In the past 50 days, we celebrated Jerusalem as we experience it.
We celebrated the beauty of this city, which shines throughout the day – and night.
We didn’t shy away from Jerusalem’s challenges: We thought about terror and borders and the differences between us, and why some people don’t stand for the siren, while others do.
But we also delved into Jerusalem’s quirky, fun moments, its dressed-up dogs and its graffiti and its open-mic nights.
We watched sheep joining the Jerusalem Marathon, soldiers knitting, and old men playing music by Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station.
And rabbis watching over its shops.
What happens when you touch the surface in Jerusalem, what happens when you scratch it, and what lives underneath it?
How should we feel about defeated enemies?
what should we do once we achieved our goals?
We celebrated the beautiful people we encounter here, be they musical cab drivers, Aramaic-speaking Christians, famous role models, or Ultra Orthodox Jews who defy our expectations over and over again.
And we met those people in their sad and painful moments. But we also met them in their times of coexistence, and in the moments when they do good.
Jerusalem is where we celebrate everything, and we recalled together moments from Passover and Chanukah, Easter and Ramadan, Purim and Sukkot.
We spoke of raising children in Jerusalem, and glimpsed Jerusalem through our children’s eyes. We wrote of watching prophecies fulfilled and of meeting Jerusalem abroad, and of this city’s animals – inanimate and real.
Jerusalem is a beautiful city.
Jerusalem is where we smile and wait and seek perfection, and have fun while we’re waiting for that perfection to appear. It’s where we tell it like it is and find treasures underground, where sitting down at the shuk can carry hidden meaning, and where funerals can take you to an ancient site.
Jerusalem is where contradictions abound – and many dimensions come together.
It’s the place we call home, and it’s a place that inspires us.
It’s where we come together.
It’s where we can unite.
The sun is setting on the 50th Yom Yerushalayim, and on the tapestry of voices that brings this place to life. Thank you for joining our celebration in the past fifty days, and good night from Jerusalem – beautiful, crazy, maddening, wonderful, Jerusalem.
www.jerusalem-moments.com will continue to share Jerusalem moments in the months to come, though on a smaller scale. Stay tuned for updates!
Rachel Sharansky Danziger is a life-long Jerusalemite who's in love with her city's vibrant human scene. She blogs about life in Israel, Judaism, and parenting for The Times of Israel, Sifriyat Pijama, and Kveller, and you can follow her adventures on Facebook and via her personal blog.
Thank you, dear, patient, hardworking, imaginative Rachel, for giving us this platform, for weaving together all these stories and pictures, for never giving up, all the while busy with home and work and children and a baby-to-be! Kol hakavod!
Thank you so much Ruti! I feel incredibly privileged to have worked with all of you.
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