Within these walls lies a mystical city...
an ancient promise of peace so desired
that man has warred over it for
thousands of years.
Over the centuries its walls
have been reddened
by the blood of Jebusites and Jews,
Babylonians and Persians
armies of Arabs, Crusaders,
Ottoman Turks, and the British Empire.
Sacred city of the soul for one
third of the earth's people,
through the millennia it has drawn
mankind to itself like a magnet.
To all who live, work, and visit here,
this is more than a city;
it is a haven the fulfillment
of some dream
or prophecy the legacy of generations
who have gone before.
For this man and his family,
coming here was the consummation
of a promise made,
This man came here as an orphaned boy
and found a miniature version of
his lost nation.
The dark shadow of h*tler's
armies advancing
across Europe drove this man
on a path
that led to the discovery of his roots
in the very earth beneath his home.
The magnetism of the city's Holy
Places is so strong
that this man risked losing his
own family to come here.
Proud inheritor of a name
that has lived in this city
for 1,300 years,
this man's life bridges past
and future.
From near and far they have come,
searching for refuge, for their pasts,
and the meaning of the present.
Three thousand years of vibrant
history, hope,
and belief are rooted here
within the walls of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, within these walls
in the tiny enclave that is
the Old City,
some of the greatest dramas
in the history
of mankind have been enacted.
This is a story of that city crucible
of the world's three
great monotheistic religions...
symbol of peace in an area of
turmoil and upheaval.
It is a story of peoples of
profoundly different cultures
who struggle to maintain
those differences
people who have fought each other,
but now live side by side in
sometimes uneasy coexistence.
Jews from around the world pray
at the Western Wall vestige of
the Second Temple...
object of Jewish yearning and
prayer for 2,000 years.
Here, built on the sites
where tradition says Jesus spent
His last moments on earth,
was crucified and entombed,
is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Most holy of shrines
in the Christian world,
this church has attracted pilgrims
since the time of Constantine
the Great.
In the walls of their
ancient quarter,
Armenians strive to preserve the
heritage of a vanished kingdom...
in their lives... and in the hearts
and minds of their younger generation.
Consecrated under this Dome is the
sacred rock where,
tradition says,
Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac...
over which the ancient temples of
the Jews were built...
from which, Muslims proclaim,
Muhammad journeyed to heaven.
This tumult of people and history
intersects in the labyrinth of
the ancient bazaars.
Wrapped around the venerable city
like the setting
for an exotic jewel are the walls
retaining traces
of the eras of King Herod,
the Romans, and Crusaders...
last rebuilt by Suleiman the
Magnificent 400 years ago.
Outside the walls, there is the
twentieth century,
the new city of Jerusalem,
and the administrative center of
the nation of Israel.
Inside is a city believed
by medieval man
to be the center of the Universe,
a city known to more people
for a longer time
than any other on earth.
Here, the heart of historic
Jerusalem still beats.
Its ethnic-religious quarters cling
to the sites that give them life:
the Dome of the Rock:
third holiest place of Islamic
pilgrimage after Mecca
and Medina and focal point of
the Muslim Quarter...
the Western Wall
known as the Wailing Wall...
symbol of the Jewish Quarter...
the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,
core of the Christian Quarter that
has grown around it...
the Cathedral of St. James,
spiritual center of the
Armenian Quarter.
Twenty-six thousand souls make their
home in the Old City,
packed into an area of less than
one square mile.
Their story began 3,000 years ago,
when King David bought the threshing
floor on this hill as the site
for the temple of the Jew's one God.
Having subdued the Jebusites,
he transformed their city
into the capital
of the United Kingdom of Israel
and thrust Jerusalem center stage in
a drama that continues to this day.
Once a royal center of
impressive structures
and massive fortifications,
the City of David has begun to reveal
its past to archeologists
under the direction of Dr. Yigal
Shiloh of the Hebrew University.
"David made this city more important
than others
by choosing this location to become
the capital of Judea at the south
and Israel at the north."
The residential area of David's
capital probably looked
much like this village of today.
Urbanization undoubtedly began here
because of the presence of the
Spring of Gihon
a constant source of water.
At the end of the eighth century B.C.,
anticipating an att*ck by the Assyrians,
King Hezekiah ordered
this tunnel built.
"Why should the kings of Assyria
come and find much water?"
asks the Bible in Second Chronicles
Cut deep underground,
the tunnel carried the water
nearly 1,800 feet
from the spring outside the wall
to a point inside the city.
