New Adventures in the Old City

It was a very early morning as we left our hotel and drove to Jerusalem. The drive was beautiful as we past the picturesque sites lining the road. You could tell that this country still has very ancient roots from the way the towns are set up. Along the roads, you would see mountains of nothingness with a small village in the middle. The bare mountains lasted forever and were simply breathtaking. Nonetheless, as we arrived at our next stop, the view was outstanding. Our bus had reached Jerusalem and we were at the Mt. Scopes campus of Hebrew University. The lookout point from up on that mountain oversees all of the city. I could see the Old City walls, I could see the Dome of the Rock, I could see hundreds of the oldest and most significant buildings in regards to many religions around the globe. Jerusalem was established as the capital of the Jewish people 3000 years ago when King David and his son Solomon commissioned the building of the First Temple in the city. The city in the past few thousand years has had many changes of power from empire to empire and country to country. From 1948 until the Six Day War, 1967, Jerusalem was divided and Jordan held control of a good part of the city including all of the Old City. Now, all of Jerusalem falls under the sovereignty of the Israeli government and is open to anyone of any religion. Anyways, standing at this watch post where I could view thousands of years of history before my eyes, I had to come back to where I stood. I was in Israel, for my first time. I was in Jerusalem, for my first time. Whenever anyone does something for the first time in the Jewish religion, there is a prayer you say called Shehechyanu. Standing in that magnificent location we all joined together "Baruch ata...". Our voices sang the prayer in pleasant harmony. Following that, we did a Kiddush, blessing over grape juice. Our next stop was the Old City.

We entered the city through the Jaffa Gate. As we walked through the gate and into the heart of the Jewish Quarter, we were able to see the diversity of the Old City. We wandered through the Muslim Quarter, the Cristian Quarter, and then the Armenian Quarter before getting to the Jewish area. It was very interesting to see the multitude of religions and ethnicities that dwell in this holy area. We continued to walk through to the Jewish Quarter and got to an area of the ruins from the original Old City. Since the Old City dates back over 3000 years, it has been renovated and repaved. Nonetheless, we went down a set of stairs to a recovered area of streets that dates back hundreds of years. There was an artist rendering in this area of what it used to look like. The streets were very wide with columns lining them where shops would be. It was cool to see what the Israeli streets genuinely looked like back in the old days. Well from old to new, we walked a little bit more and had time to eat and shop in the stores that are in the Market today. The stores spanned from stupid chachkies (I totally spelled that wrong, but little gifts and things), to shirts, to artwork and even some beautiful jewelry. The Israeli handicrafts really are gorgeous so we all spent a lot of money during our free time even with many more Israeli "shopportunities" to come. As we finished up in the Old City we traveled back to our hotel to prepare for the Yom Ha Zikarone ceremony.

Yom Ha Zikarone is Isreali memorial day, similar to our Veterans Days. Given that all Israeli Citizens are required to give military service, almost everyone in the country has lost a friend or close family member in combat. The service we attended was at a community center in the outskirts of Jerusalem. It was run by BBYO's sister organization, Tzameret. It was a cool experience because I am friends with a few of them from summer programs. So we got to the community center and they set up a program for us to meet some of the Israeli teens and learn a bit about Yom Ha Zikarone and just life in Israel. It was really a good mix of cultures to get to meet each other and learn about their lifestyle. At around ten to eight we all gathered outside with more than 100 other people from the community to join us at the ceremony. At 8:00pm, to start off the observance of Yom Ha Zikarone, a loud siren sounded all across the country. Everyone was stopped for a minute of silence. We could even see a busy highway in the background and all of the cars stopped in the middle of the road. It was a very moving moment. The passion for their country and their soldiers is so apparent in this country. The service that followed was very difficult to follow because it was completely in hebrew. Nonetheless, while I couldn't understand a word that was said, the language and the tone of the evening was incredible. Well there was one thing, at least, that we were all able to follow along with. The ceremony closed with the Israeli National Anthem, Hatikvah. We all joined together and declared our pride and support in song. The evening was a beautiful and very unique experience that few get to have. Tomorrow we have a few more plans of commemorating the day and then will spend the night at Ben Yahuda Street for Yom Ha Atzmaut.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry