The Crossroads Of The Jewish Nation

I spent the weekend in Jerusalem, and had an absolute blast. I didn't go for the city, but rather for the preponderance of family and friends that would be in the city this past weekend. I hopped on the 940 intercity bus from Hof HaCarmel at 10:30 in the morning on Friday. It was sunny when I boarded the bus, but soon we were driving through a small monsoon. I was really frightened for my safety - the bus driver definitely didn't slow down or take the curves in the road any slower. The rain had tapered off by the time we arrived to Jerusalem, but it was certainly not done for the day.

My first stop on what would turn out to be a whirlwind tour was to the neighborhood of Ma'alot Dafna, an ultra orthodox neighborhood in north Jerusalem. My cousin Josh Rose is studying in a yeshiva there and I wanted to go see him before he goes home in 2 weeks. I took a northbound bus only to realize that I was the only guy on the bus not wearing the "uniform." Everyone else was clearly ultra orthodox and hurrying home to begin preparations for Shabbat. It was even stranger when I got off the bus. It was about a 2 block walk to the yeshiva from the bus stop, so I began asking around to some of the locals where I could find it. I got some queer looks, but people were nonetheless helpful and about 5 minutes later I made it to Yeshivat Or Sameach.

The dorm's at Josh's Yeshiva

We went to go get a bite to eat. Everything in the area was already closed down for Shabbat, so we took a bus downtown and got off at a falafel stand on Yafo street. We were just sitting and catching up when the strangest argument I've ever witnessed erupted right in front of us. There was a 30 something guy leaning against the wall eating his sandwich. Me motioned to an older man sitting next to me at the bar and asked him if the bag sitting next to him belonged to the old guy. The old guy responded by going utterly berserk! Either he was already spoiling for a fight, or he's a total loon. Either way it made for great theater. He started with a low dangerous voice and stayed sitting, but soon he was standing, screaming and had to be physically restrained by the guy serving the food. "You bastard. You dirty son of a bitch. Fuck you! Go to hell you son of a bitch!" They tried throwing him out but that just further enraged him. "Are you Jewish? You aren't Jewish are you?! Go back to Gaza! You should go back to Gaza! You would feel more at home in Gaza you bastard!!!" Not that it matters, but the guy was definitely Jewish. I was torn between leaving and staying to watch this train wreck in progress. I was also simultaneously translating for Josh into English. Needless to say, I have never seen something like this before.

Josh and I on Jerusalem's famous "Ben Yehuda" street

After lunch we wandered around for a while chatting, eventually finding ourselves at the Jaffa gate to the old city. It had begun to rain and the temperature was dropping. Josh and I walked through the Armenian quarter towards the kotel square, then headed over to the "Aish HaTorah" campus where he was meeting a friend. This friend turned out to be Dan Goodman, an old friend of mine of USY fame, who is now living in Minneapolis and has become much more observant than I remember him. I said goodbye to them as they left for their Shabbat plans, and then made my way down to the kotel where I was meeting another old friend, Jeff Reiser. I had about a half hour to kill so after saying the requisite שמע ישראל I got under a shelter where there was a small synagogue set up (but more importantly, a heater) and waited it out. Jeff was on a Mayanot sponsored birthright trip (think Chabad.") The services that night were quite interesting as a result, but the leaders were actually pretty good at making it accessible for the kids on the program.

Well met in Jerusalem, despite the rain and cold.

From this moment on, I basically crashed their birthright program. We walked back to their hotel together where I would spend the next day and a half sleeping in their rooms, eating their free food and participating in their programming. Richard says I'm ballsy. I just think I'm assertive. Shabbat dinner that night was great. Mountains of brisket, baked chicken, potatoes, challah, hummus and veggies, plus some gourmet desserts. Because it was Shabbat, and also because everyone was exhausted, we stayed in that night and just chilled at the hotel. I met a whole bunch of girls who go to Wash U. law, and who encouraged me to go there. I suppose I need to be accepted first.

