[img]96|left|Shachar||no_popup[/img]Dateline Jerusalem — The main street of my city reminds me of a small town. Yet the population is just under 120,000 people, and it is considered one of the larger cities in Israel. The main street is lined with orange trees whose scent permeates the air, a variety of palm trees, and my favorite tree that looks as if it belongs in Hawaii's fern grotto. The main street also hosts hundreds of small shops, bakeries, boutiques, sidewalk cafes, and enough shoe stores to make Imelda Marcos a very happy woman.

Residents and visitors often sit outside at tables with colorful umbrellas or under awnings, sipping a cup of coffee and eating flaky pastry, passing the time of day people-watching and listening to street musicians play traditional folk and ethnic music. In the past I have seen trumpet players, accordionists, guitarists and flutists. Today I saw someone performing on a melodica/melodion, a combination keyboard and wind instrument all in one. It was the first time I had ever seen that instrument, and I actually had to look it up in a book as I did not know its name.

Weizmann’s Boast

Known as the “City of Citrus, Culture, and Science,” my town's emblem shows oranges, a book and a microscope. It is aptly named. As for citrus, there are orange groves surrounding the city and orange trees planted along the main street. Culturally there is everything from a municipal cultural center to art galleries, even a music conservatory. It is also known as an “academic city” in that it boasts the world-renowned Weizmann Institute of Science, named for the first President of Israel. The current director of bio-molecular science recently won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. It also boasts the only campuses outside of Jerusalem of the world famous Hebrew University of Jerusalem (the Harvard of Israel). Hebrew U.'s medical school also has a teaching hospital here. And not to forget an area called the “Science Park,” often considered Israel's answer to the Silicon Valley in California.

Although the city is growing rapidly, it still has that “small town” atmosphere as one walks along the shaded main street of the city. The shuk, located between the main street and the large modern indoor mall called a “canyon,” is a bazaar displaying fruits and vegetables delivered daily from the neighboring farms, barrels of aromatic spices and nuts, fresh fish sitting on ice, kitchenware, handmade jewelry, household linens and tablecloths, and brass items. Offshoots of the main street are various “passages” (rhymes with “massages”) and alleyways of small shops. At the very end of this quaint tree-lined main “drag” one comes to the end of town in order to shop at a junction where hundreds of outlet stores are located.

If you aren't into shopping along the main street and its cute little side streets, passages and alleys, you can always get your exercise by cycling, running, jogging or walking along the sidewalk that circles the outskirts of the city. It has benches for resting tired feet, and it has gym equipment for working out between stops along the way.

A great place to live.

L'hitraot. Shachar