Old City Scavenger Hunt

Today we wore whatever "modest" clothing we brought to spend a day in Mea Shearim and the Old City. This was most difficult for Ella - who prefers her shorts and flip flops to anything else - but all of us discovered during the day just how inconsistent long sleeves, long pants or skirts, socks, etc are with Israel's summer weather. We walked up to Mea Shearim street and had a glimpse of the life of the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community that lives there. The signs at the entrance tell visitors not to pass through the area in immodest clothes, and ask big tour groups not to pass through at all. We saw a group of women carrying trays of food through the street to their synagogue followed by a woman carrying her 8 day old baby boy on an ornate pillow, going to his bris. There were tzedakah boxes all along the street - just like there would be mailboxes in other places, and posters plastered to the walls announcing various events at the different synagogues and other things we couldn't understand (some in Yiddish) but all clearly of a religious nature.  We went into a few Judaica shops looking for a torah cover (a gift for our synagogue from Ella's b'nai mitzvah class that we are going to get while we are here) and starting to look for a bar mitzvah tallit for Jonah (still a few years off, but it would be cool to get one while we are here). We must have done okay with our attire, because people were willing to help us, talk to us, etc. We did some great people watching ... noticing the subtle differences in the attire of various sect of ultra orthodox Jews. Although it was clear that the concentration of ultra-Orthodox in this area was higher than in most other parts of Jerusalem, after living her for a little over a week, it hardly stands out anymore or seems strange.

A mostly unsuccessful attempt to grocery shop in a
Mea She'arim market

A much more eclectic crowd on Ben Yehuda Street

On the way home, we stopped for lunch on Ben Yehuda street. The kids tried Shwarma for the first time at Moshiko - a great falafel place. It was a hit! We sat outside and enjoyed more people watching - the Mediterranean Greenpeace volunteers, the youth scouts, the Chabad-nicks encouraging people to put on tefillin, and the musicians - Sylvia loved the drummer.











We came home for an afternoon rest/nap and then set out again for the Old City - this time to participate in an Old City Scavenger Hunt we had signed up for.

Warning: a lot of detail follows as this is also our own journal to remember our experiences. Feel free to skim!)

Hearing the rules of the Scavenger Hunt

We entered the city through the Zion Gate (we've now been through every gate except the Dung Gate - which the kids actually don't think sounds like a very desirable gate to go through!). This was my favorite approach into the Old City. It's kind of a pain to get to from our house as you have to go way downhill and then way uphill. But, once you enter, rather than passing by noisy. pushing shops, you are in the lovely, quiet Armenian Quarter, and in a matter of moments you are in the Jewish Quarter. We met up with the guide of the tour, Jeremy, near the Sephardic Center, and soon our opponents also joined us. We were "competing" against another family (the third team had gotten delayed at the Dead Sea and didn't make it), who is also here for the whole summer (parents and 5 kids, ages 3-11, a nice family who we exchanged contact info with to maybe get together again). We got a mission pack, some information sheets, a notebook for recording our findings, and a sheet of photographs to identify along the route. We also each chose a job - Ella was the photographer, Jonah was the detective (to find the photos along the route), I was the teacher (reading from the information sheets), Sylvia was the navigator (putting stickers on the map as we went along the route - okay, she actually just put all the stickers on at the first stop), Abe's job was to keep track of Sylvia. The mission pack led us through various sites in the Old Quarter of Jerusalem, and the information sheets told us the history of the places as we got there. Every now and then, the guide would find us along the route and tell us stories about the places. Some of the coolest things we found on the hunt were:

Jonah pointing out the Cardo on the Madaba map

- The Madaba Map which dates from the 6th century. A mosaic map from the floor of a church in Jordan, it is now on display on a wall of the Cardo in the Old City. A really cool fact is that when Israel reclaimed the Old City after the 6 Day War and wanted to begin excavations, this map was their guide as it was the best representation they had of various landmarks in the city from that time period.
- We learned about Yehuda Getz who was the chief Rabbi of the Kotel for many years (after fighting in the IDF and losing a son in the six day war) and then was the Rosh Yeshiva of the Beit El kabbalist synagogue. One story about him was that a tourist came to him and told him that he had been robbed at the Kotel and lost $300. So, Rabbi Getz gave him $300 of his own money, so he wouldn't go home and tell people bad things about his experience at the Kotel.

Playing "Superman" next to the Cardo

- We walked along the Cardo and were really able to envision what it was like when it was a Roman market place.
- We saw Hezekiah's Broad Wall, which he built to defend the Old City from an Assyrian attack. The story is that the Assyrian's began their siege, but then were beset by a plague and either died or fled, so Jerusalem was saved (that time).
- We saw several memorials to the Jewish soldiers who died in the battle for the Old City in 1948, including Nissim Gini, who was 10 years old when he fought and died to protect the Old City of Jerusalem from the Jordanian army. This story was especially touching as Nissim was exactly Jonah's age when he died, and because he died on the day the Old City fell, which is Jonah's birthday.

Sylvia found this book in a pile of discards (waiting to be
buried) by the Ramban Synagogue. She flipped through
it and announced "great book!"

- We saw the Hurva synagogue (which has been rebuilt since Abe and I were here last) and the Ramban synagogue - the oldest (or possibly second oldest) synagogue in Jerusalem still in use.
- And we sat on a piece of a column thought to have been part of the Second Temple courtyard - and then moved and reused as part of a church in Batei Machesh Square (the spot where the final surrender of the Old City in 1948 took place)

Putting all of the stickers on the map at Stop #1

- We talked with a woman who lives in the Jewish Quarter and who pointed out some cool details, like the Chanukah menorah boxes that are built into the walls outside the homes in the area (like a milk box)   for residents to display their lit menorahs to the street.

Although the kids definitely all had a competitive streak, trying to "win" the hunt, it was clear by the end that, camp-style, everyone was a winner, as we all had a great time and learned to feel more at home in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

Hurva Synagogue

On the way home, we walked our usual route out Jaffa gate and through the Mamilla Mall. Funny coincidence, as we walked through the mall, we saw a troop of Israeli soldiers interviewing passers-by and writing their responses on little slips of paper. They were apparently doing their own scavenger hunt!

The soldiers' Scavenger Hunt (copy cats!)