Archive | Jerusalem
VIDEO/AUDIO: ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ song born today 45 years ago!
Today we mark 45 years from the first release of the song Jerusalem of Gold (‘Yerushalayim Shel Zahav”) The song, originally performed by Shuli Nathan, was born when the former mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kolleck, requested a song about Jerusalem, to be performed at the Israeli Song Festival in 1967, held on Israel’s Independence Day, to mark 15 years of the state of Israel.
Kolleck requested the song from Gil Aldema, one of the Festival’s producers, and Aldema asked Naomi Shemer to write the song. Shemer was shocked by the significance of the request and said she couldn’t do it under pressure. “I told her, you know what? You don’t have to do it. But if you feel inspired, write it,” Aldema recalls. “That way I knew she would write it.”
Hollywood Loves the Holy Land: American Voices in Israel Brings Stars for Visit
Sitting with AnnaLynne McCord at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel on Sunday morning, the blond actress comes off as a regular person with some well thought-out opinions, and not as a Hollywood ‘celebrity’ one would expect. McCord is currently known for her role as Naomi Clark in CW’s 90210.
While her manager insists that she eat her omelet, McCord is excited to share her experience and perspective of Israel in what is her first trip to the country with the organization “America’s Voices in Israel.” McCord explains that she was not afraid to travel to Israel and was excited to meet the people who experience the country every day.
“I’ve heard a lot against Israel back home, but I always knew there was a lot more to this country than what I’ve read and seen in the news,” McCord told me.
“The first question that I’ve always thought about in regard to the conflict here is how much of it is a holy war?” McCord explains that she knows the Biblical history of the region well, having “grown up with the Bible” and believes that there is “no room for the world to judge Israel or anyone in this conflict.”
“I believe there are always three sides to the story — your side, my side and the truth,” said McCord. “Until you actually live in someone else’s shoes, you can never judge.”
“With all that negative coverage about Israel, I was amazed by the resilience, human spirit and optimism that people here have facing daily turmoil. You have to come see Israel for yourself to understand this — that people can still have an amazing existence, with love and patriotism, despite all the odds.”
The one characteristic that McCord says she particularly likes about Israelis is that “they don’t care what you think, what the world thinks. As an actress, I definitely relate to that because people write mean and nice things about me all the time. I do what I have to do, no matter what the critics say. Israel does the same.”
McCord and her acting colleagues, among them Omar Epps (House), Zach Roerig (Vampire Diaries) Paget Brewster (Criminal Minds), Mekhi Pfifer (8 Mile, ER), Paul Johansson (One Tree Hill), Holt McCallany (Lights Out), Holly Robinson Peete (Hangin’ Out With Mr. Cooper) were particularly impressed with Israel’s state-of-the-art facilities for special needs/disabled children.
Peete wrote that “this country is so ahead of ours when it comes to caring for children with autism…I’m inspired.”
The itinerary for the trip included visits to Jerusalem’s Meshi, a rehabilitation center and school for 196 children with severe neurological and muscular disabilities who receive the world’s top treatments, and the Na’Alagat Center in Old Jaffa, a theater group made up of deaf and blind people who are Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze.
For others, the trip reinforced the spiritual dimensions of the Holy Land. Omar Epps, on his second visit to Israel with America’s Voices in Israel, explained that it was the country’s “rich history, culture, people and energies” that drew him back. “For me personally, the spiritual significance of this place hits me to the core. The fact that the world’s three ancient religions meet in one place makes the holiness of this land so unique,” said Epps. “I’m bringing my kids here next time to experience this land together with my wife.”
Even the Dead Sea took on religious significance when Mekhi Phifer tweeted jokingly before the group’s descent to the world’s lowest elevation on land that he “might even get baptized in the Dead Sea.”
Visits and tours to Masada, the Golan Heights, Haifa,Tel Aviv, Jerusalem’s Old City and Christian sites including Mount of Beatitudes, Tabgha, Geinosar and the Church of Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem also left strong impressions on the stars.
