Thursday - Last Day in Jerusalem

Today is the last day of the Seminar, as well as the last day in Israel. We start the morning tracing the Sephardim who settled in Jerusalem, but outside the walls of the Old City. We walk to the neighborhoods of Mishkenot Sha'ananim and Yemin Moshe. Before entering, we read from the autobiography of Elie Eliachar, the great-uncle of Ann Elyachar, one of our Seminar participants.

The neighborhood of Mishkenot Sha'ananim was built in 1859 by Moses Montefiore, using money's bequeathed by Judah Touro, for the benefit of the poor. The idea was to remove the burden of paying rent from these people so they could lift themselves out of poverty. Unfortunately, the idea did not work and the inhabitants remained poor. The Book of Regulations for the complex included provisions for keeping this gated community closed to strangers; ensuring the cleanliness of the individual dwellings, the house of worship, and the entire complex; remembering Judah Touro in prayer daily and on the anniversary of his death; and stipulation that the residents have no claim to ownership of their dwellings. Today the complex is used to provide artists and dignitaries temporary housing by the State of Israel.








Yemin Moshe, on the other hand, was built a few years later as middle class housing. Montefiore also built this complex. Today it is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Jerusalem.







From there, we moved to the neighborhood of Nahlaot, with it's winding alley ways and different ethnic neighborhoods.


In one section live the Jews who left Spain and went to Greece; in other sections are those from Yemen, or Algiers, or Turkey. We see the various synagogues, each belonging to a different ethnic group.






Children playing at a nursery school playground captured my attention.





We walk back through the beautiful, flower-filled Rahavia neighborhood where we see the inscription on a house belonging to the Eliachar family.





With some free time for lunch and shopping, Eric and I go to the King George - Ben Yehuda Street area to find a fabric store and to people watch. Here are some faces of Ben Yehuda Street.








Our final study session was with Rabbi Michael Melchior, Head of Mosaica and former Minister and MK. It was enlightening, provocative, and hopeful.

Our farewell dinner was bitter sweet. So sad to be leaving Israel, but happy to be heading home. I know I say this with each Melton Seminar I go on, but this is the best Seminar I've ever attended. Haim Aronovitz is the most knowledgeable, wonderful teacher I've ever had the pleasure of studying under. I will try to write one last blog entry soon summing up all my impressions of the Seminar, but for now let me just say that it was FABULOUS.


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