Jerusalem

It’s difficult to describe Jerusalem.  It’s so many things rolled into one:  the capital city of the Jewish state of Israel, the holiest city for the Christian faithful, and Islam’s 2nd most revered site.  And to complicate matters, part of it most probably will eventually be the future capital city of the future state of Palestine.  To describe this city as complex and intense is an understatement. We left Jerusalem with various impressions with the main one being that even though there might be some agreement as to what Jerusalem was, what Jerusalem will be will take compromise and that is a concept only a few seem willing to embrace.

There are several reasons Israel made it on our itinerary.  Although we don’t classify ourselves as religious pilgrims we were curious to see the settings of the Bible stories that we learned as kids.  Because the US spends billions & billions of our tax dollars on Israel we felt it was important to include and could help us understand why.  And, it provided as close as we were going to get to a western culture for awhile and would make a good base for us to plan the last few months of our trip. 

We spent 11 days in Jerusalem out of our 20 days in Israel.   We tried to take in a wide variety of sights and sounds in order to develop a well rounded opinion of this city.  We toured The Knesset (servers a similar function that our Senate Building does).  We walked around university campuses.  We read the newspapers.  Went to the West Bank (Bethlehem), and contemplated the gigantic wall that Israel is building for the separation of the two areas.  Were speechless over the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.  Shopped like locals.  Walked Jesus’ path of crucifixion.  Saw a movie.  Walked through an Arab section of town.  Saw several of Jesus’ burial chambers.  We toured the Holocaust Museum.  We were fascinated by the Western Wall where the faithful Jewish people pray.  We marveled over the beauty of the Golden Dome of the Rock that is located next to the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. 

      

Even though we tried to have a real cross section of experiences, we found ourselves up to our eyeballs in religion; religious fashion, religious history, prayer books, prayer practices, places of worship, religious leaders, religious symbols and religious wars.  We even felt guilty as we cursed a town in which you have to keep track of which days certain sections of the city are closed, for religious reasons.

   

The obvious emotional reactions that many of the devout pilgrims have at the various sites around Jerusalem is quite moving.  It’s fascinating to watch people become so overwhelmed over a piece of rock or slab of stone.  We’re happy that it’s deeply moving to them.  While witnessing all of the blatantly devout followers of the various faiths, and knowing that there are millions of believers for each we asked ourselves two questions:  Can’t there be multiple paths to heaven and how religious does one have to be to deserve a spot there?   

 

And why fight over it?  So much of our months of travel has been about bloody struggles over religions.  Over the centuries, many populations have been forced to convert from one set of beliefs to another or pay with their lives.  To us, that isn’t what religion should be about, but it seems it has been and will continue to be a struggle for power, control and riches.  Sounds similar to governments, doesn’t it? 

We picked up the local paper in English, and were fascinated by the opinions and articles describing the current times in Israel.  Every possible opinion was expressed.  Most of them leading us to conclude that the elusive “Peace” between the Israelis and Palestinians is as far away as ever.  While we were there we read several opinion polls that indicate that both Jews and Arabs really don’t like or trust each other.  Believe it or not, we could feel that energy.  The feeling of love is not in the air in Jerusalem.

There is a glimmer of hope.  A vocal Jewish group is dedicated to a land swap in order to obtain a peace treaty.  They are a minority at this point, but are growing in numbers.  We hope they succeed.  Both Israel and Palestine should exist together with peace and security….in our humble opinions.

In the old historical section of Jerusalem (where Jesus was crucified and buried, where Mohammed had his dream, where the second Jewish temple was) there is a Jewish quarter, a Christian quarter, a Muslim quarter, and an   Armenian quarter.  On the edges of these quarters people of each faith somewhat mingle and seem to tolerate each other.  We wish this same cooperation could be extended to all of Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  We don’t understand why they both can’t peacefully co-exist.  We think they both should enjoy the historical and important area….together.

With all the Israeli soldiers and guards carrying automatic weapons our awareness was heightened as well.  Our heart rates and blood pressure were elevated pretty much all the time when we were out and about.  The security in and around Israel is the toughest we’ve seen.  Security checks and guns were everywhere -  shopping malls, coffee shops, restaurants, movie theaters, sacred sites ….pretty much everywhere.  We were amazed how we were searched on entry to most public locations. 

Our landlord for our Jerusalem stay was Reva Mann.  Reva is the accomplished author of “The Rabbis Daughter” and a very wonderful host.  We met her one night for a glass of wine and she admitted that although she doesn’t want to live anywhere else, she is scared with the situation today.  She pointed across the street from our location and told us of a suicide bomber that killed many people just a few years ago.  If she rides public transportation she thoroughly looks around to see if anyone looks like they might be a terrorist with intent to blow up the bus. 

Jerusalem could be a beacon for the world in its representation as a holy city  for all faiths.  Imagine if people of every religion could come here to pray and pay their respects without fear, and persecution.  “Some may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one“…….