Given Bess and Molly’s affinity for aesthetically pleasing blog variety, you would initially be tempted to call them true people-pleasers, laid back technologically-adept ladies of our time (you’d be wrong).  The Germanic regularity of their posting only hints at the rigid, inflexible expectations they hold for their guest bloggers and themselves.  It is under such intense duress that I present to you, reading public, the top five reasons to visit the Jerusalem neighborhood of Musrara (where I live with the wonderfully charismatic Ariel Naveh).

1.  History.  The True Hollywood Story kind.  Musrara is a neighborhood that’s only now getting to be a hip, gentrified place.  Just twenty years ago, it was a real slum of Jerusalem, complete with drug deals.

2.  Location.  Just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Old City, Musrara’s as close as modernity gets to the infamous gates.  Within our apartment, Ari and I can regularly hear the Muslim call to prayer, the Shabbat alarm, and (on Rosh Hashanah) multiple shofars.  And from one end of our street, we can see the Dome of the Rock directly, a constant reminder that we couldn’t be in any other city in the world.

3.  Haredi Zombies.  Musrara (and our street specifically) is located between the Old City and Meah She’arim, the neighborhood that any Charedi who’s any Haredi chooses to call home.  So maybe the black-hatters aren’t really zombies hungry for your flesh, but when dozens of them are bleating “Shabbos!” in unison or angrily shaking your car because you accidentally entered their neighborhood, it’s hard to remember the difference.  Thankfully, you can always find freedom, sweet, sweet freedom, in Musrara.

4.  Culture.  Now that Musrara is up-and –coming (see reason #1), it’s hip with it (whatever it is).  Ari and I live next door to a music school that hosts dance parties.  An art colony is around the corner.  Every last Friday, there’s an Israeli Black Panthers Tour of Musrara.  And did I mention the dance parties?

5.  Swings.  The mini-playground near our apartment may be crowded with Haredi children during the daytime, but after 8:00 or so, it’s open for your personal use.  All the ugly sides of Jerusalem – the religious/secular tensions, the stench of garbage lining the streets, the overabundance of stray cats – disappear when you’re swinging your cares away.