Modernized Israel

For many of us who remember Jerusalem from decades back, the main post office on Jaffa Road, across from the new municipality office complex, close to the Old City, is full of memories.  It's an old building, very large and imposing.  Way back when it was the place to make phone calls to foreign countries, buy assimonim, phone tokens, aerogrammes and stamps.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to buy stamps to send birthday cards to my father for his 90th birthday and realized that the old monster of a building was the closest post office on the route I was walking.  I hadn't been inside for years.  Human nature, I guess, because I expected it to be the same as it was over thirty years ago.  Imagine my surprise!

That's the multilingual machine for getting numbers according to what you need to do in the post office.  And then you sit on the chairs, look at the screens and wait for your number to be announced.

There's all sorts of other information on the screen.  Sorry that it didn't come out clearly enough, but I was afraid that I'd be prevented from taking pictures.  Some government places, malls and stores forbid photographing. 

Israel has modernized in many ways.  My recent visits to the Interior Ministry also went pretty quickly.