Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #36 Cinema City- Not Just for Intermission

 See #35,  #34,  #33, #32,  #31, #30, #29, #28, #27, #26, #25, #24,  #23, #22,  #21, #20, #19, #18, #17,   #16, , #15a, #15, #14, #13, #12, #11, #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, Saved by The First Station aka #4a, #4, #3, #2 and #1.

In the cinemas of my youth, there was nothing other than a snack bar for buying popcorn, soda and other noshes before stepping into the darkened movie theater plus some difficult to find public toilets. One needed to remember to visit either before, after or during the intermission as not to disturb the other moviegoers. Of course, there was only one large screen and movie showing at a time. Sometimes there were double-features, and you got to stay to see two movies for the price of one. 

Today movie theaters are now malls offering a variety of restaurants and even event halls, besides the fact that there are multiple movies playing simultaneously. Even more "shocking" to those of us raised in the mid-twentieth century is the fact that you can go to a place like Cinema City for something as unentertaining as a visit to the doctor, which is why I was there yesterday.

Nestled among the restaurants, stores and pubs on the main floor are the public toilets. Look up, and you'll see the signs pointing the way. When I was there yesterday, they were clean and well-equipped with soap and toilet paper.
You can tell that they were designed to suit the ambience of the location. 

Having gone to movies in the Jerusalem Cinema City, I recommend taking advantage of these on the main floor, if possible. They are much larger and nicer than the ones near the movie-viewing halls.

Actually, you can think of Cinema City as a nice indoor restaurant mall or food court. There's a small selection of restaurants and snack places, all kosher, either meat or dairy. There's even a grocery store where you can buy some healthy food, not just sugared or salty nosherei.

Public transportation is convenient. I suggest searching on Google Maps. And for those who like to walk, you'd be amazed at how centrally located the Jerusalem Cinema City actually is.

I hope that this has been helpful and was surprised that I hadn't reviewed it earlier. If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments, thanks. Or email me at shilohmuse@gmail.com subject: Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem. I'm also on facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Celebrating YOM HA'ALIYAH Making One's Home in Israel, The Holy Land

 

For the past few years a "new holiday" has joined the Israeli Calendar, YOM HA'ALIYAH, a time to honor those who made aliyah-- immigrated to Israel. My husband and I made the move two months after our wedding in the summer of 1970. You can read about it here part 1 and part 2. 

YOM ALIYAH is celebrated around the Torah Portion Lech Lecha in which Gd commands Avram-Abram (before his name is changed to Avraham-Abraham) to get himself going to the Land Gd will show him.

בראשית י״ב  

לך לך

א- וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃

1- יהוה said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

Over the millennium many Jews all exiled over the world have felt these words from Gd personally and made their way whether by plane, boat, wagon or foot to the Holy Land, the Land of Israel, even before the modern State of Israel had been established. I was one of them.

I'll never forget how I broke the news of my plans to my parents, who had barely adjusted to my religious observance. You must understand that we were an ordinary American Jewish family, which lit Chanukah candles, had an abridged Passover Seder, were even members of a synagogue, Conservative-- which was the most popular and rapidly growing in the 1950s. But the kitchen wasn't kosher, and Shabbat and many Jewish Holidays weren't on our family calendar.

When I was thirteen 13 we moved to a different community, and the only synagogue actively recruiting new members was Orthodox, the Great Neck Synagogue. There I joined their Teen Club to make friends. It was a chapter of NCSY National Conference of Synagogue Youth, where I was introduced to "Torah True Judaism" which changed my life. Soon after, one of the local Jewish activists got me involved in Betar and Zionism, icing on the cake of my Jewish Life.

I didn't want any ideological, philosophical arguments with my parents about my plan to move to Israel, so I simply said:

"You couldn't stop me from keeping Shabbat and Kashrut. Living in Israel is just another mitzvah, and you can't stop me from doing that either."

It worked. They had no answer, though sometimes I wonder if they were happy to get me far from my younger siblings as not to corrupt them with my revolutionary life style. Within a few years, my mother enjoyed being the local expert in helping other parents with similarly "eccentric" children.

Obviously, Lech Lecha has always been my favorite Torah Portion of The Week. I live in a community, Shiloh, that is a fantastic stew of longtime Israelis and and much newer ones from all over the world. Our local region Mateh Binyamin, which is like an American county, is the same sort of mix. This year Mateh Binyamin made a big festive event to which we had been invited. I really enjoyed seeing so many people; some had been customers of mine when I worked in Yafiz. The highlight was an old-fashioned Israeli singalong. The choice of songs was just perfect.

It's the truth to say that I celebrate YOM HA'ALIYAH daily. I've never once considered that decision I made as a teenager to have been a mistake.