Jerusalem, Israel - Part One
1/4/2024 | 27m 45sVideo has Closed Captions
Samantha takes a deep dive into Jerusalem's Old City.
In Part One of a special journey to Jerusalem, a city considered holy and essential to three of the world’s major religions. Samantha takes a deep dive into the Old City with a walking tour down the Via Dolorosa recounting Jesus’ journey. Samantha visits the most important site of Judaism, the Western Wall, and the adjacent excavated tunnels that dig deep into thousands of years of Jewish history.
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Distributed nationally by American Public Television
Jerusalem, Israel - Part One
1/4/2024 | 27m 45sVideo has Closed Captions
In Part One of a special journey to Jerusalem, a city considered holy and essential to three of the world’s major religions. Samantha takes a deep dive into the Old City with a walking tour down the Via Dolorosa recounting Jesus’ journey. Samantha visits the most important site of Judaism, the Western Wall, and the adjacent excavated tunnels that dig deep into thousands of years of Jewish history.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship-I'm in a city that is at the center of the universe, one that puts civilization into context and packs it tightly into a small space that has a spiritual hold across the world.
But in all its intense relevance, it is a place that is enchanting, and I'll be enjoying it for the first time, with fresh eyes open to all people, their cultures and religions.
I'm here to experience whatever she wants to show me.
That's beautiful!
I'm in Jerusalem.
[ Upbeat tune plays ] I'm Samantha Brown, and I've traveled all over this world.
And I'm always looking to find the destinations, the experiences, and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.
That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my places to love.
Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" is made possible by... [ Birds chirping ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Oceania Cruises is a proud sponsor of public TV and "Samantha Brown's Places to Love."
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Oceania Cruises offers gourmet dining and curated travel experiences aboard boutique, hotel-style ships that carry no more than 1,250 guests.
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[ Man chanting ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -You know that saying -- you know, "Watch the world go by"?
-Yeah.
-Here in Jerusalem, you really watch the world go by.
-Yes, absolutely.
Wow.
-A cardinal!
I just saw a cardinal on the street.
-It feels like we're in the ocean, and it's always overflowing.
And you just have to literally go with the flow of Jerusalem and let her play with you a little bit.
Let her take you where you need to be.
I'm Sarah Tuttle-Singer, and I'm the author of "Jerusalem, Drawn and Quartered," a love story about living within the walls of the Old City.
-Sarah is originally from California, and within the walls of the Old City, she lived in each of its four quarters -- the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Armenian.
What I loved so much about reading your book is because you really fill in that emotional value of a place that a travel guide never does, right?
A travel guide is going to give you X, Y, and Z, but your book really speaks to that humanity that exists here -- the complexity... -Yes.
-...the frustration of this city, and the beauty, all in one because it all exists at the same time.
-Thank you for saying that.
And, yes, it does all exist.
And I think that's one of the challenging things about loving the city.
-Mm.
-This place is beloved by three major religions, the hottest piece of spiritual real estate in the world for Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
And yet, there's also sometimes conflict and division between us.
And yet, there are such moments when we can come together, and we can share the love of the city with one another.
[ All singing in native language ] ♪♪ -So we are on what to me is a small pathway, but this is one of the major thoroughfares of the world in terms of its importance, right?
-Yes, yes.
-And it is the Via Dolorosa.
Right?
-Mm-hmm.
-Which is where Christ made his walk up to be crucified.
-Right.
-Correct?
-Stopping along the way at the various Stations of the Cross, as they're now known.
-Oh, gosh!
-Where -- Right over there is where he was -- was crowned with thorns and where he was flagellated.
And then, further up there is the -- the Ecce Homo Arch, which was actually built in the 2nd century.
But before that arch existed, that's where Jesus was put on trial.
"Ecce Homo" means "Behold the man."
And that's what was said when he was led in to be put on trial.
I spent a year living in all four quarters of the Old City, getting to know various members of the different communities, celebrating during the good times, mourning during the difficult times, and essentially becoming friends with people from all different backgrounds and walks of life.
