A field trip into history

June 4, 2011 - 8:06 PM by David

There’s nothing like accompanying a rambunctious fourth-grade class of 34 students on a field trip to the Old City in honor of Jerusalem Day which took place last week.

First of all, the kids are just glad to be out of the school and going anywhere on a big, fancy air-conditioned bus. And being around 10, they’re at an age where the things they find funny are anything gross and disgusting.

We started off at Nahalat Shiva – in the new city. It was the second Jewish settlement outside the Old City Walls, and today is a magnet to pubs, cafes and Jerusalem nightlife. The guide took us to the courtyard which housed the first seven families and played some rousing, patriotic music on his cell phone.

From there, we walked by the Muslim cemetery at the heart of the controversy over the Tolerance Museum which the Simon Weisenthal Center is attempting to erect. Too complicated to go into but you can read about it here.

Crossing a busy intersection led us to the outdoor Mamilla mall, where the kids insisted on touching every piece of art on display as we made our way to Zion Gate of the Old City. We spent about an hour in the Jewish and Muslim quarters of the walled city, climbing a rooftop to get a neat view of all four quarters, before heading to the Kotel.

After free time to pray and walk around, during which my son and I went down the Wall, we regrouped for a sing along of Jerusalem songs, culminating in a rousing ‘Hatikva.’ Tourists stopped and took pictures and videos of the kids, charmed by their youthful enthusiasm.

I watched the scene, envious of the kids’ uncomplicated views of the place they were visiting and where they lived. The guide kept drilling them on the dates they were learning – 3,000 years since Jerusalem was built, 150 years since Moses Montefiore built the first Jewish settlement of Mishkenot Sha’ananim outside the Old City walls and 44 years since Jerusalem was united, during the Six Day War.

All true, but missing the complexities and implications for the people who live in the city, the region and the world. They’ll have the rest of their lives to grapple with that.

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