2020-2021, captured on Kodak Gold 200

by Kyle Desrosiers.

I came to Israel in October 2020 as I began a Fulbright fellowship at Tel Aviv University. I made sure to pack my 1970s-era Minolta camera and lenses, which I received as a gift from my grandfather Bill Hulsey (of blessed memory) who died this past May. I loved him very much and when I travel, I carry this camera–which was once his and traveled with him across the years to Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, Germany, England, and France, amongst other places. I find it very interesting the way that in Israel, the secular meets the sacred, and the modern meets the ancient.

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The crumbling wall of the Temple Mount, a few hundred meters from the sacred segment of the Kotel, the "Western Wall", which is immediately accessible to the public and visited by millions year-round.

An Orthodox man davens (prays) at the Kotel, believed to be the remaining outer wall of the Hebrews' Temple, while clad in heavy black garments in the midst of the Middle East Summer.

My friend Xiaomin, a Christian from China, makes a spiritual journey at the Kotel.

Mihrab at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem–the famous Islamic compound atop the temple mount.

The mihrab indicates the direction of Mecca, toward which Muslim prayer is directed.

Ceiling of an outdoor pavilion at the Islamic Compound at Al-Aqsa. It was a very hot day in June when I visited, and I remember people sheltered under this tile and marble ceiling for its dramatic coolness in contrast to unobstructed sun.

Arches at Al-Aqsa. Look at these colors.

Candy and soccer balls for sale at a vendor's stall

immediately outside of the Old City of Jerusalem, adjacent to the Al-Aqsa compound.

Armenian Christian image of the Blessed Mother in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Armenian Church of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Hurva Synagogue (which was destroyed by both Ottoman conquest of the Levant and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, rebuilt once in the 19th century by the Jewish community of Jerusalem and again after 1967, and finally reopened in 2010. Next to it stands a mosque's minaret–which according to legend, is named after a young man named Omer/Omar, who converted to Islam in the Ottoman period from Judaism much to the frustration of his mother, who insisted that if he must convert, he should at least pray at a site near his family in the adjacent synagogue.

Kippot and tallitot for sale in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Entrance to the mosque at Al-Aqsa.

Façade of mosque at Al-Aqsa compound.

Orthodox Jews next to mosque building at Al-Aqsa on the Temple Mount. They are escorted by a soldier (the woman in green at front), as an agreement between Muslim and Jewish authorities requires. They are forbidden to pray Jewish prayers at the Muslim site and could be kicked out and if seen praying out loud there.

Tiles of Al-Aqsa.

The Haram Al-Shariff, believed to be the site where God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son as an act of faithfulness. My favorite interpretation of this story is it reveals the God of Abraham to be a God of Mercy who demands love, not sacrifice–who asks Abraham to offer his son as an oblation only to illustrate through exaggeration that this God–unlike other gods–would not really ask him to follow through and would always provide a substitute. This God did not demand that followers sacrifice humans. In this way, it is a story which illustrates that the Torah, the story of the God of Israel, calls for justice, mercy, and compassion in a way that other ethical codes of the time failed to do, though later many faiths across the world–Samaritans, Christians, Muslims, among others, would later come to adopt such ideas about God.

Another angle.

Pilgrims and visitors under and arch at the top of the steps leading up to the Haram Al-Sharef. The mosque is seen across many Palestinian and other pan-Arab artistic expressions.