British Mandate period postbox

My father (GRHS) fought in the Second World War and after he was demobbed (allowed to return to civilian life) he decided to stay on 'Z' reserve and received 8 shillings (thirty seven and a half pence, or U.S. 90c) a week from the British Government for doing so.

Then came the Korean War, and as he was on Z Reserve, he was called up (drafted).

My mother and I used to go to the park and on the way, we would post letters to my father while he was in the army in Korea. The postbox was set in a stone wall, and dated from the days of Queen Victoria. It was unusual to see such an old postbox even then, and it was in part because the box was old that we posted the letters there, because we felt (or my mother encouraged me to feel) that in posting the letters from such a special box, we were somehow protecting my father from what might otherwise happen to him.

So today, when I saw this postbox set in the wall in front of a building near here, I was carried back to those days when I was a small child.

The lettering on the flap above the slot, reads 'POST OFFICE', or at least I can read the word POST and the last two letters of the next word, so I expect that is what it reads. From the style of the lettering I think it dates from George VI, who was King from 1938 to 1952, though it may date from his father's reign.

UPDATE: A dear friend, Julian Barnett, tells me he thinks the box was much more likely to date from the reign of George V. And sure enough, a quick look at the records of one of the societies in England that specialises in postboxes (pillar boxes if they are freestanding) shows me that the sans-serif style of lettering was used in George V's time. So, unless this box was a late-comer, it probably was erected/inserted, in the reign of George V.

The little half-cup shaped handle at the bottom is there, and I remember these well, because as a small child they seemed to me to be such a satisfactory design, and special, for they were only for the postman to use, as was the lock.

I remember postmen would carry a large bunch of keys or a ring that was several inches in diameter - with keys that were maybe five inches long or more, to open the various postboxes on their rounds.

The postbox is cast iron, showing the influence of the industrial revolution that made such a mark on British design.

I think that to the right of, or underneath the notice at the top of the postbox, there was once the crest of the Royal Family.

The notice at the top is in English and Arabic, - no Hebrew - but it does refer to Friday and Eve of Holidays, so it seems to have a Jewish connection.

Ivy on Palm Trees and Lotto

This palm tree in the courtyard of offices of the Society For The Protection Of Nature In Israel, here in Jerusalem, is nicely trimmed and perhaps because of the rain recently, the ivy looks perky.




Lotto

Architectural Detail on Ben Yehuda

Above the shops, the architectural from an earlier time.

Cats

Today the 29th January, it is windy and bitingly cold, despite the sun. And the cats about the town seemed to have a kind of measured alertness in their stride. And others were sitting warming themselves in quiet spots, like this one.

There are thousands of cats living here and it is obvious that the overwhelming majority have no owners and are living their cat-lives among the rest of us, and seem none the worse for it.

Beit Hama' laot

On the better part of King George Street (George V, from the British Mandate period) and not far from the Great Synagogue and some new Univeristy buildings, there is a lovely building that dominates a corner, and on the building there is this plaque.

House styles

I had not intended to make a comparison of the standards of housing in Jerusalem through these three photos. And the fact is that the second of the photos is of a house that is dilapidated by Jerusalem standards. But the three photos do serve to make the statement that there is a multiplicity of styles and standards here.

A glance above the shopfronts on Ben Yehuda, a pedestrianised street in the centre of town, shows some buildings with beautiful architectural detail. Whereas some of the shopfronts themselves look like poor newcomers living in the ruins of another civilization's former glory. That said, the new bank on the lower corner of the street carried echoes of the future; of what the street will be like 20 years from now, when development money moves in. It is all glass and smooth Jerusalem stone. And it echoes the past, because it is only a year or two ago that on the site there stood a labyrinthine store, selling 'everything'.

But that is not all the story, and the amount of new building on the fringes of the city (mostly for living accomodation) is staggering. It is new building on a scale and with a pace and energy befitting a first world country, which it seems this country aspires to be. For the moment though, downtown Jerusalem is like lower Manhattan south of the Port Authority, or like parts of London South of the Thames - poor and old, but lively.

