Friday, December 28, 2007

The Radar (Migdal) Synagogue

I searched the whole Internet for an in-depth story or a picture of Beit Vegan's Migdal Shul and found none. I am providing my own photo of the building.


The story I pieced together from talking to the locals is that at the British built here one of the first radar stations that had a radar mounted on top of the tower, visible in the picture. The radar must have been the first non-naval radar station for its times, or outside Europe, or in the Middle East.


The Wikipedia's Beit Vegan entry is not so correct ("During the British Mandate, the army built one of its radar stations in Bayit VeGan. A synagogue, Beit Knesset Migdal ("The Tower"), now stands on the spot."), since the tall grey tower is the radar tower.

The shul is a major center for Young Israel, though the crowd seems to have aged. Most minyans nowadays are literally staffed by Charedi, as can be seen on Friday nights at the shul's main synagogue hall. The daily morning 7:25 am minyan is a hodge-podge of locals valuing it for its 30 minute shacharis. Most young Mizruchniks and Kookniks attend shacharit at the Avreichim 2 doors behind the Migdal, where the Shearis Isroel and Litvishe organized derech wins, hands down, everyone over.



Thursday, December 27, 2007

Hydrocarbon Graffiti and Cornucopia of Cream

Hopefully this graffiti artist becomes famous. His hydrocarbon molecule art decorates just about anything in Jerusalem. These are on a construction fence on the Shaarey Tzedek corner of Herzel Avenue:





And these are from a typical dairy section of an Israeli grocery store (Shefa Shuk, Beit Hakerem, near the Shaarey Tzedek Hospital):


It keeps on going:



and going:


and more:



















And this is Yossi Peking, on the Dania Square, at night



And the posters at the Dania Square. Note the famous Rabbi Avner Kawas lecture notice, a web yeshiva, Amir BenAyun, Russian cardiovascular over-the-counter medications, and alternative, off-beat music bands:

Talk to you soon.