it. I particularly liked the Coke bottles with English and Arabic, bottled in Ramallah.

As if we hadn't taken enough pictures of the souk... But I liked how it showed the overabundance of wares.

Speaking of wares, the main reason we headed through the souk was to buy some "native" products, on which more below.

In the meantime, I liked this image of the Christian monk walking through the Arab souk.

After much wandering, we found the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

It was difficult to find and, like the restaurant, very unassuming from the outside, but inside...!

This mosaic was the first thing we saw upon entering. The photo doesn't do it justice.

We stood in the entry for several minutes simply trying to figure out where we were, based on the map in Fodor's. We still can't decide if we saw most or all of the different cloisters and shrines. It was fascinating.

One of the things we found amusing was the number of different services going on at once, and the competition among the different sects for power and control in the church itself.

Here is a picture of one of the many monks in the church.

If you have mpeg-capability, click here to see a movie and hear a cacophony of chants.

Another thing that caused tears to come to our eyes was, to be honest, the thick smog of incense. It clouded the entire church and made all our photos a bit misty-looking, as in this one, of the shrine of St. Helena.

It was a beautiful room, if somewhat hazy.

So, we left after about 30 to 45 minutes, simply in an effort to breathe.

Here is a view of a nearby church, seen upon exiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

It was also getting late, so we headed back to Akiva's.

Here's another photo of Adam at the Jaffa Gate.

Here I am with some of the souk "bargains" we got earlier that day. In my left hand is a cute little ram with a bell around its neck. I think it's symbolic of the ram Abraham found and slaughtered (instead of killing his son Isaac, as God had originally commanded), or maybe it's symbolic of the ram whose blood was supposed to be placed on the doorframes of Jewish households during the original Passover. I don't know. But as I am an Aries, I liked the toy, and we saw them everywhere.

We finally got this one for about $4, after seeing them ranging in price from $4 to $8 or more--go souk bargaining!

In my right hand is a Syrian-made box, presumably designed for jewelry, but which I wanted for tea bags. It's supposedly "hand-made by the finest craftsmen," but you see them all over in the souk, so one can only assume that they're hand-made by pieceworkers (rather than peaceworkers) who earn a pittance for each one. The willingness of the souk shopowners to bargain/haggle on the prices (we got this one for $40, or about half of what was originally asked), also led me to question the whole process, but in the end I got the box I wanted, so I'm not complaining too loudly!

After our day at Yad Vashem and in the Old City, we spent the evening with Akiva Ilan and his son Danny. This is a picture of them at Philadelphia, the restaurant in Arab eastern Jerusalem where we had "shabbat" dinner.

Monica, Akiva, and Danny at Philadelphia Restaurant.

Getting to the restaurant was an experience in itself. Adam and I had gotten pretty good at navigating around our little corner of the city, but by foot. Suddenly we were in a car with Akiva, who rarely drives and who didn't exactly remember where the restaurant was. Once we got to eastern Jerusalem, he even asked some Israeli Arabs (aka Palestinians) where the place was--in Hebrew, and they answered--also in Hebrew. It was an eye-opener for me on Arab-Israeli relations. A far cry from the intifada tales and news accounts on which I was raised.

Adam, Monica, Danny, and Akiva at Philadelphia (the waiter was the first person who didn't have to be told he needn't hold the camera directly to his eye!).

As you can see, there were tons of small dishes, but it was a huge meal, and we barely finished half of it.

Monica and Adam, as photographed by Danny, at Philadelphia.

Yours truly (a fairly decent photo, if I say so myself; taken by Danny, who was practicing with the camera).

After dinner we dropped off Akiva and headed to a mall about 20 minutes away to see a movie. We had hoped to see Shakespeare in Love, which Adam and I hadn't yet seen, but it was playing in a theater that was closed for Shabbat.

So instead we went to see A Bug's Life. It was in English with Hebrew subtitles, and people laughed a lot, but Danny seemed a bit disappointed--I don't think he realized it was a Disney flick, and he didn't seem as excited about the fact that it was entirely computerized (if he even knew that).

Adam and I were fascinated by the idea that a mall would be open and thriving on a Friday night in Jerusalem, but I guess that was just another preconceived notion of the Holy City that we had to throw out the window!

So ended Day 6 (March 19).

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Last updated on July 10, 1999.