Pesach

The Jewish day begins and ends at sundown. Which means, say the commentaries, that the day moves through darkness to light.

The consequence is that Jewish holidays begin on the evening of the first day and end at sundown on the last day.

'Erev' Pesach is the first evening of Passover, and this year it is on the 2nd April (14 Nisan 5767 in the Hebrew Calendar), and maybe I can be the first to send a card : )



Card design © David Bennett

Public Notice Boards

Walking around Mea Shearim (a predominantly religious area of Jerusalem), one can see people directing bill-posters as to what and where to paste up notices on the Notice Boards. And the people doing the directing are private individuals, and anyone can put a notice on a board, and the boards truly are Public Notice Boards. The bill-posters themselves are a sight to see; hands, trousers, brushes and pails dripping with fresh paste and encrusted with dried paste. And working at top speed.

What's on the Public Notice Boards depends on which part of the city you are in.

This one is not far from Emek Refaim, a street that is the hub for a comparatively well-to-do area of the city. There are trees, well-designed houses and apartment buildings and a population the kind of cafes that are frequented by people who would feel at home in a 'modern' cafe or restaurant anywhere in the world. Quite a number of them are a young floating population who stay for some months and then go back home to the States or England or elsewhere. So what is being advertised reflects this modern, urban population.




This one is in an older part of the town centre.



In contrast, the Notice Boards in Mea Shearim, (a poorer and predominantly religious neighbourhood) deal with different concerns. The first of the following noticese is advertising an event right at the corner where the Notice Board is.










Some of the older parts of the town centre are run-down. Given the pace of building in Israel (very fast) it is not hard to imagine big swathes of downtown Jerusalem being redeveloped over the next twenty years. Whether the developers will keep the facades of the buildings is an open question. Some buildings clearly date from the Mandate period and before, with stones facades and good architectural detail. Some other buildings are on their last legs and never amounted to much. The question is whether the more deserving architectural parts will be junked along with the rest.

A light railway is being built at the moment that will go to various parts of the centre and to the outskirts, and one one side of the approach to Jaffa Gate there is a billboard showing an artist's impression of what it will look like. (photo to follow)

Where is Israel?

-- CLICK ON MAP FOR LARGER VIEW -- (the yellow splodge marks Jerusalem)

Since I was a boy I have looked at maps and tried to get a picture in my mind of where things are.

So: Israel is at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Its longest border is with Jordan on the east and at its southern tip at Eilat, it opens into the Gulf of Aqaba.

Turn west and you are into Egypt. Travel south by sea about 25km (15 miles) down the Gulf of Aqaba, and turn east, you are into Saudi Arabia.

And in the north there are borders with Syria and with Lebanon.

So, four countries border it and the fifth (Saudi Arabia) is just a few miles down the gulf.

And the whole eastern border of Israel is a continuation of the Great Rift Valley that churns through huge distances of central Africa. Which accounts partly for why Israel is such an important place for birds; for they use the Rift Valley as a route for migrations.

And continue further south, beyond the Gulf of Aqaba and you are into the Red Sea, which according to the popular view, the Israelites crossed on their route out of Egypt 3,300 years ago. Except the Israelites crossed Yam Suf, which translates as the Sea of Reeds, and which according to the Jewish commentaries is either the delta at the mouth of the Nile or it is the Gulf of Suez, the sister gulf to the Gulf of Aqaba and which runs north-west from the Red Sea and up towards the Mediterranean east of the Nile. And which now connects to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal.

Amos Elon 'The Israelis: Founders and Sons'

I have now got a copy of the book my neighbour recommended. It is 'The Israelis" Founders and Sons' by Amos Elon, and it is easy reading (always a big plus for me) and clever. It starts with the 1968 celebration that marked the 20th anniversary of the Jewish State. It describes the military parade and fly-past that some among the government and around, were unhappy about - military parades being in some ways anathema to the Jewish ideal. But this was 11 months after the 1967 war and some people wanted to honour the soldiers who had turned the events into victory.