-So we're going to a good kebab place?
-Phenomenal kebab place.
-Phenomenal?
-I've only tested out about 13,000 different kebab places in the Old City, and this one is really delicious.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Wow.
How long have you been making kebabs here?
How long have you had this shop?
-Well, we are here 62 years, yeah.
-62 years.
-Yeah.
My father, who started the restaurant, yeah.
-Oh, that's... -Yeah.
-How many kebabs do you think you make a day?
-[ Chuckles ] Just God knows that.
[ Laughter ] -And this is the hummus.
-Yeah.
Oh, that looks good.
-Mmm.
-Oh, my gosh!
-So good.
So good.
-How many kebabs do you want?
-Well...you know, 40, 50.
-Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
[ Laughter ] -Can I -- Can I move?
-You got a lot of work to do.
-Yeah.
-Hassan hand-delivers everything he has made by hand.
-Thank you.
-Shukran.
-Oh-ho-ho-ho!
-Okay, we just dig in here.
It's so pretty.
-Right?
All right, 62 years.
-Mm-hmm.
-Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh!
That is so good.
-It's delicious.
-[ Chuckling ] Oh, my gosh!
-And I love that there's a history with this place, too.
He learned from his father and his grandfather, and maybe it's even gone further back than that.
-Mm.
So, we are in the Muslim Quarter.
-We are in the Muslim Quarter.
-We started out in the Christian Quarter.
Is there a massive difference between the four quarters here?
As a tourist or a traveler, would you notice as you passed from one to the other?
Is it obvious?
-It's sort of an artificial construct.
And back in the day, people used to live in and out of all the quarters, and there was a lot of blending and a lot of flow.
Sadly, in my -- in my eyes, lack of knowing one's neighbor here.
-Mm.
Mm-hmm.
-And that was one of the reasons why I wanted to come and live in the Old City, to see if there was a way to create connections between people, or at least for me to get to know different people from these different communities.
-You did.
-And -- I did my best.
-You did.
Yeah.
-Yeah.
-One of Sarah's favorite people who creates connection owns this shop.
-I am Abu Khalaf Bilal from Jerusalem Fabric Store.
-Oh!
Beautiful fabrics.
Sarah has told me a little bit about you and how your fabrics... -Yes.
-...in a way, connect all of Jerusalem... -Of course.
-...that you have fabrics that represent Christianity, Islam, Judaism... -Yes.
-...everything.
-Now, I explain to you Jerusalem by fabrics.
-[ Laughs ] -Okay?
-This is the Sultan.
The Sultan is like the king now.
-Mm-hmm.
And those -- the design of the Sultan -- how he sit in the palace.
-Oh, look at the -- the intricacy of the design here.
-Now I want to show you Saladin here.
He came to Jerusalem by horse.
-Okay.
-You see?
-[ Gasps ] Oh, my.
-This is Saladin with the Crusaders' War.
-How do you do this?
This is incredible.
This is obviously all handloom.
-All handloom.
Handloom.
-And you still have kings and -- and pontiffs as clients, right?
-Yeah.
-Those people come into this shop, and they choose fabrics.
-Right.
-So, who have you chosen fabrics for?
-You know the big rabbis of Israel, we order for them special material, and it must be kosher, you know?
-I've only heard kosher... -Kosher.
-...in terms of keeping a kitchen kosher.
-Mm-hmm.
-And the food, yeah.
But also kosher in the fabric.
It's forbidden to mix the wool with the silk.
No two animals -- all to be 100% wool... -Mm-hmm.
-...or 100% silk... -Okay.
-...or 100% cotton.
-Oh.
-And, also, the Pope Benedict -- the Pope Benedict -- he was, at 2000, in Jerusalem.
-Hm.
-One of the cardinals -- he came with him.
He was, long time, a bishop here, and he knew about my fabric.
-[ Gasps ] -This is in Syria.
-Oh, do you mind?
-Yeah.