“I would love to come back here to film a movie someday,” said Holt McCallany, Hollywood actor, writer and producer, who starred in Fox’s Lights Out.” It was amazing to be able visualize all these stories and settings,” he told me.
At the farewell dinner, Mekhi Phifer thanked Rabbi Irwin Katsof, director of America’s Voices in Israel for organizing the week-long trip from May 7-13. “It’s been a privilege to be enveloped in your culture,” Phifer emotionally told Katsof.
Rabbi Irwin Katsof has been involved in bringing missions to Israel for the past 20 years and today directs America’s Voices in Israel which was founded in 2001 and is part of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. He is a businessman, educator, author and successful entrepreneur, who has brought the likes of Starbucks founder, Howard Schultz and Lady Margaret Thatcher, and others, to Israel.
Katsof explains that his missions entail a no-strings attached rule. “The groups are presented with the facts, and have the opportunity to meet with Israelis across the spectrum. They come to their own conclusions about the country.”
May’s trip was a cooperative effort between the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, Ministries of Tourism and Foreign Affairs, El Al Israel Airlines and the Jerusalem Inbal Hotel.
For Israelis who caught a glimpse of the stars, excitement ensued as requests for photos and autographs were readily answered by the actors and actresses. The more well-known of the group, AnnaLynne McCord and Zach Roerig, found themselves posing with countless star-struck teenagers at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel.
“It’s a bit overwhelming,” said Zach Roerig. “I never expected so many fans in this region of the world.”
Source: Huffington Post
Archaeological find stirs debate on David’s kingdom
Prof. Yossi Garfinkel presenting his findings in a press conference in Mount Scopus, Jerusalem.Michal Fattal
Two small containers unearthed at Khirbet Qeiyafa are believed to be the first-ever archaeological evidence of Judean ritual dating from the time of David, about the 10th century B.C.E.
Archaeologists at a controversial site in the Elah Valley Tuesday announced a discovery that should further stir up the scholarly debate over the Bible’s historical veracity.
Two small containers, one of clay and one of stone, unearthed at Khirbet Qeiyafa near Beit Shemesh, are believed to be the first-ever archaeological evidence of Judean ritual dating from the time of David, about the 10th century B.C.E.
Furthermore, the models resemble the description of Solomon’s Temple in the biblical Book of Kings, say the head of the Hebrew University expedition to Tel Qeiyafa, Prof. Yossi Garfinkel, and his associate from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Sa’ar Ganor.
The ruin known as Khirbet Qeiyafa, on a rocky slope overlooking the Elah Valley in Israel’s western lowlands, contains remnants of a walled city dating back 3,000 years. Originally the walls rose to a height of some six meters. Along the walls, which still stand three meters tall in some places, archaeologists have discovered the remains of 99 dwellings.
According to Garfinkel, Khirbet Qeiyafa is the first proof of the existence of a regional government during the time of David. This evidence is a significant counter-claim to scholars who say David’s kingdom was nothing more than a meagerly populated village in the Jerusalem area. These scholars, known as minimalists, say that in the absence of extra-biblical support, Scripture’s depiction of David’s kingdom as large and powerful cannot be accepted.
The maximalists, however, who accept the validity of the biblical description, view Khirbet Qeiyafa as the first proof of their claim that David’s realm could have been as large as the Bible says it was.
Garfinkel takes a middle position; to him, Khirbet Qeiyafa shows the existence of a regional realm that included Jerusalem, Hebron and the lowlands around Khirbet Qeiyafa.
Garfinkel told reporters that the boxes, 20 and 35 centimeters high, and which they believe contained symbols of a deity, are important because they are “identical to the object the Bible calls ‘the ark of the Lord.’”
Containers of this type, which look like model shrines, are known to archaeologists from other sites, but Garfinkel says the Khirbet Qeiyafa finds are unique because they reveal motifs known from the biblical description of Solomon’s Temple.