It described how before that war there were tv broadcasts from Egypt and other surrounding countries with crowds baying for blood (that seems such a cliche) and the Arab leaders talking about wiping Israel off the face of the map.

Well, the war came and went, and the outcome was a surprise to many. But what the book describes is that at the time of the celebration of the State of Israel, 11 months after the war, a sense of melancholy had crept in, for no Arab State had agreed to a peace treaty, which had been the dream and half-expectation of the Israelis after the 1967 war. So to those Israelis, it seemed they would have to fight the war again, and perhaps again after that.

The book then homes in on the grand old men, the founders, sitting on the podium, and from there we go on our tour of the history and founding of the State.

The book though also describes how the in the years before the founding of the State and during its founding, many non-Jews were displaced, and now, with the capturing of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, they were back within Israel's borders and control.

As to who those people were (and are), and how they came to be there, how long they had been there, and how many of them there were, is the subject of controversy, propaganda and myth.

One group argues that in the years before and during the Second World War many people were 'imported' from neighbouring countries in order to affect the number of Jews who could immigrate within the terms of the policy of the British Government during their Mandate. Another group says that the people were there and had been there for many years. A third group asks how it is relevant how long they had been there, and that the only question is how shall they live.

More about that when I have read some more.

Fruit labels

I am collecting the labels from fruit - pears, plums, apples, avocado, oranges and others. How do they get on there? Are they put on by hand? Are they put on by machine as the fruit moves along the conveyor?

Mezzuzot

Twice in the Bible, Jews are commanded to affix a mezzuzah to the doorpost of their houses. There are rules about precisely when and where they should be placed, and in the doorways of which rooms they should and should not be placed. A mezzuzah is a piece of writing and for details of what is written click HERE to read the WikiPedia entry. The mezzuzah (plural mezzuzot) must be protected from the elements, and so it is covered, with a cover made of metal, glass, wood, or some other material. Typically the covers are betwen three and six inches (9 to 15cm) long.

Many of the buildings in the commercial shopping centre of Jerusalem are stone-fronted and have been through several incarnations. And unlike the mezzuzah covers in the doorways of private houses in the residential areas, many of the mezzuzahs are sunk into the stonework.

This first one is not recessed but it is polished in the middle by the countless people who have touched their fingers to it as they entered the building.














The original mezzuzah that was recessed into the stonework has been removed, and a new one screwed to the stone.




Another mezzuzah with part worn and polished by the hands of people entering the building.




And a large, modern cover.

Amos Elon and Philip Roth

On the recommendation of a neighbour, I looked for a certain book by Amos Elon. I haven't found it yet but I did find 'Jerusalem: City of Mirrors" by him and in the Chronology at the front I came across this reference to Teddy Kollek. (Click on the photograph to see a larger version).





For those interested in the book, and it seems to cover the last two thousand plus years of the history of Jerusalem, the copy I have is published by Flamingo and the ISBN is 0 00 637531 6. There is a quote by Philip Roth on the front cover. He calls it "A brilliantly illuminating book".

Sidetrack
I read "The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth when it came out about two years ago. It details the fictitious rise and fading away of mainstream political fascism in the U.S.A. in the nineteen forties. As the story lives in a parallel universe to the events which actually occurred in the U.S, but which echoes what happened in Germany, it seemed uncomfortably plausible.

Philip Roth's next book "Everyman" describes the central character's decay into death, his body failing around him; his desires mounting up against him. It describes his desire to break out of politeness, and give a voice to his anger and resentment and pain he feels as his health gives out, and his attempts to make an impression on a world that at one and the same time he wants and which no longer tastes good to him.

Lotto

More on the Flowering Season

I am indebted to a friend (Nathanael Dror) who has lived here in Israel for many years, for his observations about the length of the flowering season here in Israel.

He points out that this is a relatively new phenomenon and that the long season stretching into the winter months, is bad for many plants that are accustomed to and in need of, a dormant season.

The change in the weather means that they suffer from exposure to sudden cold, and from the stress on them to grow without rest. And this problem also affects fruit that is grown commercialy, including grapes, peaches, apricots, plums, and pears.

