Thursday. June 5,1986 — THE BULLETIN — 9
By DONNASCHATZ
JERUSALEM — It's still -the hot spot for crowds, the road for rendez-vous, and a place to scout out both the familiar and the off-beat. Although facades — and traffic patterns .— have changed in recenjt years, Jerusalem's Ben Yehiida street remains the social heart ;of the country's capital. ; < '.
; Today, a broad section of Ben Yehuda — . slanting upward from Hahistadrut street to Zion Square, and joined by intersecting streets — is off-limits to autos. The stretch of traffic-free turf is popularly called the Ben Yehuda Mall or Midrehov —
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ON a SUNNV day, strollers and shoppers mingle with diners and people-watchers on Jerusalem's Ben Yehuda Mall.
own shopkeepers and from taxis stationed there. Not-as enthusiastic as city
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planners in the need to rejuvenate commerce- downtown, a combination of the Hebrew; words *sidewalk^ and 'Street.' It is the site of two of Jerusalem's: most time-honored traditions celebrated in street and cafe: the early Friday afternoon break between work and Shabbatv and Satr urday evenings release from the city's rigorously-observed day of rest.
The secular pleasures of Ben Yehuda street have been inscribed in history. \nOJer-. w^a/f-m, Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins' account of the War of Independence, David Rivlin, a young soldier, salutes the Sabbath's sundown by joining his fellow Jerusalemites for a night of gaiety:
"Lights winked on, cinema marquees lit up, restaurants opened their doors, and by the hundreds Jerusalemites swarmed to city's center to wander up and down Ben Yehuda street, drifting from cafe^to cafe in a happy talkative, bustling crowd . . . David Rivlin decided to spend the night in his favorite cafe, the*Atara'..." Unfortunately the next day — February 22, 1948 — the street gained tragic notoriety when three trucks of TNT, parked outside 16 Ben Yehuda, exploded killing 54 people. Still, Jerusalem is a city that has been destroyed and rebuilt countless times and life returned once again to Ben Yehuda street.
Writers such as Amos Oz have since placed the lives and loves of their characters back into the cafes of Ben Yehuda street.
Although the social sanctity of the street has never been disputed, its conversion from a main Jerusalem thoroughfare into a pedestrian mall did arouse major debate. First announced in 1970, acceptance and construction of the original proposal took another eight years. Opposition came from the street's
merchants banded together against the prcjeet; In letters to the mayor and protests in the press» businesspeople claimed^ the malj would threaten their livelihoods and provide shelter for undesirables.. Evne when stone benches for resting and pebple-watching were already stand-; ing,with:road ways blocked to passenger vehicles, the dissent continued.
Today, seven years after the first strip of ground between Ha h is tad ru t s t ree t a nd Ben Hillel street wasdosed to trafr| fic, some dissatisfied shopkeepers still exist. At 2 Ben Yehuda; the proprietoi- isits iti^^ the hallway outside his small, dark shop and cautiously comes out^against the mall; sentiment he's held from the start. His attitude is not too. different from a storekeeper across the road: The owner of a shop shadowed by the overflowing cafe tables of its abundant neighbors 1 ooks: suiieh wiien the Midrehov is mentioned.
It may be hard to navigate betweenqthe drinkers, din and sidewalk vendors^to visit the shops, but the scene is certainly encouraging for potential eaters. The cafes: which line Ben Yehuda street are booming with b lisi ness. 'Atara,' the cafe into which David feiviin d rifted that ifate-- ful February jiight, is as populated as ever.. And Uri Greenspan; its third generation owner, is pleased with the turnout; much of which he attributes to the Midrehov. His initial fears of crime and litter allayedi he enjoys the mall's ambience andthe vitality it brings to central Jerusalem.
The cafe owner is not alone in his upbeat assessment. All along the mall; from the Gafe 'Alrio' (where a bomb!" exploded six years ago), to the end of the street,.many shopr keepers (some admitting business hasn't been boosted) still claim they'j-e satisfied with the Midrehov. '
And, whether you're walkr ing or pushing your way through Saturday night throngs down the mall, sitting under a tree, or safely taking it all in from the sideHnes of a cafe, the panorama is indeed pluralistic. There's the old newspaper vendor parked on the intersection of Hillel and Ben yehuda hawking his journals, soldiers patrolling in trios, children trading old school-books for ready cash, ubiquitous greeting card designers and jewellry artisans.
There are also musicians, like Charles from Australia who, with his guitar and open case for coins, makes a decent wage on Ben Yehuda. The police, he says, are pleasant and don't stop the crowds that gather around him to dance.
If one's spiritual yearnings are still not satisfied, there's tall, blond Elijah, wearing a long white robe and red sash, carrying a black Bible and attache case. For those not eager to be told his truth, preferring more worldly contentment, Ben Yehuda and the streets spiralling from it, abound with pizza, humous, blintzes and ice cream sundaes.
Still, it's not just the food, or shops, that draw. The Ben Yehuda Mall is jammed becatise Jerusalemites want to see each other — and everyone else as well. For many, as Saturday night was for David Rivlin nearly 40 years ago on Ben Yehuda, the place is a "faithfully cherished custom." i^y.ps
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