Kindergarten guards
Earlier this week, the municipality learned about the Home Front Command’s decision to stop the allotment of soldiers who had secured the city’s educational institutions – mostly kindergartens – since October 7. The first step was to recruit city volunteers from Jerusalem, but the response is far from sufficient. As a result, some parents decided not to send their children to school; in at least one case, parents hired a security guard at their own expense. For the moment, Safra Square has no answer to this situation, and officially the issue is under review vis-à-vis the Home Front Command.
While some see this as a sign of the capital’s relatively good security situation, for most parents this is intolerable. To fill in for now, the municipality is considering using the emergency standby squads (kitot konenut) that exist in more than 10 neighborhoods.
Reciting the Quran
An unusual incident occurred in a haredi neighborhood, when a resident of the Shuafat Refugee Camp, riding a bicycle to Bar-Ilan Street, began to broadcast Quran verses through a loudspeaker. Passersby requested that he turn it off, at which point he attacked some of them with a chain. Police were alerted and arrested him immediately, taking the suspect in for further investigation.
Fallen for us
The capital’s Himmelfarb High School, where IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi studied, has lost four of its graduates since the outbreak of the war. However, the principal decided not to install a commemoration corner – to convey the message that school is a place of life.
Nevertheless, the school’s memorial plaque with the names of 62 fallen graduates now has four new names added to it. Earlier this week, upon learning that St.-Sgt. Dvir Barazani had been killed in combat, the fourth of Himmelfarb’s graduates to fall in this war, staff members gathered to talk to co-workers and students.
Himmelfarb is the largest religious boys’ high school in Jerusalem, with 900 students, who stand at 100% for IDF conscription after graduation. A few days ago, the school decided to replace the bell that heralds breaks and the start of classes with Naomi Shemer’s song “You Can’t Beat Me,” sung by Yehoram Gaon.
Studies under fire
Since October 7, Jerusalem’s education system has been plunged into chaos. During the first two weeks, there were no classes, not even via Zoom. Even when a return to normal was announced, as approved by the Home Front Command, classes were initially partial, largely because there were not enough shelters. Full-time school, including kindergarten, only started as of last week. According to parents and staff members, things are still far from being back to normal. Elementary school teachers report that students in the lower grades fall asleep in class because they don’t sleep at night due to high tension and anxiety.
The loss of school days has led the Education Ministry to decide on concessions in matriculation exams, and there is a demand from the National Parents Association to shorten the upcoming Hanukkah holiday break (between December 10 and 14) and other holidays later in the year – such as Passover – to catch up. However, it seems the teachers’ organization is not welcoming this initiative, since even when there was no school or only partial studies, instructors were still working and keeping in touch with students.
Time for arts & crafts at Tower of David
An artists’ fair for the whole family is taking place today at the Tower of David Jerusalem Museum – for artists and craftsmen from Jerusalem, as well as those from the North and the South who are being hosted in the capital. Hanukkah gifts, jewelry, ceramics, handmade lighting fixtures, paintings and prints, natural cosmetics, woodwork and crafts, handmade dolls, and miniatures will be on sale, alongside boutique sufganiyot, jams and spreads, beers, cheeses, and delicatessen products.
Shapira Brewery will launch its winter edition at the fair, and at 12:30 p.m. brewery staff will give a short lecture about the story behind Shapira beer, which will include tastings. Other entertainment will include music, children’s activities, including a movie at 1:30 p.m., and a musical Shabbat reception.
The event is in accordance with Home Front Command directives, with sheltered spaces in the citadel. Enter at the new entrance building to the museum, located near Mamilla.
Details: Friday, December 1, between 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., in the citadel courtyard. Free.
Info: www.tod.org.il/en/; *2884 call center.
Not welcome back
For Jerusalemites, the agreement to release the hostages in Gaza has a very unpleasant consequence. Seventy-two terrorists are to be released and return to their homes in east Jerusalem. Although the government’s decision was that among the released terrorists there would be no murderers, the general feeling in Jerusalem is heavy.
Thus far, 40 terrorists have returned to Jerusalem after being released as part of the hostage deal. Mayor Moshe Lion admits he is not happy about it but insists he is in favor of it, since this is the only way to free the Israeli hostages.
Some of the terrorists, including women older and young, were convicted of attempted murder. Among those released: the minor terrorist who stabbed a resident of Gilo; and – perhaps the worst case – the terrorist woman who stabbed a Jewish resident of the Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood in front of her children. A few minors who shot fireworks and threw Molotov cocktails at security forces were let out as well.
Jerusalem Police has decided not to allow celebrations of the release of these prisoners and is doing its best to prevent them, and even held talks with the released terrorists, warning them and their family members not to carry out hostile sabotage activities.
Expensive but cheaper
Recent Central Bureau of Statistics data show that the average price of an apartment in Israel’s largest cities in the third quarter of this year, which ended before the war broke out, was NIS 1.927 million – a decrease of 0.2% compared to the corresponding quarter last year, and a decrease of 2.7% compared to the previous quarter. Jerusalem, Israel’s largest city, is on the list after Netanya to show a decrease in prices.
The average price of an apartment in the capital in the third quarter of this year was NIS 2.468m., a decrease of about 3.2% compared to the corresponding period last year, when the price was NIS 2.55m. In relation to the previous quarter, this is a decrease of about 10%. ❖