"This system was done by king Hezekiah
as it is described in the Bible
and the inscription that was found
at the southern end of the tunnel."
The city survived the siege
of the Assyrians.
But in 586 B.C., Babylonian forces
b*rned Jerusalem,
massacred thousands, and exiled
the enslaved survivors.
Archeologists have uncovered poignant
reminders of those
who once lived here,
including clay seals bearing names
of people mentioned in the Bible.
The lament of the exiles echoes
through history:
"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning...
let my tongue cleave to the roof
of my mouth,
if I prefer not Jerusalem above
my chief joy!"
A half century later,
the Persians defeated the Babylonians
and allowed the Jews to return.
The Second Temple rose on the site
of the first.
This model depicts Jerusalem as it was
when Jesus came here to celebrate
the festival of Passover.
Although He knew the repressive
Roman rulers
had labeled Him a rebel,
He continued to preach brotherhood
kindness, and charity.
In the last days before
His Crucifixion,
Jesus left the temple by these steps.
They are on of the few remnants
that remain for in 70 A.D.,
on the anniversary of the day
the Babylonians
had sacked the First Temple,
the Romans b*rned the city
butchered the people,
and took the rest as slaves.
Thus was Jerusalem destroyed
for a second time.
Six hundred years later
according to Muslim belief,
Muhammad departed for the
throne of God
from the sacred rock of Jerusalem
where the temple had stood.
Aware of the Holy Books of the Jews
and Christians,
Muhammad had converted the
idolatrous tribes of Arabia
to the concept of one God.
Only six years after his death,
an army of his followers stood at
Jerusalem's gates,
claiming the city as their own.
Muslims were to rule Jerusalem
for the next 1,300 years.
Except for two interruptions
when the Crusaders wrested
the city from them.
In the 20th century,
the flame of w*r again flared
in the Holy Land.
World w*r I: The British march
into Palestine
to fight the Ottoman Turks.
As it has some 20 times in
its recorded history,
in 1917 Jerusalem falls.
The Holy City is surrendered
to the British.
Mindful that Jesus had walked
into Jerusalem,
General Sir Edmund Allenby humbly
enters Jaffa Gate on foot.
There are renewed stirrings
of Zionism,
the concept of a modern Jewish nation
In 1947,
the United Nations votes to end
the British Mandate
and partition Palestine into Jewish
and Arab states.
May 14, 1948: David Ben-Gurion
citing"...
the fulfillment of the dream
of generations,"
makes a proclamation Jews everywhere
have long awaited:
"The State of Israel has arisen."
The next day, six neighboring Arab
countries inv*de,
determined to crush the infant nation
before it is born.
With Jerusalem under siege and the
Jewish Quarter ready to fall,
the Holy Books are removed.
Jerusalem is a divided city.
For 19 years the Old City will
be ruled by Jordan.
In 1967, as the Six Day w*r rages,
Israeli paratroopers storm through
St. Stephen's Gate.
Defense Minister Moshe Dayan arrives
at the Western Wall...
in Jewish hands again for
the first time in 2,000 years.
According to ancient custom,
General Dayan writes a prayer
to place in the wall:
"May peace come to the Jewish people."
Today, a fragile peace reigns
in the Walled City.
The Supreme Muslim Council has remained
in charge of the Dome of
the Rock the Israelis
reclaimed the Western Wall,
cherished relic of their lost temple.
Jews from more than one hundred
cultural backgrounds
have come to live in their
ancient capital.
Many are Ashkenazi, from Europe
and the Americas;
the rest, Sephardic and Oriental Jews,
are from Mediterranean regions,
the Middle and Far East.
When the Jewish community in Yemen
heard of the establishment of Israel,
Joseph Zadok and his family decided
to emigrate immediately.
For them, the Biblical prophecy of
the return to Zion was fulfilled.
His grandson, Shalom, explains:
"My family knew from the Bible
and from our tradition that Jerusalem
was the Holy City.
When my family came from Yemen,
they wanted to live only in Jerusalem.
We call it center of the world."
Isolated in remote southern Arabia
for some 2,000 years,
persecuted by their Muslim rulers,
the Jews of Yemen had long dreamed
of redemption
in the promised land.
They clung to their beliefs,
and kept the ancient observances
in their purest form.
Now, celebrating Passover,
the Zadoks commemorate
the Jew's deliverance
from sl*very in Egypt,
just ad Jesus did at what has come
to be known as "The Last Supper."
The Bible promised "They that wait
upon the Lord...
shall mount up with wings as eagles."