Nathanael mentions a similar problem currently affecting cherries in Washington D.C., and with a little googling I found an article this month in USA Today which reports "Other plants, however, could have problems from the high temperatures. Maryland apple and peach growers say buds have appeared on some of their trees, raising the prospect of a poor crop if a sudden cold snap kills the blossoms".

You can see from the shadows on this flower, that the sunlight is strong, even now in January.




Lemons and Oranges
This little lemon tree in the garden here, is about five feet tall and has six or so lemons hanging from thin branches that hardly seem strong enough to bear the weight. It's particularly satisfying to graze a thumbnail across the surface of the lemons and smell the tangy lemon flavour.

We waited for oranges in the local shops all the way through Autumn/Fall, wondering whether we had missed the season. But they arrived about a month ago and the shops are full of them now.



Warm Gloves
All the way through to last November (2006) it was very warm and even today in the middle of January 2007, the sun is out in full splendour. There have however been some bitterly cold days and nights. It is not surprising that there have been cold nights, because Jerusalem is on the edge of the Judean desert, and at an elevation of 750 metres (2500 feet) and the cloudless night skies allow the temperatures to drop to freezing and below. The few bitterly cold days we have had are another story though, and I have been surprised to find myself swaddled in winter clothes, gloves and scarf, heading for the warmth of the coffee bar, wondering what happened to the Mediterranean climate.

A Long Flowering Season

It snowed for a day about a week ago and it has been raining for the last few days. Still there are flowers on bushes and trees. The flowering season here is very long.

The Dead Sea

Jerusalem is about 15 miles (25 kilometres) from the Dead Sea, as the crow flies. The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on Earth at 1,400 feet (408 metres) below sea level. That is about as far below sea level as the height of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. So, the journey from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea involves a drop of about 4000 feet (1200 metres) and, of course, a long climb back the other way. Travelling by car, the desert appears within minutes of leaving the city and except for roadworks, the desert looks untamed.

Masada is at the southern end of the Dead Sea and from the clifftop one can sea the Dead Sea and the hills of Jordan beyond.


The Dead Sea from Masada

Teddy Kollek

Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem for 28 years (until 1993), died on Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, aged 95. He was buried today and before that his body lay in State in Safra Square outside the Municipal offices in Jerusalem so mourners could pay their respects. Everyone I heard there and elsewhere, had only good things to say about him. He was obviously a dynamic man, who achieved a lot for the city of Jerusalem, both while he was mayor, and afterwards. From the way people speak of him, he had a stature well beyond that of simply being described as a mayor.



Mourning Cards
As mourners came close to where his coffin was lying, we were handed small cards with a peel-off back. Mourners stuck them to the front of their jackets or coats and soon there was a sea of mourning cards in front of the coffin. The card reads "We will remember" and then below that, Teddy kollek's name and the years he lived according to the Hebrew calendar.





Notice Boards
The public notice boards, of which there are many around the city, were covered in death notices lodged by various organisations, including the municipality itself. This one is on Jaffa Road, just a short distance from Safra Square.





Safra Square
Safra Square was marked off with barriers so mourners could file past his coffin.





Lying in State
Jewish law requires that unless there is some supervening reason, a person is buried as soon as practicably possible.
Accordingly, Teddy Kollek's body lay in State for part of this morning and then was buried in the Mount Herzl cemetry.





Mourner





Procession

After Chanukah

During Chanukah, people light candles to honour and celebrate the miracle that took place during the rededication of the temple, when the Maccabeean Jews led a successful revolt against Hellenised, assimilated Jews and against the Selucid Greek opression. It is customary to show the outside world that one is lighting the candles, and so they are often placed on a windowsill or outside. Of course it might rain or the wind might blow out the candles, and so they are placed in a glass-walled box. This box is still hanging by a doorway after Chanukah. There is no glass forming the walls of the box and the lights have been taken away, but the box is there.





And here is the doorway where the box was hung. The doorway is a remnant of what it once was and no longer gives out into an enclosed courtyard, but now leads into a street and further into the neighbourhood.