He got him the best fabric in my store -- five meter.
And the sisters in Vatican make him that vestment.
-Oh, my goodness!
-It was silk with 9-karat gold.
-Oh.
Oh!
-That's stunning -- absolutely stunning.
-Oh, my gosh.
It's like wearing jewelry.
-It's jewelry.
-Yes.
Thank you.
Shukran.
[ Laughs ] [ Indistinct conversations ] Sarah and I needed a sweet pick-me-up, so we stopped to have some kunafa, a classic Middle Eastern dessert.
-This is corruption on a plate.
-[ Laughs ] -This is just wonderful.
-Mr. Kunafa lived in Syria, where he learned a unique way of cooking the dessert over hot coals.
The heat melts the cheese filling and creates a crunchy top layer of phyllo.
It's then flavored with rosewater syrup, topped with crushed pistachios.
It's not getting in my mouth fast enough, Sarah.
-Exactly.
-Oh, my God!
-There are no words.
-It's like no other dessert I've ever tasted.
I'll never be able to have cheese any way other than this.
Oh!
For our final stop in the Old City, Sarah has an appointment to get a new tattoo.
Now, if you found out that this shop is part of a family of tattoo artists going back to the year 1300, would you get one?
While you wait, you can marvel at the tools of the trade from recent generations on display, but also the stenciling stamps that go back much farther than that.
-They were used as a catalog for the clients to choose from.
So you can actually look at the design and choose from it.
And then, when the client would choose it, then we -- we would use it to stamp it on the skin.
And so those stamps we've had in the family for hundreds and hundreds of years.
-But your family has been making tattoos here in the Old City for how many years?
-500 years.
-500 years.
-And 200 years before that in Egypt.
So we are 700 years a family that has been doing tattoos since Egypt.
-What generation does that make you?
-I am 27th generation.
-[ Chuckles ] -Wow.
Oh, my.
-And my sons now are the next generation, so 28 generations.
-Oh, my gosh.
-Yeah.
Yeah.
-You -- You got to get a tattoo here.
-Yeah.
-[ Laughs ] -So that's why -- a lot of -- a lot of times, we get... -You've got quite a line out there.
-Yeah.
-Sarah is a regular customer here, and she's getting a tattoo of a line of a song that was handwritten by her son for Wassim to trace over.
-My grandfather's ink was made by my grandmother.
And they would bring oil lamps and have them lit all night and all day.
And so they would take all the soot, the black soot, and they would mix it with wine and olive oil and... -And that would just adhere to the skin... -That would become the ink.
-...and make a tattoo.
-It was very difficult to make ink back then.
-Yeah.
[ Chuckles ] -It was very holy to make the ink.
-Oh!
-Oh, I love it.
Oh, this is wonderful.
-It looks awesome.
And I love it that it's in your son's handwriting.
-I love that in my son's writing, my grandparents' language.
And it's a reminder that Jerusalem is still needed.
We still have work to do here.
-So did I wind up getting inked?
You'll just have to stick around to find out.
-When we talk about Islam, a lot of people want to come to the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa Mosque, the third holy place for Muslims.
It's a magnificent place.
But for me to come to this small jewel that is hidden inside the city of Jerusalem, the Old City, you have to come to Omar Mosque and see.
It is one of the most important mosques in the city.
I am Mutassem Aweidah.
I was born and raised in Jerusalem.
I'm an official tour guide in Jerusalem.
To be a tour guide in Israel, you have to study archeology, history, religions, art -- everything you imagine, you study to be a tour guide in Israel.
This lovely mosque gave really an importance between the unity, I say, between Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem.
-But how's that?
-And why is that?
-Mm-hmm.
-When Omar came here -- Omar is the second Khalifa of Islam.
His name is Omar al-Khattab.
-Okay.
-He came and conquered Jerusalem in 638.
When he came here, he was invited by Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to the Holy Sepulchre.
-Mm-hmm.
-When he was walking there, the time for prayer comes.
-Okay?