In 1949 the Zadoks joined the flood
of Jews
crossing hundred of miles
of desert on foot,
donkey back, and by truck to Aden.
Those who survived the
torturous journey
were flown to the Holy Land
by an airlift dubbed
"Operation Magic Carpet."
Restricted to certain
occupations in Yemen,
many Jews were shoemakers
weavers, jewelers.
Joseph Zadok was a court jeweler
for the King of Yemen.
"Our family has been making jewelry
for more than seven generations.
It is our heritage, our tradition.
When we came from Yemen,
we tried to keep our traditions."
"Most of the Yemenite brides
in Jerusalem
use our wedding dress and jewelry."
The bride, of European ancestry,
carries on her groom's
family tradition.
She wears the elaborate jewelry
and costume the Zakods lend
to bridal parties
for a ceremony called the "hineh"
that accompanied every Jewish
wedding in Yemen.
The henna from which the festivity
derives its name
has long been used as a talisman
of good luck.
If the henna applied to the hands
of the bride
and groom remains in the morning,
their wedding will take place.
Mr. Zadok, a relative of the groom,
is here to bestow a blessing.
Beginning a life together,
this young couple shares
the rich heritage
of their combined European,
Oriental, and Israeli cultures.
During the Jordanian occupation
of the Old City,
the Jewish Quarter had been
nearly destroyed.
When reconstruction began after
the w*r of '67,
Theo and Miriam Siebenberg
were the third family to build here.
"It was my dream to come to Jerusalem.
Jews have been praying for Jerusalem
throughout the centuries,
for thousands of years,
going back even to the time of
the exile in Babylon."
"The Jewish Quarter is full of our
history from 3,000 years ago.
When we came, the Jewish Quarter
was completely destroyed,
and now everything is built and clean.
The changes were immense."
"I was born in Antwerp, Belgium.
My family left Antwerp on May 11,
after the Germans marched into Belgium."
As the n*zi horror swept across Europe,
the Siebenberg family fled...
first by car,
finally even crossing mountains on foot
Always fearful and in hiding,
for months the refugees traveled
against the tide of invaders
until they made their way to safety.
After the w*r, as the Jewish people
struggled to create a homeland,
Theo joined the underground.
Eventually, he made his way here.
Like all Jews born in Israel,
Miriam is known as a "sabra."
"My parents came from Warsaw, Poland.
I was born in Tel Aviv and I went
to regular school
and then the high school.
And after high school I went to the army,
like all the sabras in Israel did.
I thought I'd never leave the army,
I liked it so much."
Miriam and Theo met at a party
Today they often entertain
visiting dignitaries,
drawn by the remarkable discoveries
the Siebenbergs have unearthed.
When Theo and Miriam completed
their house in 1970,
archeologists were digging all around
them in the Jewish Quarter.
Fired by the dramatic finds being made,
Siebenberg determined to build a
museum beneath his home.
As workmen removed 3,000 years of
accumulated debris,
tangible links with those who had
lived on this site
through the millennia began to emerge.
"These stones here are each made out
of one large block of stone.
They are sections actually of
the aqueduct
the passed here 2,000 years ago
and which brought water into the
city of Jerusalem."
"Now this is a mikvah or Jewish
ritual bath,
which is 2,000 years old
and belonged to the mansion
which stood above here.
And of course that was a
three-floor-high house."
The home probably b*rned
when the Romans sacked
Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
"Now if you look down here,
these rooms that you see
down below..."
"...they were hewn out of solid rock
about 3,000 years ago.
That's roughly King Solomon's time.
The openings that you see here were
called a nefesh, or the soul."
"The soul would actually rise out of
these openings,
and there was on top of this a
pyramid-shaped stone structure,
which was the permanent abode of
the soul."
For Theo Siebenberg,
each discovery provided palpable
contact with the past and his people.
"Actually we're four floors under
the house now.
I find this probably the most
exciting part of the excavation.
Actually we're standing in a room
which goes back thousands of years,
and you can almost feel the presence
of the people
who lived here at that time you know,
King Solomon's time
King David's time."
"This is a machine g*n
which was used in the w*r of
Independence in 1948."
"The same week I found this I was
excavating three floors lower
at the other end of the site,
and I found..."
this arrowhead in the w*r
against the Romans in the year 70
of the Common Era."
"So you have this whole span of..."
"Of wars."
"Right."
Absorbed by his passion,
Theo has spent fifteen years
and three million dollars creating
Siebenberg House,
the museum he and Miriam will
leave to the public.