Drying off in my ill gotten hotel room.

The hotel is located between French Hill and Mount Scopus, a fantastic location considering its proximity to the Hebrew University campus, and Eli's dorm room there. I spoke with Eli in the morning and we determined that I would tramp over to his place that afternoon whenever I was ready. Jeff a I grabbed breakfast with the St. Louis delegates and then went to a very short but otherwise very nice Shabbat morning service. It was never intended to be a normal service. The Rabbi's invited 6 girl and 2 guys who had never had a bar or bat mitzva to choose their own Hebrew names, and then performed the requisite blessing for the naming ceremony. The boys each had an aliyah at the Torah. The whole thing was over by 12:30. We had a half hour until lunch, so we headed up to the roof to take some panoramic photos of the city.

After lunch, we left for a tour of the area around Hebrew U. Honestly I could have boarded the bus with this group bound for the Negev on Monday, and no one would have been the wiser. One of the staffers even came up to at lunch to remind me that we had somewhere to be at 2:15. He had no idea I wasn't with the group. The tour was nice, and we took some great pictures of Jerusalem and the West Bank from the top of Mount Scopus, but by that time it was starting to get dusky and cold, so I broke off from my new friends and met Eli at his dorm.

The West Bank and the northern branch of the Dead Sea.

Aliza Goodman (Eli's girlfriend of many years) joined us at Eli's place that evening. I hadn't seen her for about 6 months so it was really nice to get a chance to just chill and catch up. We waited for our friends Yonatan and his fiancee Shannee, and then all five of us left for downtown. The area was just infested with birthright groups. I've never seen it so crowded. Eli, Yonatan and I went to Moshiko's for dinner to get a shawarma. It took us a half hour to get to the front, and that was with the regular pushing and shoving that Eli and I are wont to do.

Aliza and Shannee at Eli's flat.

It was downtown that we proceeded to run into everyone on earth that I've ever met. Here's a short list of everyone I saw on Ben Yehuda street saturday night: Eli Wald, Aliza Goodman, Yonatan Lapid, Shannee Babai, Jeff Reiser, Jeff Villano, Robbie Fineberg and the other 4 members of his immediate family, Julie Edelman, Elli Dvorin and Yael Dvorin. It was some kind of crazy. We didn't stay there really late on account of the temperatures dropping into the thirties but we stayed long enough to smile and take pics and trade phone numbers and make some plans. I headed back to Eli's place around 10:30 and walked back to the hotel a few hours later where I would bunk for the night.

JV, Eli and myself.

The next morning the birthrighters left early for their day. I hung around at the hotel until 9:30 and then headed back downtown. I met Elli Dvorin and his girlfriend for a cup of coffee on King George, and then Aliza came to join us. True to the theme of the weekend, I was not done seeing old friends just yet. Aliza had planned to meet Jenny Kibrit (her roommate and a friend from Champaign) for lunch and chilling that afternoon. She didn't tell Jenny I would be there, so we surprised her good. 3 of their friends from the Brandies grad school were also there, so I met yet another new group of Jews from back home. The girls helped me pick out a scarf, which I am quite fond of. Its dark blue, soft, warm and apparently fashionable. I couldn't be happier. We did lunch at this swank little cafe that doubles as a bookstore. Then we wandered through the artists colony at the Yemin Moshe neighborhood. It was just wonderful. Incredibly peaceful right in the middle of the craziness of downtown Jerusalem.

A quiet walkway in Yemin Moshe.

My trip had one more highlight left in it: Eli, Aliza and I went out to dinner with Reut. She took us to a nice little out of the way place where I got french onion soup with a twist: There was a piece of malawach draped over the top. It was excellent. Everyone shared stories while Eli collected the sugar packets with pictures of famous Rabbis and Zionist leaders on them. At long last it was time to head back to Haifa. Reut drove me as far as Netanya, where I got back on my familiar train and headed for home. It was a long but awesome weekend in Jerusalem.