Hunting treasure in the Old City
Dr. Clue is the world’s leading team-building company specializing in treasure hunt activities. Dr. Clue is also my brother, Dave. He was just here in Israel for our youngest son Aviv’s bar mitzvah and, as his gift, he planned a special treasure hunt in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Spotting twos shofars at the Beit El Yeshiva
Dave normally organizes hunts for companies like law firms and hi-tech startups, as a way of prodding teams to work more cooperatively. For Aviv, it was less about group dynamics and all about fun.
A treasure hunt can open your eyes to sites you’ve never even heard about; it’s a remarkable way to get to know a city. Our route had us searching for historical plaques, obscure addresses and hidden mosaics throughout the ancient walled streets. Did you know that the Royal Austrian Post Office was located across from the Tower of David museum until 1914? Or that there are two shofars above the door to the Beit El Yeshiva? Have you ever even been to the Church or St. George or St. James Cathedral (we hadn’t)?
But before we could go scavenging, we had to answer the clues, and they were tough: 10 brain twisters including one where we had to organize monopoly cards in the right order to spell out a direction; a Morse code game with lions symbolizing dashes and zebras as dots; and a personalized food twister where recognizing the pattern of our son’s favorite dishes (from meatloaf to sushi) spelled out an address on HaNevel Street.
Once we’d solved all the clues, we only had an hour left to find the locations – for each minute we arrived back at the starting point past the cut-off time, we’d be docked 2,000 points. Dave had rachmanus (sympathy) on our group, which ranged in age from 48 to 74, and waived the penalty we’d accrued for being 6 minutes late. We still lost out to the teenagers. But who’s counting (OK, I was).
Sample clue: hieroglyphics
So, what’s the connection for Israelity readers who didn’t participate in our private family adventure? Dave is working on plans to come back and open up his Old City treasure hunts to overseas tour groups, as well as the general public. He’s already done this in countries ranging from Switzerland to Dubai; he’s even run a program on a cruise ship to the Great Barrier Reef (I’m definitely in the wrong business)!
Imagine if every visitor to Jerusalem took a morning to explore the Old City in an entirely new way – a far cry from the “follow my flag” type of tour guide-led group? What a boon it would be for the city and for engagement with the Holy Land. Nir Barkat – are you listening?
A protest is born
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Music, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion
A Star is Born finalist Ohad Shraga'i gets ready for the Jerusalem showdown.
It’s going to happen when the final telecast of the popular singing competition A Star is Born (based on the American Idol format) takes place on September 4th on a Saturday night from Sultan’s Pool outside the Old City walls in Jerusalem.
The decision to hold the finale in Jerusalem only and hour and a half after Shabbat ends has raised the ire of the religious establishment in the country’s capital who insist that the preparations for the show will require Shabbat violations.
They also are upset that the heavy traffic expected will block the road for those planning to get to the Western Wall for the first night of selichot (penitential prayers said before the High Holy Days).
According to the Jewish Chronicle in London, the coup of staging the show in Jerusalem for the first time was due to the efforts of Mayor Nir Barkat, over the stauch opposition of some of his coalition partners.
“Quiet talks with the mayor did not result in anything,” said United Torah Judaism city councillor Shlomo Rozenshtein. “We are moving from quiet activity to open demonstrations of pain and protest at the desecration of Shabbat.”
Yossef Rosenfeld, the chairman of the Committee for the Holiness of Shabbat, promised that there would be big demonstrations backed by all the main leaders of the Charedi community. “Seeing such a serious desecration of Shabbat we will not remain quiet, but take to the streets.”
Both the producers of the show – Keshet – and representatives from City Hall are reassuring the protesters that all the preparations for the show will be completed on Friday, before Shabbat begins. And since the show won’t begin until 90 minutes after Shabbat ends, there’s nothing to worry about, right?
It seems like, though, with all the hoopla surrounding it, it’s unclear what the real show will be – the crowning of the new singing champion of Israel, or the protests leading up to it.
Picture of the week: Doves for Shalit
Filed under: coexistence, Picture of the Week, Politics
We’re all watching and waiting. The reports that have been coming out in the press of an imminent release are just adding to the pressure. It’s been three and a half years since Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Palestinian militants. When is he finally coming home?