"This was used 2,000 years ago
for crucifixion.
When you think of it...
Now take this inkwell.
You wonder what letters might
have been written
by the owner of the house..."
These artifacts will enable
future generations
to experience their connections
to ancient Jerusalem.
"This here actually is
carbonized wood
from the fire of this
house 2,000 years ago
when the house was destroyed."
"Don't touch it too often.
I see your fingers peeling if off"
"Traces of history"
Fifty years after the armies of Islam
burst like a thunderclap
across the desert to claim Jerusalem,
a Muslim caliph built a shrine
over the holy rock from
which Muhammad had ascended to
the Celestial Spheres.
This magnificent legacy has
drawn the faithful
for more than a thousand years.
Now, during Ramadan,
the Muslim holy month of fasting
and atonement,
thousands of pilgrims journey to
the Old City
for one of the Islamic world's most
important religious observances.
When prayers are over,
the throng disperses through the narrow
alleyways of the Muslim Quarter.
The family of Khalil Khalidi has
lived in the Holy Land
since the day 1,300 years ago
when his ancestor rode into Jerusalem
at the head of a column of
Islamic warriors.
Khalil has a shop in the Muslim Quarter
where he repairs furniture and antiques.
He specializes in
mother-of-pearl inlay.
His neighbor, a blind old player stops
by to pick up the instrument
that Khalil has repaired for him.
Through the centuries,
his family has provided a
succession of scholars
to Jerusalem's Muslim community.
Among their proudest achievements
and possessions is the Khalidi Library.
Founded in 1900, it consists of their
combined private collections:
Persian, English, French, and Turkish.
Khalil's uncle and cousin refer to
one of the many volumes written
by their ancestors.
"My family came to Jerusalem
with the Islamic liberation
in the year 636 B.C., 15 Hegira.
My family lived in Jerusalem
all its time,
but they were forced to Nablus
for 88 years
when the Crusaders occupied the city.
"They came back to Jerusalem with
the famous Islamic leader,
Saladin al Ayubib.
They were the political and the
religious rulers of Jerusalem."
With his cousin he examines their
remarkable family tree.
Each week Khalil goes to the
historic Muslim
cemetery outside the city walls.
"At the cemetery I go to pray
for my ancestor Muhammad Ali Khalidi.
He was the governor of Jerusalem
in the year 1808.
When I go to visit his tomb,
I feel that I am standing in front
of a great man
with deep roots in this country."
During the month of Ramadan the
Muslim Quarter pulse
with activity after sundown.
Here, where ties are old deep,
friend and family gather to commemorate
their ancestors at a mawlid.
Songs celebrating the birth of
the Prophet Muhammad
are followed by a sumptuous meal,
ending the fast they have observed
since sunrise.
Within the walls of the Old City
the ancient traditions resonate
across the ages,
binding the people of the present
with their treasured past.
Ironically, it was a Roman emperor
Constantine the Great,
who adopted Christianity as
the faith of his realm
and assured the future of
the religion.
His mother, the Empress Helena,
journeyed here three centuries
after Christ's death.
Over the sites where she believed
Jesus had been crucified and buried,
Constantine erected the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher.
Today the church is shared
by six Christian sects:
Greek, Armenian, Ethiopian
and Syrian Orthodox,
Roman Catholic, and Coptic.
The Copts have a tiny chapel at the
back of Christ's tomb;
the front chapel belongs to
the Greek Orthodox.
Among their holdings is the stone
where Jesus is thought to have lain
when He was taken from the cross.
Over the Rock of Calvary where Jesus
was crucified the Greek Orthodox
maintain a chapel.
Deep in the church near the base
of the Rock of Cavalry
is an Armenian Orthodox chapel
dedicated to St. Helena.
Medieval pilgrims etched tiny crosses
in the walls leading to the place
where Helena found what she thought
was the true Cross.
Painted on the bedrock is a ship
with the Latin inscription
"O Lord, we arrived."
It indicates that long before
this church
was built pilgrims journeyed here,
believing this to be the site of
the Crucifixion.
A mud hut village atop the roof
of the church is the only area
which the Ethiopian Orthodox,
one of the oldest Christian communities
in the Holy Land, can claim.
Control of even this modest outpost
is disputed in legal wrangles
that began in Ottoman times.
Tense rivalries between sects
have long raged
over rights to this most sacred of
Christian shrines.
Cloistered behind protective walls,
the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate
grew up
next to the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher.
