By Judy Lash Balint
JERUSALEM–The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg is visiting Jerusalem over the Christmas holiday with his family–Goldberg penned a little piece for the magazine’s blog about how astonished he was by all the multi-cultural experiences he’s had here over the past few days–things that Jerusalemites take completely for granted.
Goldberg waxes eloquent about being treated by an Arab doc at the local walk-in clinic and joining dozens of Israelis who attended Christmas eve services at an Old City church. He could have added a myriad of other cultural activities as well as mundane places in the city where Jews of all ethnic origins, Christians of all stripes, Moslems and Mormons interact on a daily basis.
I spent this afternoon in the Old City visiting the Karaite synagogue and listening to Gregorian chants at the afternoon service at the ancient St James Cathedral in the Armenian Quarter–the biggest group in the church was a busload of retired Israeli schoolteachers from Holon.
The best line in the Atlantic blog goes to Israel Museum director James Snyder, who whispers to Goldberg that
“the dirty little secret of Jerusalem is that it is a fully-functioning intercommunal city.”
Exactly right–but why is this a message that’s so hard to get out?
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Posted By Judy Lash Balint to Jerusalem Diaries:In Tense Times at 12/27/2010 10:51:00 PM