The clay container features a decorated opening flanked by lions and two pillars that Garfinkel says recall “Boaz and Yachin” – pillars that flanked Solomon’s Temple, according to the Bible.
Garfinkel says a depiction of three straight beams appears on the clay container, above which are three circles as well as a design apparently representing the curtain that covered the entrance to the Holy of Holies.
Above that, three birds can be discerned on the roof, recalling the sacrifice of birds in the Temple.
According to Garfinkel, the stone container also recalls the Bible’s description of Solomon’s palace and the Temple: “And there were beams in three rows; and light was over against light in three ranks” (I Kings 7:4 ).
What was inside the boxes? Garfinkel and Ganor do not think there were figurines because no figurines have been discovered at the site.
Garfinkel says he thinks these models, which predate Solomon’s Temple, show how depictions of a Solomonic-like shrine were present in the local architecture of the ancient East.
Dissenting opinion
However, Prof. Nadav Na’aman, a historian and archaeologist at Tel Aviv University, discounts Garfinkel and Ganor’s conclusions. “These are beautiful finds but they are not special in that similar ones have been found in various places, and they should therefore not be connected in any way to the ark,” nor to the Temple in Jerusalem, says Na’aman.
He says believers made models of shrines out of various materials as an act of devotion. “There was no such thing as making a model that represented a temple in another place.”
He said he found the combination on one of the items of lions and doves very interesting. “The dove is connected to a fertility goddess, and this combination hints that the model belonged to a cultic site of a fertility goddess. I think Qeiyafa was a Canaanite site that had no connection to Jerusalem,” he added.
In invoking Canaanites, Na’aman has touched on the heart of the scholarly debate. For Qeiyafa to play a role in disproving the claims of the minimalists about the meager nature of David’s kingdom, Garfinkel has to show that it was neither a Canaanite nor Philistine site.
Garfinkel and Ganor say the shrine models they have found differ from those known so far and that their design underscores a Judean connection.
But Garfinkel says he does not need the shrines to prove that Qeiyafa was Judean – other discoveries at the site do it for him. For example, out of thousands of animal bones unearthed there, none were pig bones, and no figurines were found – two elements some see as alluding to biblical prohibitions. An inscribed potsherd was also found there whose writing some archaeologists identify as ancient Hebrew.
Na’aman has a different explanation for the lack of pig bones: “The Canaanites also did not eat pork. Only the Philistines ate a great deal of pork at this time.” As for figurines, Na’aman says places elsewhere in Judea “were full of figurines.”
Minimalists also discount the inscribed potsherd, saying it is impossible to differentiate its letters from other languages at that time.
Whether Judean or Canaanite, ammunition for the minimalists or the maximalists, one thing is certain about Khirbet Qeiyafa – the slated expansion of nearby Ramat Beit Shemesh would swallow it up, endangering what Ganor calls “a heritage site of the first order.”
Source: Haaretz.com
Jerusalem demonstrators: ‘We’re proud sluts’
70 activists – mainly women – let it all hang out during the Jerusalem SlutWalk, part of an international movement to counter claim that provocative dress leads to sexual harassment, assaults
SlutWalk – the “modest” version: Some 70 activists, mostly women, took part Friday in a protest march that started from Jerusalem’s Paris Square and ended at Horse Park in the city center. Some of the demonstrators wore risqué outfits and carried signs reading “No more harassment,” “Enough – blame the rapist,” and “I’m a proud slut.”
A police escort secured the protesters, who shouted “We’re not weak!” and “We won’t be exploited!”
Despite the opposition of the city’s Ultra-Orthodox population to the march, the demonstration concluded without event, although far from unnoticed. David Davidov, an observant resident, called the SlutWalk “a provocation. The provocative clothes of the marchers – and women in general – prompts men to attack them.”
