"Suburban Life" in Jerusalem's Old City Walls

Over forty years ago, when I was pregnant with our first child we were living in Jerusalem's Old City, in Maon Betar. There were very few Jewish families in the Old City. We were the first Jewish American, young, newly wed olim chadashim, new immigrants.

At that time, there weren't proper sidewalks. There was mud, well packed after centuries of pounding by feet and wagons. In many places, Israel had begun to dig them up and lay modern sewers, water pipes etc. Neither the British Mandate, nor Jordan which had illegally occupied it for 19 years had done any work on it. We could barely get around. Planks of wood were at our door, and Arab workers were underneath. There was no way I would stay there once I gave birth. I had alwys expected to walk around wheeling my babies through parks etc.  So we moved to Bayit Vegan where we had bought an apartment.

A couple of weeks ago, when I ascended to Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount we visited a couple of Jewish homes in the Hebron Quarter. In one of them I saw this.

How wonderful that now there are young Jewish families there, and the kids do all the things I couldn't imagine doing there in my time, baby carriages, bicycles... just like in the suburbs....