Jerusalem is a special city

Jerusalem is a special city. If you ever doubt this, try staying away for a little while. True, many Israelis have become so practiced in the art of staying away from Jerusalem that this has been elevated from simple aversion to full-blown abhorrence. True, many of us who bring up children in this city know that our offspring are preparing to spring off and leave as soon as the opportunity presents itself. True, increasingly Jewish visitors from abroad are becoming inured to the blandishments of the holy city, and developing a marked preference for the lure of Tel Aviv (The Big Pineapple) or Haifa (The Bahai Chapel) or even Hadera (the Big Falafel), over Jerusalem - the Big Grapple.

Jerusalem is a special city, as our tradition attests. The Talmud lists ten proscribed activities, including such unlikely taboos as gardening - apparently the required manure was considered profane. If any of our sages were exposed to the unholy smell emanating from many corners of our city, they would bemoan the manure to which we have become accustomed.

Aerial view of Jerusalem. PHOTO: Courtesy

Jerusalem is a special city, and if I ever forget her my right hand would certainly lose its cunning, although the prospect of my tongue cleaving to the roof of my mouth seems more distant. This is where I have chosen to make my life, and rarely does a day pass without a chance  to marvel at its rare, seductive, impossible, angry beauty.

This week, that opportunity was provided by a visit to Bet Maiersdorf, the faculty club at the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus. A wedding was taking place beneath us, the groom's fervent promise to avoid forgetting Jerusalem rendered superfluous by the heart-stopping backdrop to the bridal canopy: Jerusalem in all her sublime gorgeousness. I was there, however, for another reason. My son was marking the conclusion of a three-year project. He and twenty other high school students from the Orthodox, Secular and Arab sections of the state school system had been studying at the Gilo Center of the University for five units of their bagrut, the matriculation examination, in the area of ezrachut (citizenship or civics). The theme of the entire program was: to live in Jerusalem. These young people have such different experiences of life in the city, and it was particularly impressive to see the range of research projects they had come up with. In some cases, Jews and Arabs had co-authored research on sensitive topics affecting all Jerusalemites.
 
It was a small but meaningful moment, a thin island of sanity in a crazy ocean. In truth, this is how citizenship should be studied throughout the country - in groups which cut across the barriers which have been erected to keep citizens apart. I derive some grim entertainment from the vision of Yisrael Beitenu voters forced to send their kids to learn about Israeli citizenship with children they consider to be unworthy of the title.

Protests in Jerusalem over the opening of the
Carta parking lot on the Sabbath. PHOTO: AP

Jerusalem is a special city, and Shabbat [Sabbath] the most special of days. The attempt by some Ultra-Orthodox citizens to cow the rest of us into submission by such sacred Sabbath activities as the hurling of obscenity and excrement does nothing to add to the holiness of the city.

Now you may argue that a good pluralist should be sensitive to the religious sensibilities of others. I believe I am . I believe it's fine to respect the wishes of the overwhelming majority of a particular neighborhood, so long as those wishes keep the rest of us excrement-free. But what is playing out now in Jerusalem has little to do with sanctity or tolerance. It's all about power, of the this-worldly variety. The attempt by some in the Ultra-Orthodox community to stop the opening of free parking lots for those who wish to use them is more about arm-wrestling than soul-searching.

Jerusalem is a special place, but she is in danger from obscurantists and others. We need to struggle to preserve her delicate balance, and to allow all her inhabitants a chance to bask in her special glow. Jews of all kinds and non-Jews from all over have to be able to feel at home in Jerusalem, in order for our prophets' visions to come true - and also for our economic and cultural life to flourish.

Making space for the other is not what threatens Jerusalem's status as a special place. Indeed, defending the space of the other is what can keep our city special. Torah will go forth from Zion - and when it returns, we need to ensure it has somewhere to park.