Comments on: Southern Exposure: Telling Jerusalem Differently

By: claskov

claskov — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:36:29 +0000

Forgive me Gershom, but wouldn’t it be more appropriate to say that the Jews were expelled, rather than describe them as having left? See the image below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sack_of_jerusalem.JPG

By: John Sterns

John Sterns — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:54:52 +0000

I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy Jerusalem as Gershom describes it. Some of my favorite tourist photos are of children playing soccer on the grounds of Al-Haram al-Sharif, Christians walking up the Via Dolorosa, Jews and Arabs enjoying the Promenade. It is a truly remarkable international city with something for everyone.

Unfortunately, the politics of many insist on an “us vs. them” view of the world, with agendas that aren’t served by images of people living normal lives and getting along.

“Pay no attention to those peaceful residents …”

Yes, I’m sure there are tours whose message doesn’t include people getting along with each other in this marvelous place. But it happens, it’s real, and as Gershom points out, deserves to be noticed more.

By: More on “Southern Exposure” « South Jerusalem: Gershom Gorenberg and Haim Watzman

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:48:53 +0000

[...] 22, 2008 by Haim Watzman Readers of Gershom’s last post may be interested in an article I published in Nature last year on Elad’s role in running [...]

By: george a. hilborn

george a. hilborn — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:43:58 +0000

Gershom : My views of Jerusalem from a non-Jew and a rather non-literalist Christian.Your piece struck a note with me. After I broke away from the highly structured tour and ventured on my own , in the early morning,later in the afternoon, and in the evening a day last month.I saw a peaceful city bustling with all kinds of people of various religious and ethnic groups doing what people do, interact and carrying on some of their daily religious disciplines.I saw the presence of security in it’s various forms.After over three weeks in Israel I paid little notice to the armed soldiers and police.They became part of the landscape.Their reason for being is obvious.The uniqueness of the topography is very pleasing and soothing to the eye. Walking all over the city and talking to people is what Americans should do instead of wasting their time pushing each other to take a digital snapshot of an alledged “holy site”. I believe that my religious beliefs are based more in the content rather than in form of some religious site,but thats me. I don’t ask that others believe or even give credance to my point of view

My euphoria of that day was schattered later the next evening when I heard sirens coming from the West of the City almost constantly and I found out that a East Jerusalem Moslem had shot and killed 8 rabbinical students and wounded many more. The question I posed to my American – born Israeli quide was “how do you adjust to such an event?” .Her response was ” we go on” I then asked her why she left the convivial confines of a beautiful city up the Hudson ; she said ” you have seen Jerusalem up close and personal and with me it’s organic ,my grandmother was the first woman to demand her right to milk cows on one of the early kibbutz and my children can see her name in their history books”