Israel 6: Jerusalem - Part 1

The ancient city of Old Jerusalem

Thursday, November 7

We arrived at the ancient city of Jerusalem in the afternoon, and entered through the Jaffa Gate for a tour of the Jewish Quarter. Some people get so overwhelmed with the religious significance of this place, that there is a medical phenomenon called “Messiah syndrome”, where people can actually come away from Old Jerusalem feeling that they are the Messiah. I think a lady I saw at the airport when I left the country may have experienced that, she tried to bless me for about 5 minutes, using weird biblical-style English.

First sights of the Old City from the bus

We were guided through the biblical and historical aspects of the Old Jerusalem’s development, and saw the several layers of historical buildings that had been dug out to reveal even more ancient structures below. Jerusalem is an architectural paradise and nightmare for historians, because there is always something older to uncover, but you have to damage the building on top to expose the deeper and older artefacts.

We were given some time to browse the stores at the market in the old city. There's a few plazas with restaurants, and a marketplace within the city's grounds. Lots of chachkas and souvenirs but also several art stores.

A cat on the doorstep of one of the art stores in Old Jerusalem

The tour culminated in the pilgrimage to the Kotel, the western wall from the second Jewish temple built over 2000 years ago. We had the opportunity to write a note to leave at the wall. The wall was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people praying at it, and the experience was moving even for those of us that don’t feel particularly religious. 

I have never felt so much faith as I did when I walked up to the wall, leaned my forehead against it, and connected to this piece of my Jewish heritage. Beyond the spiritual significance of the wall, I just found it impressive that for 2000 years my ancestors have been yearning to be in Jerusalem and visit the temple mount, and there I was actually touching the Western Wall.

The emotional rollercoaster continued when we returned to the hotel for a seminar about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Iftah did a great job in presenting this seminar, which was prepared in conjunction with the Middle Eastern Learning Academy. I had specifically looked forward to this part of the trip, because I had fallen far behind on the news in this department. I felt the seminar was as objective as one could hope for and showed a balance of perspectives. Iftah tried to convey what was driving each nationality to the decisions they ultimately made, whether those decisions turned out to be good or bad ones could only be known in time. Of course there is no simple way to break down the complexities of the situation, but this lecture provided a useful summary of the key points. I found a thorough online introductory resource to Israeli-Palestinian history here (not affiliated with our seminar).

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