Faces of Jerusalem: A Moving Narrative
Election day in Israel is wild. Venturing into the streets of Jerusalem on election day, one would soon find themselves surrounded by seemingly every individual in the city: families out for ice cream, young adults advertising their parties, shopkeepers and street vendors screaming their prices. Seeing, in mass, the individuals who live in Jerusalem provides a stark reminder to the city’s diversity.
Mimicking the “Humans of New York” project, students on the semester abroad program TRY (Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim) were sent out into the streets of Jerusalem to learn about the individuals who call Jerusalem home. Over the course of a series of conversations with random individuals on Jerusalem’s streets, I was able to gain a more accurate and educated perspective on who lives in Jerusalem, what things they cherish, and what they wish to see changed in their city and Israel as a whole.
Conversing with these individuals, I found some of my preconceived notions were reinforced, while others entirely reinvented. My experience enforced above all, that Jerusalem is a city with a variety of inhabitants from diverse places and backgrounds. Collectively these diverse, complex and varied individuals contribute to and make Jerusalem the unique city it is today.
I was reminded that when we think of Jerusalem we must not allow ourselves to project the images in our mind and the news onto the city’s inhabitants, but rather, we should strive to meet and speak to as many of them as possible. This experience highlighted for me that understanding who makes up a city and what those individuals stand for is a vital step in understanding the conflicts and dilemmas which face the location in question.
These conversations helped me to understand that one cannot expect to understand a location’s intricacies and complex, multifaceted issues, without getting to know individuals. While the news we read tends to refer to “groups” in a facile manner, it is important to remember that these groupings don't catch the nuance, hopes, and dreams of the diverse individuals that these groupings represent. I learned from these conversations that while labels or groupings may have some role in framing discourse, they are clearly not a helpful tool for understanding the complexities of the human heart, mind, and aspirations.
I hope that next time you hear someone speak negatively about a group within Israel, you will remember the true diversity of opinion here. Rather than quickly jumping to an opinion, do as I did, meet and begin to understand the individuals who are unlike yourself. This way you will come to have a more nuanced and fully-rounded picture of the complexity of Israel politics and social issues.
Editor’s Note: To read these faces of Jerusalem, click here.