The SlutWalk movement grew out of an incident that occurred in Canada in 2011 in which a police office said that women should keep themselves safe by “not dressing like sluts.” The first SlutWalk was held in Canada, and the idea took off around the world. The Jerusalem version – organized by Or Levy, 22 – comes on the heels of two marches already held in Israel, in Tel Aviv and Haifa.
“The women here all have a common goal. We are against harassment and want to feel safe walking in the street, no matter what we’re wearing. It’s every woman’s right to feel safe, just like men feel secure,” Levy said.
“This is not meant as a provocation against the haredim,” Levy explained. “We live in this city, so this is where we’re demonstrating. We understand the sensitivity of the haredim, and the protest isn’t against them – it’s against the men who harass us daily.”
Lily, a 28-year-old Jerusalem resident who also took part in the SlutWalk, said that “too often, we hear the victim being blamed by questions like ‘what was she wearing? Why did you drink? Why did you leave the house alone so late? The society that supposedly lets you do what you want is quick to judge.”
Passers by watched the march with interest. Lital Levy agreed that the marchers were “right,” but said that she “wouldn’t join a protest like this in Jerusalem. There are people here who are really sensitive to this kind of dress, and it offends them.”
Source: <a href=”http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4224724,00.html”>Ynetnews.com
POEM: BONO leaves note in the guestbook at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel… READ IT HERE
At the end of his visit in the Holy Land… BONO leaves note in the GuestBoo of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem… ENJOY.
“Hope is like a faithful dog, sometimes she runs ahead of me to check the future, to sniff it out and then I call to her: Hope, Hope, come here, and she comes to me. I pet her, she eats out of my hand and sometimes she stays behind, near some other hope maybe to sniff out whatever was. Then I call her my Despair. I call out to her. Here, my little Despair, come here and she comes and snuggles up, and again I call her Hope.
With great thanks for great room in great hotel in great city, Bono.”
Jerusalem’s new park turns old train tracks into an urban oasis
The local version of New York’s High Line is an important link in the ring of parks going up around the capital.
An old train track on Manhattan’s West Side has been transformed into an urban-ecological paradise. Over the past decade, Jerusalem has been trying something similar with its Train Track Park, which links neighborhoods that would otherwise have little do with each other.
Architect Yair Avigdor and landscape architect Shlomi Zeevi have been busy planning and developing Train Track Park on the historic railway between the old train station near the German Colony and the edge of the new Malkha station near the Biblical Zoo.
It’s an important link in the ring of parks going up around Jerusalem. At the edges are exclusive neighborhoods like the Greek Colony, as well as less wealthy neighborhoods like Katamonim and Beit Safafa.
Along the path south of the Khan train station, the tree saplings along the route haven’t had time to grow, and the spring sun beats down hard on passersby.
“In Jerusalem there is a pleasant sense of expanses and open spaces because of its topography, and when you walk in the city you feel a lot of green,” says Avigdor. “But precisely because of the topography, the number of areas convenient to use is relatively small, and entire neighborhoods have no access to parks.”
Zeevi notes that Jerusalem’s large parks are typically in wadis – low-lying areas – like Sacher Park or the Valley of the Cross.
“They do the job but they provide an answer only on the neighborhood level. That is, you have to organize yourself to go there, and sometimes you even have to take your car. There are few places in the city where the open spaces are part of the urban fabric. Train Track Park was an opportunity for us to create such a place. The moment you’re part of an urban fabric, accessibility is an everyday thing.”
Surprisingly, Train Track Park came together as a by-product of the plan for Nahal Refa’im Park. When Avigdor and Zeevi tried to set the park’s boundaries, they climbed toward the city and looked for its drainage basin. At the top of the Nahal Refa’im basin is the Khan train station, which ceased operations in 1998.
Avigdor and Zeevi proposed to the municipal engineer at the time, Uri Sheetrit, an extension of the park that would include the train tracks’ route and reach the station. Sheetrit agreed, as did the Jerusalem Development Authority, which got Israel Railways on board.
