May Sound "Tinny," But Looks Gorgeous! A Short Jerusalem Walk Through Mamilla Mall, Musical Art

I wonder if anyone will look at this post. The title just isn't very attractive/catchy.

A few weeks ago I ended up walking through the Mamilla Mall. At this point, I just can't remember why I was there. But the reason isn't really important. The pictures are gorgeous, and I'm pretty sure I haven't yet posted them. Of course, if you are a facebook friend you may have seen them, because I use facebook for my blogging pictures.

Whenever I'm at the Mamilla Mall, which is right near Jaffa Gate, Old City, Jerusalem, I think of our first year in Israel.  We were living in the Old City, in the Maon Betar.  We walked Mamilla Street, the original one, to shop.  We did most of our shopping in Super Sol on Agron, which is the continuation of the street after it meets King David Street.  When we didn't need much more than milk and cheese we'd shop in Levi's makolet grocery store on Mamilla.  It was this tiny old-fashioned neighborhood grocer across from the dilapidated buildings that were destroyed in order to make the upscale shopping mall/street.  The building where Levi's store was no longer exists. It was replaced by those super-expensive apartments, referred to as ghost-owned, since most are empty a good part of the year.  The owners use them as vacation homes, instead of hotels.

The people who had lived and worked on the street when it was used as target practice by the Jordanians when they illegally held Eastern Jerusalem, 1948-67, were rehoused, "urban renewal," into instant slums in other neighborhoods.  But that's another story more suitable for Shiloh Musings...

I wonder if people who used to live there in those quaint old buildings with the gorgeous windows come back with their children and grandchildren and tell them what it was like way back when....