Yerushalayim Shel Zahav

July 9, 2008

We have taken much from this fabulous trip and today was time to give back to Israel. Our morning began with a visit to Yad Sarah, a social service agency started by the present mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupliansky, and named after his beloved mother who died in the Holocaust. This agency is supported mostly by volunteers and donations with no governmental funds except through occasional small grants. Yad Sarah has centers in over 90 locations all over the country with its main headquarters in a lovely building on Herzl Blvd, on the way up to Mount Herzl. It provides rehabilitative services, including the lending of crutches, walkers, wheel chairs, oxygen apparati, etc. It has programs for seniors, provides human contacts for shut-ins through a phone call center and visiting volunteers, transportation vans for shopping and appointments, meals on wheels, as well as programs for special needs children and their parents.
At Yad Sarah, we were greeted by public relations staff, Daniel Sheer, originally from the Bronx and Riverdale, and a childhood friend of Rabbi Kilimnick’s daughter-in-law, Susie. Daniel described the agency and we viewed a short film on the institution, which won the Israel Prize a number of years ago, the highest honor in the country. After touring a few of the services, including an exhibition area showing items which make a home more accessible (kitchen, bedroom and bathroom assistive devices and enhancements) and a senior center where seniors were doing Israeli folk dancing, we began our own volunteer work. We cleaned recently lent and returned wheelchairs so they will be ready (cleaned and refurbished, if necessary) for the next borrowers. We donned blue work smocks and used steel wool and a cleaning spray. It was our chance to do the mitzvah of helping others.
Yad Sarah models another amazing aspect. It is a meeting ground for all the divisions in Israel and brings every user and volunteer away from politics into the world of tikkun olam. On the wall of the meeting room where we first heard Yad Sarah’s story were the words “Olam Hesed Yibaneh,” “A world of loving kindness will be built.”
On to the Old City of Jerusalem. We entered through the Dung gate and passed the security leading to the plaza by the Western Wall, the Kotel. We had an 11:00 appointment to go through the wall tunnels, and given the popularity of this site, it was absolutely essential for us to be on time. Some opted to sit out the tour through the tunnels in favor of the open air. The rest entered an anteroom to view a model of the Temple Mount in Herod’s time. Herod enlarged Mount Moriah in order to enlarge the second temple walls and courtyards with engineering genius that defies his time, the beginning of the Common Era. From there we made our way along the Western Wall underground underneath the Muslim Quarter marveling at the 700 ton stones set in place by Herod’s workers without cement. Among the arches holding up the ancient bridge to the mount, and other significant finds, the highlight was the area pinpointed as being closest to the Holy of Holies in the Holy Temple, the holiest place on earth for the Jews, according to biblical text. There today, women pray for the safety of the Israel Defense Force and notes are stuffed into the walls (as well as in the cracks of the outside portion of the Wall). Many of the group were surprised to learn that this Wall, so sacred today to Jews, was the retaining wall of the Mount, and not of the Temple itself. The tunnels loomed wide and narrow until exiting in the Muslim Quarter.
The group met in the Cardo (literally, “heart”, the reconstructed Roman main shopping street for shopping and eating in the area. Jan and I, along with the Finnefrock’s went to visit our dear friend George whose store contains thousands of photos taken by his father Eli, a survivor of the Armenian genocide. We ate hummus in a nearby Arab restaurant, Lina’s, when suddenly a group of HUC students entered led by our son Noam's dear friend Dan Medwin. Dan and his wife Lydia, both rabbinic students, were spending the summer in Jerusalem helping this year’s new class of HUC students adapt to their new program and environment. We went down the street to a second restaurant, Abu Shukri’s where Lydia had another group of students, making a hummus comparison test.
We then returned to the Cardo and met the group. Yaakov suggested the Yad Ben Tzvi’s exhibition on Jerusalem during the First Temple period, a time of Kings David and Solomon as well as the prophets. From there we went to the Davidson center to learn about life during the Second Temple period and see some of the Southern wall excavations. We were again entertained and taught through compute generated recreations of the Temple and its surroundings through history. Viewing the excavations after the media presentations helped us to understand what we were looking at.
Our final stop of the day was the Wall itself. Those who wanted entered the men’s and women’s sections and either offered their own prayers or observed the surroundings. Some realized that this section of the retaining wall should have no more sacredness than any other part, but history and tradition has given this one section its special status in Jewish life.
Back to the hotel for swimming, showering and relaxing until we each made our ways to our evening destinations. On the recommendation of our IGT (local Israeli tour company) representative, Alona, we ate at Zuni’s overlooking Yoel Solomon Street. All in all another lovely day.