So I decided to right a blog and share some of the things I think worth sharing, you may say exposing about my city Jerusalem, where I was born and raised, specifically the old city and places of interest for tourist and locals a like.
But first a few words about myself, my name is Shimon Mizrahi, I'm an Israeli, descendent to Syrian Jewish grandparents that fled riots/pogroms in Aleppo mid 1930's, and settled in Jerusalem.
I'm here to tell you about Jerusalem from my angle, some info about sites, food, restaurants, and other.
Jerusalem is a wonderful city, and even though you won't see it on Google maps, unofficially it's divided to 3 cities (I'm talking about the city of Jerusalem as a whole, not the Old City with its 4 quarters), East Jerusalem – where mostly X Jordanian, green card status residents/Palestinian live. West Jerusalem – where mostly secular Jews lives (including me), and Ultra-Orthodox/Hassidic Jews that lives in the Northern parts of the city. There are acceptations of course, like Pisgat Ze'ev, a secular neighborhood in the Northern part of Jerusalem with a population of over 50,000 (out of roughly 900,000 in the Jerusalem) and until 1967 it was under Jordan, so it's East Jerusalem. Or in the west affluent neighborhoods of Jerusalem like Rehavia, Nachlaor and the German Colony there's plenty of Ultra-Orthodox Jews. But that split is pretty accurate to say. Now, most of us have little in common, we don't even talk the same language! We speak Hebrew, Arabic and Yiddish (around 70 percent of Yiddish is German words, and 25 percent is eastern European mix, with less than 5 percent Hebrew I cannot understand a word of what they say!), we don't marry each other, we don't walk around in the other parts of the city, we dress different, wend our kids to different schools, have zero social events together, and even have different gods :-), Mohamad and Allah for the Muslims, the Jewish Hassidic god, and the Jewish capitalist one (I vote for him) a.k.a Benjamin Franklin, you may think it's a joke but I assure you we are (the capitalist ones) are true believers, we have uniforms (with brand names like Nike), we walk around with are smart phones (true believer will go with and IPhone), we don't know we're in a sect and we're positive we're right and the rest are wrong (that's the first characteristic of a sect).
Walking around the city will let you see it all - the people, the sects, different dressing codes, head covers, earplugs, security uniform, IDF soldiers, the condition of women in the different areas (can be seeing clearly in the Old City), some things will pop up immediately like how many people in east Jerusalem where eye glasses vs. in the west side, how many of them has working jeans, or putting gel in the hair (among the youngsters), other things are less visible like undercover security escorting the Jewish families home in the Muslim areas.
Other than information I'd like share here, there's the eateries I'd like to recommend, and even though this is the first time I publishing, this shouldn't be an exception.
Going to the Old City in Jerusalem with a guide, a travel book, or group tour you should go to Hidmi, that is THE best Falafel you'll ever taste in your life!
I pretty sure that you had Falafel in your life and it could be that you even had good ones, but this is nothing like you ever had! This is the master of Falafel, the The Soup Nazi of the Falafels (yes he's that good). To get that flavor you have to order half a pita (not full size pita) with extra Tahini and it should be just a little spicy (hafif shata in Arabic), you can order the full pita and I did it plenty of times in my life, but for some reason it does not taste the same like half pita, I'm not sure why, but 2 half are better than one full pita.
Most of the time the place is packed and the mentality here is a bit pushy, but be patient and wait for your turn, it's wort it. It's the ultimate street food.
Half pita cost 5 Shekel, bottle of water cost 7 Shekel, no tip necessary.
Next time I'll get into the specifics of the Old City.
You can contact me with questions via emails.
Enjoy your visit,
Shimon Mizrahi – Best Jerusalem tours
Private tour guide in Israel
