Mea Shearim

Wikipedia's article on the Black Panthers states it plainly, that Musrara became a neglected area, and it wasn't alone in that.

Along with Shmuel Hanavi, Mea Sharim, Mamilla, and Yemen Moshe, Misrara was one of the West Jerusalem neighborhoods along the line that were considered dangerous, and became slum neighborhoods populated by indigents, characterized by poverty and neglect.

So the state housed its poorest new immigrants, Mizrahi families, against a hostile frontier.

Because that was the housing nobody else wanted.

I listen to Jewish music, but I curate also secular music.

I actually asked my rebbe, Rav Shlomo Fisher, who grew up in Meah Shearim, [laughs] Zecher Avraham, who was a big talmid chacham, and I asked him if I could listen to secular music.

Yeah.

And he said yes.

You know, when I walk down Salah al-Din Street, I feel like I'm in Jordan.

When I walk down Malchei Yisrael in Mea She'arim, I feel like I'm in Little Poland, and there's parts of West Jerusalem that feel like New York or Sydney, and it's all in one city, which is not such a big city as well.

And I share that poem because I know we're close to Yom Kippur, but I, I really want to wish all of our listeners who are listening to this podcast about finding our why that in some ways, whether travel is, is something that you do emotionally or in your mind, or travel is something that you do by going to other places, that it's not just seeing the place, but it's also seeing the people and hearing the stories, and asking other people what their why is, because I feel like sometimes there's no better way to find your why than having a sort of Martin Buber-like encounter with a stranger that you've never met before that can end up maybe changing your life.

Thank you again, Itai, and thank you to all of you out there who are listening and coming along for this journey with us.

In the Old City, and we have one near, before Jaffa Street.

They have a house, used to have like, when you go in near, near the Mea She'arim.

Ah, okay, yes.

They have, they used to have a house there.

Yeah, but for true Haredim, forget it.

You know, you could think that she, you know, she grew up in Mea She'arim and, like-

She didn't?

I am an Orthodox Jewish woman.

I'm talking about, there was a youth movement, still is, called HaShomer HaTzerir, and they would march.

in Mea Shearim with clubs, you know, get out of this primitive way of life and join us.

And many did, many did join.

And therefore that was a very traumatic time, notwithstanding the euphoria of the state of Israel for the Haredim, that was a traumatic time.

Oh, my God.

I got it in Meah Shearim.

There's two of them, and it, on every parsha, it has like Ten different ideas, and it's a story or just a phrase that someone said, and it's like three lines, an idea.

That's beautiful.

It's the nature and history of the Gursh, which is beautiful.

Obviously, it's all beautiful parts of the city, but we felt, what if it's Fuss? And you'll go to Mea Shearim, and you'll see that you're living on Rehov Mesil HaShisharim, or Rehov Sakachav, or Rehov Avnei Nezer, or Rehov...

And then you grow up, and you feel like you're enveloped with Torah.

You're enveloped by ideas that shape your identity.