Street fair, Israel style
Jerusalem’s trendy Emek Refaim Street in the German Colony pulled out all the stops this week for its annual street fair. The boulevard, which is already lined with cafes, restaurants and boutique jewelry stores, was closed to traffic from 5:00 PM until 11:00 PM.
Local eateries set up stands selling fast food versions of their signature dishes, each costing no more than NIS 25 (less than $7). My wife Jody had a plate with fried salmon kebabs and salad from Caffit; I went for a pita stuffed with fresh spring chickens hot off the grill at the stand next to Olive.
We also split a bowl of kubbeh soup – a Middle Eastern delicacy. At NIS 10 ($2.70), it was the best deal in town. And it came out of a pretty impressive pot – here’s a photo taken from Jody’s iPhone.
At nearly every corner there were street performers and performances – from jazz bands to a cappella (see the next photo), enormous walking “creatures” on stilts, and local gymnastics girls going through their emotions.
An interesting Israeli-only aside: normally when you think of a fair, the street is “open.” In security-minded Israel, there were police blocks on every corner and a checkpoint to enter.
Not to be outdone, Emek Refaim’s less trendy twin – Baka’s Bethlehem Street, is running its own street fair every Friday in November. Here’s a photo from a small band of musicians (note to self: I’ve got to get a beard like that).
Movie recreates terror in Jerusalem
As I passed by the wreckage of a fast food restaurant today on Jerusalem’s trendy Emek Refaim Street, I was awash in a familiar and entirely unwanted feeling. Police were everywhere with walkie-talkies surveying the destruction. Across the street, a bus shelter was blown out, glass strewn along the sidewalk. A bus was parked in front, still intact but immobile.
And yet, everyone seemed so calm. The Ne’eman Café and Caffit restaurant across the street were serving patrons as if nothing had happened. Even the police seemed inappropriately jovial.
I popped into the local household supply shop and asked the clerk what the heck was going on.
“A movie,” he replied gruffly. “French. About the days of the terror attacks.”
I wanted to cry out. How could the filmmakers have been so callous? The site of their “set” was only a few blocks from where, in 2003, seven people were killed and over 50 injured in a real life terror attack at Café Hillel.
Nor have my wife Jody and I been immune personally to terror: our cousin Marla Bennett was murdered in the attack on a cafeteria at Hebrew University in 2002. As if to drive the point home: Marla’s mother was in town from San Diego this week and was a guest at our table this past Shabbat.
Still, a movie about the terror years could be helpful, if it portrayed the Israeli position with some understanding. Given the international climate these days (see David’s article on “Caving in to cultural terrorism“), however, I’m not so sure.
Shavuot without cheese
Award-winning cheesecake from Ben Ami
The just passed Jewish holiday of Shavuot is known by even the most secular Israelis as the festival on which we eat cheese. Sadly, not so any more for my 16-year-old daughter who was just diagnosed with lactose intolerance.
Merav has been getting terrible stomach aches for sometime now. Our doctor sent her to the hospital for testing in which they give patients a glass of concentrated lactose, then have them breathe into a machine every half hour.
It didn’t take long for Merav to know. The familiar pains started nearly immediately and it only took a few blows for the technician to return with the suspected but nevertheless disappointing news.
Still, to be absolutely sure it was lactose causing the stomach aches and not some other ailment (or perhaps an additional disease), the doctor told Merav to go off anything dairy for two weeks, then report back on how she felt.
The problem was that this was just before Shavuot and all those blintzes, quiches and cheese-laden casseroles beckoned. We decided she would start her test regime immediately after the holiday.
Truth be told, Shavuot dinner was relatively lactose free – we had rice, tofu and fish (our religious cheese-eating friends would be scandalized). But we couldn’t resist dessert. And so, in a last hurrah to dairy delights, we ordered a cheesecake.
But not just any cheesecake. This one, from the newly opened Ben Ami bakery and café on Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim Street (the first branch of a small family-run business from Kfar Vitkin) was rated the #1 cheesecake in the entire country by the Maariv NRG website.
At NIS 64 ($16), it was also more than we’d ever spent on dessert. But I am happy to report that it lived up to its reputation. The cheese was the consistency of whipped ice cream; the crumbly crust the polar opposite of an American graham cracker. It was unbelievably delicious.
The irony about Merav’s lactose intolerance is that, up until last summer, she was a staunch vegetarian. Now meat is welcome. It’s the lasagna that’s been excommunicated.