Its monasteries, chapels,
and administrative offices
form a body comparable to a
miniature Vatican.
As a boy, Father Timothy felt
irresistibly drawn
to join the monks who serve here.
"I decided to join the brotherhood
because I like the aims
that the brothers have in front
of them,
to safeguard the Holy Places,
to venerate them, to have them ready
for every Christian to come also
and venerate."
Chief Secretary of the Patriarchate
and private secretary to
the Patriarch,
Father Timothy recalls the path
that led him here.
"When I was 14 years old,
a priest came once to preach
about Jerusalem.
For me that was the turning point
of my life. I said,
'Jerusalem is the place I am going
to be a priest.'
My parents wouldn't
even listen to that.
At last I said,
'If you are not going to help me,
I will never call you mother and
father again.'
Finally they decided to sign
my passport.
Then I came here.
I said to myself that I should stay
in Jerusalem for life.
I feel deeply every moment
in Jerusalem
that my life is connected with
the life of Jesus."
Timothy attended the seminary
as a young man;
like this generation of seminarians,
he left his native land to dedicate
his life to the holy shrines
of Jerusalem.
Each of his days begins and
ends in prayer
his rededication to
the compelling forces
that induced him to come to
the Holy City.
"Jerusalem is the city which
fills my heart
and should fill the hearts of all
Christians with love and peace.
It would be easy to be a priest
in my country,
but here in Jerusalem I feel
closer to God."
Sequestered behind a huge gate that
is unlocked each morning
and locked again each night,
the Armenian Quarter has existed
for nearly a thousand years.
Life within still centers around the
A reminder of the days
when the Muslim rulers forbade the
ringing of church bells,
the striking of this plank
announces services.
Today the community gathers to
commemorate a holocaust.
For the Armenians are a people
whose ancient homeland has
been ravaged,
many of its citizens k*lled
or scattered.
To Elia Kahavdjian, the service
has special meaning,
for he is a survivor of
the holocaust.
For him, Jerusalem became a haven.
Sixty years ago,
he arrived as an orphaned boy;
now he is surrounded by
his loving family.
Survivors lead the solemn procession
to the Armenian cemetery.
They are living reminders of
one million five hundred thousand
who perished.
In 1915, part of what had once been
the Armenian Christian kingdom
was under Ottoman rule.
Labeling the Armenians "infidels"
and "a dangerous foreign element",
the government began to k*ll their
intellectuals.
Life had little value,
as this magazine caption illustrates:
"Five Dollars Buys a Pretty Armenian
sl*ve Girl."
Describing their policy as the
"displacement of the
Armenian population",
the Ottoman Turks drove them on
forced marches into the Syrian Desert.
The road was the path of death
by disease,
m*ssacre and starvation.
Elia Kahvedjian remembers:
"They took us through
the Syrian Desert to Mardin.
We walked I don't know
how many weeks,
how many months walked.
Near Mardin they bring us to a place
where all around it was many hills.
My mother, she says, 'My darling
they are going to k*ll us.
I want to give my son to that Kurd
which is coming.
Maybe he will remain alive."
The Kurdish family fed him
cleaned him up,
and sold him at an auction to a
Syrian Christian family.
The husband was an ironsmith,
and six-year-old Elia worked the
bellows for him.
When the man remarried, young Elia
was put on the streets.
He drifted, begging, for a year,
until the American Near East
Relief organization
placed him in an orphanage and,
eventually, brought him to Jerusalem.
A son and daughter
and their families gather today to
remember the victims...
and rejoice in Elia's survival.
Kahavedjian learned photography
in the orphanage;
he owns a photo supply store,
custom laboratory, and portrait studio.
Although the family now resides
outside the Old City,
its life still revolves around
the Armenian Quarter.
Here, as their parents did,
Kahvedjian's grandchildren learn
Armenian culture, language,
history, and geography.
To prepare for life in Jerusalem the
children are also taught Arabic,
Hebrew, and English.
"... I am opening toe door
I am shutting the door.
I am opening the window
I am shutting the window.
I am knocking on the door
I am pointing to the wall."
His family thriving,
Elia Kahvedjian remembers
the orphans club he
and nine boys formed when, at age 14
he began to work.
The quarters where the orphans lived
have become the Armenian Cultural club.
For Elia, Jerusalem has provided
a refuge of warmth,
friendship and opportunity
In his words,
"This is the happiest time
of my life."
The memory of Jesus and the
miracle of
His Resurrection live in
Jerusalem every day.
