A Day of Songs

The point of Tuesday was to end up in Jerusalem for a Yom Yerushalyim event in the evening.  But that would be later.  I went for a bit of a walk over to the old city hall just to sit in a pretty place on the plaza.  There were some benches in the shade so I sat there. There was a mom with her kid, a guy with his dog, a tour group.  But then the tour group (Israelis) came to sit in the shade while the tour guide talked to them. Huh. They insisted that I not move (Israeli hospitality).  Ok. We were all cheek-to-cheek on the bench.  I figured, how long can they stay? About 30 min.  In Hebrew I mostly didn't understand.  When they left, one of the ladies talked to me and explained that it was a tour about Natan Alterman.  The guide had played several of songs for which Alterman wrote lyrics.

On the recommendation of two separate Israelis, I took the train to Jerusalem instead of the bus, because of President Trump's departure.  The bus's path is the main highway to the airport.  I met up with friend from Jerusalem, Gershon, for supper and then went on to the free Yom Yerushalyim concert @2100.  Well, that website info was wrong.  The concert started at 2030 (no problem) and required tickets (hmm).  I wasn't going to stay too long, but although one could hear, one couldn't see.  I queued up to get a ticket, but they had run out.  Really.  There were a lot of people without tickets that didn't know they needed them.  A lot.  I decided to see what would happen.  And they started letting us in as SRO.  Fine.  But then they stopped letting people in (capacity?).  It was titled "Singing to Jerusalem."  They had the words up to old songs that everybody knew (but me), and I mean everybody because I was standing by some teenagers.  And they were running archival footage of 1967 Jerusalem behind the words.

Listen the songs I heard (different performers):
"Light and Jerusalem"
"Letter to life"
"On all of these"
"Let it be"
"Keep the world" David D'Or was there
"Blessings of the King" Miri Mesika was there

In closing, I didn't see this, but I hope to:  https://www.jerusalem.muni.il/en/Municipality/Municipal%20info/Pages/AllcelebrationsJerusalem.aspx
A long, late trip home, but I slept in my bed.  Dayanu!