Living in Jerusalem

My nephew, Scott, was asking about my accommodations here in Jerusalem.

I have a very comfortable four-room apartment in an orthodox residential neighbourhood in West Jerusalem. It is a ten-minute walk to the city centre, fifteen to the Old City, and fifteen to the cafés of the German Colony.

Initially I was disappointed at not being able to secure a place in the Old City but it wasn’t long after getting here that I came to appreciate the quiet refuge of this neighbourhood. The Old City is intense; it is highly compressed; there is a constant undercurrent of turbulence with the confluence of three religious and social cultures which do not like or trust each other; the military presence further intensifying the undercurrent of tension.