Eight years after I was born in Jerusalem, I could no longer visit the streets of my childhood. I was forbidden to climb the narrow steps leading to my grandfather's tiny house and receive his generous one-penny gift. I could not walk to the Western Wall and put a prayerful note in its crevices. I could not visit the grave of Rabbi Shimon Hatzadik or cry at the grave of Mother Rachel, in Beit-Lechem. It was all off-limits in 1948. From a distance, from the rooftop of the new Jewish city of "Western" Jerusalem, I could see the place of my birth; I longed for it and wished I could be there. As my father used to say: "I am jealous of the dove that can fly high above the border and the city fortress - over the enemy soldiers who guard her - and get to all the places I used to visit, every stone of this city; the city which is myself."
In 1967 after the Six-Day War, all that changed. This is the journey I took to rediscover my childhood city, not in my imagination but in solid reality. Jerusalem is the city I call Me. I am a Jerusalemite!
Yehoram Gaon
Song Titles
Here I Am I Make Myself Melodies Nimrod The King Bestow Sabbath And Peace Let The Land Be Rid Of Sin Sir Moses Monefiore Jerusalem My Beloved On The Summit Of Mt. Scopus