Cops and robbers on Shabbat in Jerusalem
Filed under: coexistence, Crime, General, Israeliness, Life
The scene of the crime.
Two policemen were sitting on the side guarding the store against looters, we thought. Even though it looked like vandals had been at work over Shabbat, never a laughing matter, the way the mannequins were askew was actually quite comical. My wife remarked that it looked like they had been nabbed attempting a breakout, which cracked up the kids in the car.
It was only this morning that we opened the paper and saw that the shop had been the target of a robbery, and that the police had shot and killed one of the burglars. According to The Jerusalem Post, an Arab man and a Jewish woman reversed their Mazda 3 vehicle into the display window at the clothing store.
They then started filling the car with merchandise, when police arrived on the scene. The crooks ran into the car and attempted run over the cops, who opened fire in return. A car chase ensued, until a few blocks later the getaway car stopped and the driver, Salah Salaima, 30, tried to flee on foot. However, the police had succeeded in wouding him and he collapsed after a few yards and died of his wounds. The female suspect, in her 20s, was taken into custody.
Man, it was a good thing we didn’t know any of that while we sat in the synagogue. After that cops and robbers scene, the intrigue and excitement of the Parshat Shavua, Ki Tissei, and the saga of the Golden Calf, would have paled in comparison.
A Sneak Peek at the Future of Jerusalem Mass Transit
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Politics
CityPass, the international corporation that is building and operating the Jerusalem light rail system, recently opened the doors to its hi-tech transit depot and we joined the tour. We learned more than we wanted to know about the facility’s electricity system and the minutiae of how the maintenance staff cleans dusty wheels.
The highlight for us, though, was getting a chance to wander through the train cars themselves. Despite seats still wrapped in plastic, the enormous vehicles – five times the size of a normal bus – were immensely impressive and a stark contrast with the desert landscape around them (the depot is located just west of the northern Jerusalem satellite community of Pisgat Ze’ev).
Each car consists of five articulated sections and can seat 64 (with a total capacity of 250). There are LCD screens to announce stops and magnetic card readers throughout. 24 cars out of a total of 46 have already been delivered so far.
The Jerusalem light rail has a few features not found in other locations, like France and Spain, where CityPass is operating. The vehicles have to contend with Jerusalem’s notorious hilly terrain. And all the windows have been reinforced to be resistant to stones and Molotov cocktails. A controversial security decision has meant that the light rail travels through the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat…but makes no stops.
Nevertheless, visiting the depot and seeing the cars all in one place gives one the feeling of being in a sci-fi flick: could these state-of-the-art contraptions ever roll through the historic but out of fashion center that represents Israel’s capital?
But that’s just the point.
Jerusalem used to have a more vibrant downtown. But in recent years, many of its more upscale shops have relocated to the Malcha Mall and tourists now flock to the Emek Refaim area. Much of the town center has been reduced to a sad medley of hole-in-the-wall shops selling cheap shmatas and rowdy teenagers who haunt the night hours.
That’s why I’m so enthusiastic about the light rail. Upon its completion, Jaffa Road will turn into a pedestrian-only walkway with the new fangled trolleys running down its center.
Freed from the narrow sidewalks and never-ending traffic, the street will experience a resurgence. Already you can see a row of new cafes in the space of a few blocks, flanked by my favorite The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (the only branch in Jerusalem). A European-style walker-friendly promenade is just the ticket for revitalizing Jerusalem’s core.
Getting there may not be so easy.
Jaffa Road is in the process of being dug up. Large swaths are currently blocked off entirely. Buses have been diverted to adjacent Nevi’im Street which is much too congested to handle the flow. Construction has been painfully slow, leading mayor-elect Nir Barkat to call for the entire project to be stopped and be replaced by high-speed buses.
I’ve already lived through this once. When I was growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, the City’s main artery, Market Street, was dug up for nearly a decade during the building of the BART subway. Businesses folded and Market Street was off-limits for private cars and buses alike.
Eventually, construction was completed and the street now boasts a range of trendy shopping and entertainment facilities. The subway brings in visitors from all over the Bay Area, conveniently and quickly. No one discounts BART’s effectiveness today.
The same will undoubtedly be true for Jerusalem.
A project as grand and complex as Jerusalem’s light rail system has never been attempted before in Israel (the high speed train between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv may eventually top it, if it doesn’t get derailed for the umpteenth time). After a peek at the vehicles that will, hopefully no later than 2010, rattle through town, I remain an enthusiastic supporter.
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