Gestures between neighborhoods
The Ottoman rail line between Jaffa and Jerusalem was the first rail line in the Middle East. Construction began in 1890, at the initiative of Jerusalem entrepreneur Yosef Navon. It took only two and a half years. The track was used throughout the 20th century, apart from of one year during the War of Independence. (Parts of the track were taken by the Arab Legion and returned to Israel in the Rhodes agreements. ) The track served as a major artery to Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem train station was some distance from the Old City, but over the years new Jewish and Arab neighborhoods rose alongside it, including the Greek Colony, Talpiot, Beit Safafa and later Katamonim.
As Jerusalem developed, the track became a kind of municipal border that only exacerbated the economic and social polarization between the neighborhoods. The new park is based on the tracks’ original route; the width ranges between 7 and 15 meters.
The architects’ most important decision was to preserve the rails and tracks as a major design element. They superimposed on them panels of shaded concrete in a wood pattern, creating a path for pedestrians. Alongside the tracks an asphalt bike path has been paved, which connects to other municipal paths. The pedestrians and the bikes are separated by a strip of grass that provides a place to relax.
Where the park meets urban intersections or small streets, it makes “gestures,” as Zeevi calls them, in the form of tiny parks. The planners also sought to strengthen the transitions between neighborhoods by creating spaces with benches and lighting.
In parts of the park, original railway installations have been preserved, including signs and poles. The architects plan to add more signs, explaining a bit of the history.
The park is six kilometers long, and the landscape changes along the way. Splendid villas give way to housing projects in Katamonim and private houses in Beit Safafa. Eventually, the urban fabric gives way to the natural expanse of the Jerusalem Hills.
“The strip of park is simple and legible …. What changes is the surrounding landscape,” says Zeevi. “So the park’s effect isn’t limited to its physical boundaries. Its sides become active participants.”
Until a few years ago, the area of the park was “the junkyard of Jerusalem,” as Zeevi puts it. Today we’re seeing a process of the city turning toward it,” he says. “For example, in Beit Safafa … they once asked us to put up fences alongside the park. Today they’re asking us to take those fences down because they want to open cafes there. They understand the potential.”
It’s better in New York
Unfortunately, it appears the park’s design potential has not been entirely fulfilled. One can’t help but notice the low maintenance. And the “simple and legible” design sometimes comes across as monotonous.
Thus, for example, the planners decided to lay rails made of concrete imitations of wooden panels, rather than real wood. (It’s for maintenance reasons, the planners reply. ) It also seems the design accoutrements are very standard and don’t fit the unique landscape.
When discussing parks based on historic train tracks, the High Line in Manhattan is inevitably invoked. This park was built on the ruins of an old elevated track on the western part of the island. The project was initiated by vocal and energetic residents who realized its utility – and real estate value.
The project, planned by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, uses high-quality design elements – such as benches, fountains and railings – that turn the railroad track into an urban-ecological paradise. It’s no wonder that cities all over the world are trying to imitate its success. The question is: Why doesn’t Jerusalem deserve a similar level of design?
Avigdor and Zeevi note that the New York project enjoys a budget 10 times larger per square meter and a municipality that was extremely understanding of the unique design and maintenance costs.
“The Jerusalem municipality accepted many of our proposals, but today many municipalities reject even wooden benches because of maintenance and vandalism problems,” says Avigdor. “We thought it was right to create a simple system that would link up with other parks in the city. For example, we decided that the bike path would look exactly as it does anywhere in Jerusalem.”
Currently the third segment of Train Track Park is being completed, linking Oranim Junction to Patt Junction. The fourth and final segment, which will run though Beit Safafa, is in the planning phase and is slated for completion within two years.
The estimated cost of the project isn’t low – about NIS 40 million – but is seen quite worth it. Even if the park’s design isn’t perfect, it’s hard to argue with its success in developing green spaces and adding a new twist to the neighborhoods along its path.
Source: Haaretz.com