December 25

    The outer walls of the Old City of Jerusalem are from “only the

1500’s,” our guide told us at the start of today’s tour.

    By contrast, the site of the City of David is just outside those

walls and now a disputed neighborhood among Israelis and Palestinians. 

Archaeological evidence from King David’s time has been found in the

14th of 21 layers of civilizations.

     In another neighborhood outside the “new” outer walls, what was

undesirable real estate in West Jerusalem and made available to the

Reform Jewish movement because it was too close to the border between

Israel and Jordan from 1948-67 when bullets were flying, is now very

valuable property.

      Inside the Old City of Jerusalem, in the Jewish Quarter, on sites

where properties were destroyed by the Jordanians, houses now sit in

pylons to preserve the archaeological sites underneath.

      An older outer wall of the City has been found in the midst of the

Jewish Quarter.  (There are also Muslim, Christian, and Armenian

Quarters.)  It reminds me that North Ave. was once the northern

boundary of Baltimore.

      Cities expand their borders as their populations grow.  In

Jerusalem that has happened over millennia and in the midst of fighting

among and within the three monotheistic faiths.

       The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus was crucified,

buried and resurrected, is on the site of the Temple of Aphrodite.  The

current demarcations between Christian faiths inside this extraordinary

structure date back to the settlement of the Crimean War.

     Merry Christmas and Shabbat Shalom!