A Rock-Solid Introduction to Jerusalem

    

A Rock-Solid Introduction to Jerusalem

The documentary Jerusalem examines how three young women practice their distinct Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths in Jerusalem. The city is introduced as an ancient, multicultural society that intersects Europe, Africa, and Asia and the three Abrahamic religions. Jerusalem is considered sacred land because it contains some of the most important sites of the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religions: the Church of Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock, and the Western Wall. Remains from archaeologic digs in Jerusalem demonstrate that the city has existed as a place of worship for thousands of years for the three religions. Jerusalem’s multi-faith temples not only show the significance of religion in the city, but they also indicate that what makes Jerusalem “holy” is its physical terrain. The Holy Sepulchre houses the rock of Golgotha, the stone that Jesus was crucified on; The Dome of the Rock enshrines the rock from which Muhammed ascended to heaven; Jerusalem lies below the foundation stone which the world sprung from according to Jewish tradition. There are a lot of important rocks in Jerusalem!  

The buildings that stand in the city today are remnants of empires (and religions) battling to gain control over the region. Most of the city is built on top of its own ruins. While Jews, Muslims, and Christians contested over Jerusalem in the past, all three religions are currently free to practice in the city. Jerusalem is unique because it offers the experience of three different cultures rooted in three different faiths all in proximity.  I was surprised to learn that the Old City of Jerusalem is only 1/3^rd of a square mile! 

 

In the documentary, it appears that Christians, Jews, and Muslims practice their faiths and cultures harmoniously in Jerusalem, but given the city’s history of religious conflict, I suspect that it experiences an undercurrent of tension. The three girls live in the same city, but they spend most of their time in separate religious quarters. In one scene at the end of Jerusalem,  they walk past each other at a busy intersection while Nadia (who’s Christian) says, “I hope one day we can have the courage to meet the people who are living right next to us” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLW6vO-7rFk 40:50-41:00). Although the documentary works to portray the similarities between the lives of the girls despite their religious differences in the bulk of the film, it ends with a very subtle call to action for religious peace. I think that the film neglects to reveal the full extent of religious contention in Jerusalem—however, I don’t believe that the film is incomplete without a closer look at religious conflict. The documentary serves more as an introduction to Jerusalem for an uninformed audience rather than a complex analysis of Jerusalem’s religious struggles.