What a dump

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“Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.”
-- Isaiah 64:10



“Jerusalem is mournful and dreary and lifeless. I would not desire to live here.”

-- Mark Twain, ch. 53 of “Innocents Abroad”, 1867


When I was last in Israel, ten years ago, I vividly remember reading these disparaging remarks made by one of America’s greatest writers, which were prominently displayed on posters in Israel’s Diaspora Museum.

Naturally, I was defensive.
Who the hell is Mark Twain to diss Israel?

After having lived in Jerusalem for nearly 8 months, I can honestly say… I see where he was coming from.

“It is a hopeless, dreary, heart-broken land" (ch.56)

First of all, when he visited the Holy Land, it WAS all of those things. Swamps, desert, miserable, etc.
Very different from Israel of today.

… But not ALL that different:

Close to truth:
“To reproduce a Jerusalem street, it would be necessary to up-end a chicken coop and hang it in an alley of American houses.”

And
“The streets are roughly and badly paved with stone… such streets are too narrow for carriages.” (ch. 53)

Ha!
The more things change… but then again, the Middle East has never been big on change.

There are homeless people here in Jerusalem, and thousands of amorous stray cats, and condemned buildings… but it’s kinda like Manhattan—from a distance, over a bridge, at sunset, there’s no other place quite like it.

It feels... special. It feels important. It feels like home.
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