Dears,

Today's menu:

Israel - the Jewish state

Sukkot
Mea Sha'arim
Jewish Quarter in the Old City
Safed

Tel Aviv
Haifa

(The pictures are clickable.)

October was full of attractions and various activities for me. It started with Yom Kippur, five days later we had Sukkot (which lasted about a week). Right after Sukkot holidays I had visitors here:

my Mom		and Erwin, her husband		and Ela, Erwin's sister
We all		had a very good time here

(My Mom and Erwin live in Warsaw, Ela lives in London.) We did some intensive touring of Israel, and I will present some pictures from those trips in the present and the next reports.

Israel - the Jewish State

While the official definition of the political system of Israel is that it is a a parliamentary representative democratic republic, it is not exactly what democracy in the US or Europe stands for. At the moment I do not want to discuss any delicate issues related to Arab-Israeli relations, human rights etc. However, let me note that this country is declared to be the Jewish State which means religious Jewish State. Several aspects of the life of Jewish Israelis are regulated by religious laws - for instance everything that relates to marriage. Do you know that there are no not-religious wedding ceremonies here and if somebody does not (or cannot) be married by a rabbi, they must go abroad? Lots of young Israelis are getting married on Cyprus (there is a real industry associated with that).

All this would be really tragic, but - fortunately for many unreligious people - there are so many various streams, variations and traditions in Judaism, that there is some disorder and possibilities for arranging things. However, the demographics of the population of this country suggests that in 20 years Israel will be dominated by ultra-religious Jews with some substantial group of Muslims. Just because these two groups have very high reproduction rate with a very strong tendency of passing the religion to the next generation.

Recently I have read that by 2020 all of the Northern Jerusalem will be ultra-religious with possibly very small secular enclaves on French Hill and Mount Scopus.

Sukkot

This growth of the religious part of the society is most visible during Jewish holidays. For instance, Sukkot is the time when religious Jews have to eat (and often also sleep) in booths/huts called sukkah (plural sukkot). The sukkot are a very good indicator of religiosity of each neighborhood:

sukkot were set everywhere around,	by the houses	on sidewalks	and on the roofs
Many restaurants set sukkot for the customers

In short all of Jerusalem was sukkot-ed

The Sukkot holidays end with a Simcha Torah festival, which is the most joyful Jewish holidays, full of parades, dances and carrying Torah around .

Mea Sha'arim

One of the most religious neighborhoods in Jerusalem is Mea Sha'arim. (But remember, it is going to change: most of Jerusalem will be like this neighborhood.) This is the location of that part of the city.

When you wander randomly through the streets of Jerusalem (this is my favorite activity), and you get to Mea Sha'arim, then you will immediately notice that you are there. The characteristics of this region include

warning signs
specific stores
substantial number of synagogues and yeshivas

and also poor people and dirty streets

Since ultra-religious men are supposed to pray and study Torah only, and their wives are supposed to take care of (many) children and also earn some money, nobody there has any interest in keeping their neighborhood nice. If they do have any energy/time left, they devote it to fighting for their goals. Among those aims is making sure that all of Jerusalem lives by their (religious) laws. For instance, in a week there is a Gay Pride Parade planned. It would take place far away from religious neighborhoods, of course, but religious people do not want such an event to take place in the Holy City of Jerusalem. As a result, on Friday 11/03/06, Mea Sha'arim looked like this:

I have to admit that each visit to Mea Sha'arim is a kind of depressing for me and to improve my mood I always have to go to one of my favorite mood-enchanters: Blue Hole

The Jewish Quarter in the Old City

The most important place for Judaism is, naturally, the Western Wall:

The Western Wall is located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City (I did write on the other three quarters in my previous reports: in October, July and May). The Jewish Quarter is the smallest part of the Old City, but also it is the cleanest one. People who live there are religious, but (I think) not that ultra-religious as those in Mea Sha'arim. The central street there is Roman Cardo:

In the same region we may see the oldest walls of Jerusalem dating to the time of the First Temple (some 2500-3000 years ago):

Not so far from the Jewish Quarter, but outside the city walls, there is another place important for Judaism. On Mount Zion there is a place considered by many as king David Tomb:

David's tomb
and a synagogue by the tomb

Right above the David Tomb there is a place which, as many people believe, was the Last Supper Room.

It is essentially an empty space with Jewish, Christian and Muslim decorations

Safed

One of the most known and important (at times) centers of Judaism is Safed. Kabbalah was born here, many important rabbis lived, taught and studied here. Today about a half of the population are very religious Jews.

The town is located somewhat far from here, about 5 hours drive North, but it is worth visiting. Safed is quite nice:

Tourists are allowed into synagogues, I have visited two of them:

This is a poor city and the rent for apartments and likes is very low. This is why many artists decide to reside in this town - they may simply find cheap places to live and work in. So we have lots of tourist-oriented shops:

But also there is a lot of much better art in the town. One may visit fine galleries and workshops, unfortunately they do not allow taking pictures.

In one place my Mom was buying something, and I managed to take these pics unnoticed...
Few pics of art in public places

Tel Aviv

Many Israelis think that the real Israel is around Tel Aviv. Maybe next time I will give you more pictures of that city, today I will just show you a little bit of it. It is going to be mostly Jaffa. Jaffa is an old town and port which used to be very important in this region. However, with the growth of Tel Aviv the importance of the Jaffa port disappeared and the city lost its vitality. Eventually it was eaten by the growing Tel Aviv agglomeration. Still it is a very nice and specific part of the metropolis. Each time I visit Tel Aviv, I go first to Jaffa.

It is a sleepy, nice and charming town
with strong Muslim accents
with substantial Christian population
and with great views towards Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Sea

Right by the entry to the port,

there are Andromeda Rocks

Hm, these rocks are totally not
like the rocks on
P. G. Dore's picture...

but who knows,
maybe indeed poor Andromeda
was chained to these rocks?

In the center of Jaffa, on a hill not far from the see shore, there is a very nice park. On the top of the hill,

there is some art related to the Jewish tradition (but in my opinion it does not fit the place):
and a bridge that can make all your wishes come true

But be careful and watch what you are wishing for!

My favorite activity there is to walk from Jaffa to Tel Aviv (or back) by the see shore promenade. It is not a very long walk, but a very pleasant one. You may see there

some art		beach
Tel Aviv's skyscrapers
and some contrasts

Haifa

Here in Israel they say that Jerusalem is praying, Tel Aviv is partying and Haifa is working for them all. There is some truth in this, Haifa is an industrial city with an important port and very hard working population. This region of the country is most liberal and progressive.

Haifa is located on Mount Carmel, so there is a lot of places with wonderful views of the city, the port and the see:

The youngest monotheistic religion, Bah�'� Faith is strongly connected with Haifa. I encourage you to explore the official pages of that religious group.