Jerusalem of....

...Walls and building

You guys are just too good. I guess you know Jerusalem really well.

Last week, the day before Rosh Chodesh Elul, on my way to meet the Shiloh bus to Kever Rachel, I was overwhelmed by the amount of building going on in Jerusalem. Some is nice and some is horrendous. The area around the Central Bus Station, Binyanei Ha'umah and Kiryat Moshe is undergoing major changes. At least I presume that's what's going on behind those walls I showed in the previous post. Honestly, I wouldn't want to live near that structure that's going up! And I mean UP!

To see the walls in Northern Jerusalem, which we need to pass through, look here.

But one of the saddest thing is to see what happened to the once beautiful Kever Rachel, Rachel's Tomb. What we see today, certainly is nothing like the the structure I first saw when here as a student in 1969.


Yes, near the Giloh neighborhood, we have to ride in a bullet-proof vehicle, when Arabs are walking freely, and we enter a special "cul de sac" bordered by high cement walls, which leads to the heavily disguised Kever Rachel.

You can see buses, chemical toilets and a row of sinks.

They just made a new entrance for the women. This is the men's entrance and you can see the sign and arrow pointing to the women's entrance.

Here's a view of the women's section.

Besides special chartered buses, there is public transportation, too. This may not be the most attractive of places, but you can see that it's a popular shrine.