Love Thy Neighbor

Jerusalem is diverse. Really diverse.

There are people from all walks of life here; different cultures, races, religions, political views, etc. It's not uncommon to see a secular Israeli soldier with a gun walking down the street, or an ultra-Orthodox man hurrying to study in synagogue, or to hear Muslim prayer coming from the walls of the Old City. These things all add to the beauty and uniqueness of Jerusalem (also the complexity, but that's a different blog post).

Characters

There are also a lot of characters. One of my favorite things in Israel is to witness this.  These men are followers of a rabbi from the 1700s, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. They drive around in decorated vans and play trance music with the name "Nachman" interspersed in it. At intersections or crowded areas, they get out and dance, as a way to spread joy to people. Apparently, a lot of Israelis find this really annoying. I find it quite comical.

Expectations

I had an interesting experience last night. After dinner with friends, I was walking home to my apartment, when a Haredi man at a bus stop asked for directions. Haredi Jews are a pretty distinguishable subset of the population; black hats, beards, long coats, a gaggle of children, etc. My experience with the Haredim has been very limited, as they are a pretty insular community.

It turned out that we were walking the same direction, so we got to talking. He didn't know English, so we spoke in Hebrew. With my elementary-level Hebrew, we pretty much just talked about where we are from, the weather, and the feral cats that run around Jerusalem.

Since most Haredim won't even look me in the eye because I am not religious, I was happy to have come into contact with this delightfully awkward gentleman. I am finding things to be pretty "black and white" in Jerusalem, but every so often, something shakes up my expectations.

Top of the Morning to You!

We get a lot of traffic on our street. On several occasions, I have been the target of "cat-calling."

This is relatively harmless, but kind of unsettling because they are yelling in Arabic, and I can't understand. So, I usually just make up my own translations:

"Lovely evening, isn't it?"
"Top of the morning to you!"
"My, you look beautiful today!"

In all seriousness, I am finding this city to be challenging in terms of diversity. There is a major lack in communication between different groups of people (not just Jews and Arabs.. but all people). I feel a tension; whether it's in the arguments I hear on the street, or simply the silence between people. Obviously, I knew that it would be this way, but it is still a challenging transition.

Toto, we're not in State College anymore.