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Jerusalem

	Here's the Western Wall ("Kotel") and the Temple Mount. The Kotel is the remaining western wall of the Second Temple which was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE. The previous Jewish Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, was located in the same spot. This area was under Jordanian sovereignty between 1948 and 1967 and was closed to Jews. The Dome of the Rock (the golden dome, right) and the Al Aqsa Mosque are on the Temple Mount, directly above the Kotel plaza.
Leila and Rosalie at the Western Wall Plaza.	Above them, near the Temple Mount, is a minaret with microphones.
Many people write little notes or prayers asking for peace or other miracles and stuff them into the cracks. I wrote one too; can't hurt.	A recent excavation of the South Wall of the ancient Temple. It's now possible to see the actual steps that the Jews walked up to bring sacrifices to the Temple during the holiday pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

Moving into the Cardo area (the old Greek marketplace) we see all that remains of the Hurva Synagogue, where my grandparents, Kalman and Yocheved were married. It was destroyed by the Jordanians during the war in 1948 and was off-limits to Jews (along with the rest of the Jewish Quarter and the Old City) until the city was liberated in 1967. Click on the plaque to see the old Hurva and read the text.

After graduating from college, I spent a year living in Israel, mostly in Jerusalem. My home-away-from-home was with my mother's cousin Chaika and her husband, Chaim, the secretary of the Rav Kook Yeshiva, in their apartment in Kiryat Moshe. Chaim died several years ago. Here's the family: Chaika's daughter and son-in-law, Adina and Chaim, Mike and Hanna, Chaika and me.

I worked at the Jewish Institute for the Blind, across the street from Chaika's house, teaching English to blind high school kids. In return, the kids taught me Hebrew Braille and how to stay calm while they skateboarded at breakneck speed down a really steep loading dock ramp.