Today Nir Barkat, the Mayor of Jerusalem got together with Jewish and Arab children to release hundreds of doves in support of Shalit at Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The event was timed to coincide with the opening of the Israeli Doves Exhibition, which takes place at Alrov Mamila in Jerusalem during Hannukah, and features more than 300 doves of different species.
Let’s hope Shalit comes home soon.
Photo by Abir Sultan/Flash90.
Hamshush time
Filed under: Business, General, Israeliness, Movies, Music
If it’s the weekend of December 3-5, then it’s the second Hamshushalayim, which is one of those Hebrish idioms for Hamshush — that’s a combo of Hamishi, Thursday, and Shishi, Friday and Yerushalayim, Jerusalem. But what it really means in this context is three long weekends of various Jerusalem events, from plays and musical performances to bar specials and city tours.
It’s all part of Mayor Nir Barkat’s efforts to liven up the city of Jerusalem, and make it a happening place, rather than a place of ‘incidents’ and situations.
“We broke all records this past summer with festivals and events,” he says, whipping out the first statistic: the doubling of the local culture budget. “Journalists don’t always grasp that the public differentiates between a demonstration and a performance, even if they are just 300 or 500 meters apart. Beautiful things are happening in Jerusalem parallel to the demonstrations, even if they lend themselves less to media coverage,” he told Ha’aretz last weekend.
The events are definitely geared toward students, university students that is, in an effort to keep them in Jerusalem. But there’s lots of cultural stuff going on, so it’s worth checking out.
Here’s the PDF brochure in Hebrew, and a few events that I’ve selected that look worthwhile:
*The Psik Theater group will be performing for free on Alrov Mamilla Avenue at 9, 10 and 11 pm on Thursday night.
*All Cinematheque movies are just NIS 28 for all Hamshushalayim participants, throughout the weekend.
*Nighttime tours of City of David, between 9 pm and 12 am, NIS 10-NIS 20 per ticket.
*Craft fairs at the ICCY and on Bezalel Hakatan (in town), on Friday morning.
And if you can’t make it this weekend, there’s always next weekend.
Rioting in Jerusalem? All is normal
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, History and Culture, Life, Religion
Jerusalem police take away a protestor near the Old City on Saturday. (AP)
The fight between the haredim of Jerusalem and its secular residents (and secular mayor Nir Barkat) is over whether a parking lot near the Old City can be opened on Shabbat to accomodate the throngs of visiting tourists, both local and international.
A compromise involving using a private parking lot instead of a municipal lot was offered, and supposedly accepted, but someone forgot to tell the haredim. There have been clashes the last few Saturdays between haredi protestors and the police, with the protestors demanding that the private parking lot be closed on Shabbat, stating it’s a violation of the status quo in the city – the delicate fine line in the power struggle between the secular and observant Jews of Jerusalem.
However, according to Matt Rees, one of my favorite authors and a good friend, the action on the street is actually a good thing.
Writing in the Global Post, Rees states that if the big item on Israelis’ agenda is an open parking lot on Shabbat, then maybe things aren’t so bad here.
Ultra-orthodox Jews have been rioting the last few weeks against a parking lot the municipality wants to leave open during the Jewish Sabbath, leading to dozens of arrests and quite a few moderate to serious injuries. Secular activists have held protests in favor of free garaging for those who defy God by driving on Saturday.
All of which is a sign of good times in Israel.
Here’s why: It shows that Israelis think there’s nothing worse to worry about.
When I first came to Jerusalem in 1996, the ultra-Orthodox, or “Haredim” as they’re known here (it means “those who quake,” as in quaking before the wrathful God of the Jewish Bible) used to riot over a major thoroughfare that ran through one of their neighborhoods. They wanted Bar-Ilan Street closed between sundown Friday and the onset of Saturday night.
And then, Rees continued, the Intifada started. Since then it’s been one Intifada after the other, with terror, suicide bombings and security fences to be built. Who had time to protest?
But in comparison to the intifada, these are easy times for Israel. Long may the Sabbath be a time for rioting.
One of the proverbs I learned when first coming to Israel was one that said – it’s a good thing there’s an Israeli-Arab conflict. Otherwise, we Jews would be at each other’s throat. These days, it seems like we have the worst of both worlds.
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