-And Omar looked, and he said, "I have to pray."
-Mm-hmm.
And Sophronius said, "You're welcome to pray here."
He said, "Omar will never do that.
If I pray here one day, the Muslims will come and say, 'Omar prayed here.'
They will take this place as a mosque, and they will change it.
No.
But give me a stone."
He took a stone, threw it away like 10 meters, and he said, "Over there, I will pray."
And he said, "This is the place for Muslims, and that's the place for Christians."
-He actually wanted to protect... -He protected -- -...the church... -Yes.
-...for Christianity.
-For Christianity, exactly.
-[ Chuckles ] -And also he gave this magnificent treaty, which was a treaty between Muslims and Christians of Jerusalem, and says that Omar, the Khalifa of Islam, is giving the Christians of Jerusalem their rights to keep their churches, to hold their crosses in the streets, and to walk around and respectfully in the street.
What is for us is for you, and what is for you is for us.
-So this treaty, drafted in 638, basically provides religious freedom.
-Yes, exactly.
And this treaty is running till today.
People -- Muslims, Christians, Jews -- have been living here.
-Mm-hmm.
-Forget the political problems.
People lived together since ages in this land.
-Mm-hmm.
-And there is love.
So now we take our shoes off.
-Okay.
The mosque was originally constructed on the site where Omar's stone landed, 30 feet away from the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre almost 14 centuries ago.
This room was constructed in the year 1193.
As you imagine, being non-Muslim, I don't get much time in a mosque.
What are we seeing that I wouldn't know in terms of... -Very good.
When you ever enter a Muslim shrine, a Muslim mosque, the first thing you will see in that opening in the wall.
-Okay.
-That refers to Mecca.
-This is Mecca -- the direction.
-And this is the way to Mecca, the direction to Mecca.
So any Muslim comes in the mosque.
He wants to pray, he knows where to pray to.
And if you look at the carpets, even, they have these directions to show people where, of course, to pray to.
The person who will stand here is an imam... -Mm-hmm.
-...will lead that prayer, and behind him stand the people.
-Okay.
Are women allowed to be in here to pray?
-Of course, of course.
-Okay.
-Always, you have a place for women and place for men.
-Okay.
-The men will pray in front, women in the back.
-Oh, so we can pray at the same.
-Yeah, at the same time.
-Alright, alright.
-Of course.
Five times a day, Muslims pray.
-Mm-hmm.
And we will hear that from -- this one has a minaret.
-Of course.
-[ Chanting ] ♪♪ -They call for prayer five times a day.
-And it's beautiful when you hear.
-It is very beautiful, depending on the voice... -Mm-hmm.
-...of the person who's doing that.
-Oh.
-That's why they have exams.
Yeah, they do exams for those people who are going to be a sheikh or imam to call for prayer and to see his voice.
-So what we're hearing -- -It's like "Imam Got Talent."
[ Both laugh ] [ Chanting continues ] -In my opinion, everyone's got talent in Jerusalem, but the singing here comes from nature.
[ Birds chirping ] Right now, we're in this beautiful patch of land.
I mean, this is a hidden jewel in Jerusalem.
-Yes.
So -- So, we're this tiny, little pocket.
We're -- We're an acre and a half... -Uh-huh.
-...in the middle of the city.
And as the birds come over, they see this pocket of land... -Mm-hmm.
-...in a city that's growing wider and taller every year.
And they're looking for food.
They have just crossed the Sahara at this time of year, and they see the green, and they come down.
We have spent 27 years planting the things they need.
-Oh, my gosh.
-Okay?
Trees that are going to attract insects, provide fruit for the migrants, especially during migration season, which is spring and fall.
-And you're collecting them.
How -- Wait.
How do they get into those little bags?
-So there's a huge net out in the site.
-Okay.
-And they fly into the net.
It's called a mist net.
And they don't see it.
-Okay.
-And our volunteers go around every few minutes and take the birds out of the nets.
-Huh.
-They put them in these -- These are cotton bags.