Just as He joined the multitudes
that journeyed to Jerusalem
each year at Passover,
throngs of pilgrims from around
the globe come here
at Holy Week to walk in His footsteps.
Following the path Jesus took
from the Mount of Olives
and the Garden of Gethsemane
they enter the Old City.
Carrying crosses along the
"Way of Sorrows"
where tradition says He struggled
in His agony,
they connect with the ancient passion
and eternal mystery of Christ.
In the hours before dawn
on Easter Saturday,
the flames of the lamps
that light the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher are extinguished.
When the door is opened,
thousand of pilgrims press in to
experience an Oriental ritual
that has been repeated each year
for centuries:
the Miracle of the Holy Fire.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch arrives,
escorted by Father Timothy
and columns of monks.
The tomb of Christ has been sealed.
When the seal is removed,
the Patriarch will enter to
determine if the Holy Fire,
said to be sent down by God
will burst forth this year.
Symbol of Christ's Resurrection,
the Holy Flame is passed to the
exultant crowd.
It is said that here Jesus once stood
flanked by two thieves.
Here He was crucified and rose again.
In the precincts of the church that
commemorates those events,
the hearts of the believers are
illuminated by the flames of faith.
High on the wall of the Muslim Quarter
in the Old City is a house
where American pilgrims
seeking a spiritual haven,
settled one hundred years ago.
Their granddaughter, Anna Grace Lind
still follows,
the path their quest began.
Her grandmother, Anna Spafford,
survived a shipwreck that took the
lives of her four daughters.
Later, when a son also d*ed
her husband wrote:
"Jerusalem is where my Lord lived,
suffered and conquered, and I, too,
wish to learn... especially
to conquer."
Like her mother and grandmother,
Mrs. Lind has dedicated her life to
serving the needy of Jerusalem.
Since 1967, she has administered
the Spafford Children's Center,
which provides prenatal and baby
clinics for mothers
and children who might otherwise
go without these services.
Mrs. Mary Franji
the supervising nurse,
has worked here for nearly
forty years.
The grandmothers of some of these
babies were children when she began.
"Dr. Amireh has quite a number
of patients like the..."
"The main goal of the
Spafford Children's Center
is to help improve the health of
the children in the Old City.
They are mostly Moslems.
We have several Israeli specialists
who come to our clinic.
And we feel that this is a very
important phase of our work
because they are helping
in the reconciliation
between the Jews and the Arabs.
It may be just a tiny seed
but it is a seed that,
we hope, brings forth fruit."
"Okay, fine baby."
"I live right on the city wall.
I feel it's important that quotation
from Isaiah where it says,
'I have set watchmen on my walls
O Jerusalem
to pray day and night until I make
Jerusalem a praise in the earth."'
"... Make Jerusalem a praise
in the earth.
"These timeless words from the Bible
speak of an ideal Jerusalem
a city of glory and peace.
In 1985 the City of David
Archeological Garden is opened.
Amid tangible proof of its
Biblical past,
Mayor Teddy Kollek has come to
speak of Jerusalem in our time.
Aragmatic and sensitive to human needs,
this remarkable man has retained
his office
through the combined votes of
both Arabs and Jews.
"...when we are living in a time
when people want evidence,
they want to see, they want to touch
what they believe in,
and not only believe in the abstract."
"Jerusalem is a place where
meaning survive,
when names survive.
In Jerusalem everybody
has a religion.
That doesn't mean that everybody
goes to synagogue,
or church, or the mosques.
But people believe in things.
The people who come to Jerusalem
because it has a special meaning
for them.
It's not like coming to
another city.
We try to give people a feeling
they live in a city
which belongs to everybody,
where everybody has his
particular past,
and his particular history.
Everybody who lives in Jerusalem
tries to link up
with the past Jews, Christians
Moslems."
"The most important thing
about Jerusalem is its people
in their variety.
It should remain in that variety,
one should protect that variety.
The people who live here,
they are the factor that
is most important."
Through the generations,
thousands of human beings have
been thrust together
to live out their lives in the
vibrant microcosm
that is the Old City of Jerusalem.
Bound by their fierce connection
to the city,
despite their differences,
the pressures of the years,
of v*olence and suffering,
the resilience of these people
and the city itself has preserved
its timeless qualities.
Even in our ear of materialism
and uncertainty,
the concepts of love, rebirth
brotherhood,
and peace still shine forth from
within the walls of Jerusalem.
National Geographic: Jerusalem - Within These Walls (1987)
Moderator: Maskath3