-Okay.
-They -- They can breathe.
-Mm-hmm.
-So they calm down.
Sometimes, they even go to sleep.
And then we can bring them up here for the ringers to process them, and they do it very quickly.
They're measuring the tail, the length of the wing.
He's measuring the weight.
You -- You can't just tell the bird, "Just sit here for a second."
-[ Laughs ] Yes.
-Yes?
Okay.
And they will measure -- -And then they -- Off they go.
-Off they go.
-Is Israel on a great migration path?
-Yes.
We are on the route between Europe and Asia and Africa.
-Oh.
-[ Speaking indistinctly ] So this is a blackcap warbler.
-Hi there!
-And this is a female.
-[ Gasps ] Oh!
-So she has a brown head.
-And so this warbler is on its way to where?
-On its way to Europe somewhere.
It might go as far north as Scandinavia, and it may be coming from somewhere like Kenya.
-A ring is gently placed on the bird's leg with a serial number.
This allows Alena and her staff to connect and share information with ringing centers all over the world.
-Do you want to release the bird?
-Oh, certainly.
-Okay.
So I'm going to show you the ringer's hold.
You're going to get the bird between your fingers like this and close the bird softly, okay?
-Oh!
And then you're going to put him on your hand and bring him over to the window.
-Okay.
-Can you feel his heartbeat?
-Yes, yes.
-Yes.
-I can feel my heartbeat, too.
-Put your hand out and let him go.
And you've just thrown something to Europe.
-[ Laughs ] -Habitat for birds is habitat for us.
This is one of the jobs of the bird observatory is not just the research -- we also do education.
So we have benches out here for kids, and we will have a school group coming today to learn about the birds in their backyard and the migration and what they can do to help.
-[ Imitating birdsong ] -And it's providing us with oxygen, and it's providing us with bird sound.
You know, they say hearing bird sound makes us healthier.
It reduces our stress.
So we should have more of this.
[ Indistinct conversations ] -So we're standing, overlooking the Western Wall.
Right behind the Western Wall is the Temple Mount, where the Jewish Temple once stood about 2,000 years ago, which makes this basically the holiest site, according to Judaism and what brings Jews together here from all over the world, and, really, people from all over the world.
-I'm Hava Preil.
I work as a national guide throughout Israel.
I also love working here at the Western Wall Heritage Foundation and guiding here inside the tunnels.
We're going to go this way.
-A tour of the Western Wall Tunnels will take you down, way down to what was the city street level over 2,000 years ago.
It's hard to understand where I am aboveground, and now I'm heading deep below.
I see... Oh, this is going to help.
-Exactly.
This is a great way to get an idea of where we are... -[ Chuckling ] Okay.
-...and what we're looking at.
The reason we have this here is because this is a model of the Second Temple.
-Mm-hmm.
-The First Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE.
-So where are we in this temple complex right now?
-Okay, so, if you look over here, this is the Western Wall Plaza, where people pray.
-Okay.
-The temple was surrounded by four retaining walls.
-Right.
-Here's the Western Wall and Eastern Wall, Southern Wall, and a Northern Wall.
-And are all these walls still available, or -- or only the Western?
-The only one that's still available almost in its entirety is the Western Wall.
-And the Western Wall is the closest to the Holiest of Holies.
-Yes.
So let me talk about now -- toward this part of the temple was the Holy of Holies, which was the holiest place on earth, right?
Only the high priest was allowed to enter here, and only once a year.
When we passed in, we saw some people praying right around over here, which is one of the closest places they can get towards the Holy of Holies, right?
-So it's all pointed towards that place.
-Right.
Exactly.
-That's why they're praying.
That's what they're praying to.
[ Chuckling ] Oh, wow!
It just sort of opens up, right?
-So right now, in front of you here, is the Western Wall.
-This is the Western Wall right here.
-These are stones that had been covered for almost 2000 years until they were recently excavated.
-Is it safe to believe that these are older stones than the ones that we see above?
Is there a difference in age?
-No, they're not any older -- it's just these haven't been exposed to the elements 'cause they've been underground for many years.
-Oh, my gosh.
And now, up close, they're so uniform.
They did this 2,000 years ago?
They were this precise?
-Yep.
But the Jewish people believe that physical beauty -- it can be used in service of God.
Right?
That we can elevate the spiritual.
And that's exactly what a temple was.
A temple is a physical structure, physical beauty, and we believe in elevating it.
And that's -- that's what you see here -- an example of it, this tremendous detail that we're attuned to.
-And if modern cities sprawl outward, ancient ones go deep in the earth.
-This place was excavated, and they found -- when they first came here, they found these stones here.
And they thought perhaps these were the stones from the temple that the Romans threw over.
But then they realized they don't have the same design as the temple stones.
-Yeah.
-These are a different style.
So then they kept digging, and they found this.
And you realize this is the remains of a small Roman theater.
-[ Gasps ] -After the temple had been destroyed... -Wow!
That's incredible.
[ Imitates explosion ] It's just amazing.
[ Chuckles ] [ Crowd singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -You know, it's amazing.
The energy here is just palpable, right?
So when we speak of Jerusalem being the sacred center for Judaism, what we're really referring to is this Western Wall here.
-We're referring to the Temple Mount, which is this is the remnant of the Temple Mount.
So this is all that we can get to now.
-There's a lot of protocol here.
Fill us in on what's happening.
So, clearly, we have a male side here and a female side there.
-Exactly.
-Are there services?
Like, what -- what is happening here?
Are there services going on?
Is it sort of like an open synagogue?
-Yes.
This is an open synagogue.
Exactly.
There are services going on.
There are multiple services going on at the same time.
Because 10 men can make a quorum, can start their own prayer.
-Oh, okay.
-So there will be a bunch of different services going on at the same time.
-I see.
Okay.
Am I allowed to go down into where the women are?
-Yeah.
Totally.
-But I'm not Jewish.
-Okay.
-So what is the -- what is the protocol?
-You can talk to God.
-I can talk to God.
-[ Chuckles ] -So it's okay?
I'm not going to offend anyone if I head down there?
Because I've always loved that tradition of writing a prayer in a piece of paper and sticking it into the cracks.
-Sure.
Go ahead.
-I thought that was lovely.
-God hears every language.
Talk to him however you want.
[ Both laugh ] -When people ask me in Jerusalem, "Why do you love this city?"
First of all, the walls, the stones of the city, the faces of the people coming from all around the world to love this city.
-Jerusalem is a wild creature that cannot be contained, cannot be controlled.
But if you're good to her, she will take you in her thrall and play with you and bring you to wherever you need to be and show you the things that you need to see and introduce you to the people that you need to meet.
-Jerusalem is the city of love, my friends.
-Believe it or not, I'm only halfway through my time and experiences here in this holy city.
In Part Two, I'll be visiting the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
-L'chaim!
-L'chaim!
-I'll be eating and drinking my way through the enthralling Machane Yehuda Market.
In the Palestinian side of the city, I'll discover a beekeeping project that is helping to empower local women.
I'll visit an Armenian ceramic shop, which was directly responsible for the city's iconic street signs.
And I'll be sipping some serious Israeli wine.
Oh, and about that tattoo -- honestly, I've never wanted one -- that is, until I met a 26th-generation artist.
Jerusalem is definitely a place to love, and there's much more still to come in Part Two.
Join me.
-For more information about this and other episodes, destination guides or links to follow me on social media, log on to placestolove.com.
"Samantha Brown's Places to Love" was made possible by... [ Birds chirping ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Oceania Cruises is a proud sponsor of public TV and "Samantha Brown's Places to Love."
Sailing to more than 600 destinations around the globe, from Europe to Asia and Alaska to the South Pacific.
Oceania Cruises offers gourmet dining and curated travel experiences aboard boutique, hotel-style ships that carry no more than 1,250 guests.
Oceania Cruises.
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