A Complex Jerusalem Seen Through One Window

From "Under My Window" by Michal Ronnen Safdie, published by powerHouse Books.

Jews, Muslims, Christians, believers, nonbelievers, tourists, and so many others have flocked for millennia to Jerusalem. In a new book, Michal Ronnen Safdie, invites viewers to see the diversity of humanity that she sees every day outside one particular window of her Jerusalem home.

Safdie’s dwelling is perched on a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, along the border between the Jewish and Muslim Quarters. Facing east, it overlooks the Western Wall precinct, the Dome of the Rock, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. To the north unfolds the Muslim Quarter with Mount Scopus in the skyline; to the west, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Christian Quarter.

Directly under her window is a narrow alley, through which thousands of people pass every day. The alley is a passage for those entering the Old City through Dung Gate on the south side—mostly Palestinians making their way to their workplaces, schools, markets. It is the route of Christians to the Holy Sepulcher and of Muslim pilgrims during Ramadan, and other holidays, on their way to the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount). It is also the path connecting Jews residing in the Jewish Quarter and in the western part of the city, to the Wailing Wall (Western Wall).

In Under My Window, Safdie observes the constant movement and happenings outside her window, “giving a face, or many faces, to the layered genesis of contemporary Jerusalem,” writes Andrea Farr.

The publisher, powerHouse Books, writes, “The photographs capture personal moments alongside large-scale public events in the city of Jerusalem, where belief and ritual significantly shape day-to-day life.”

Under My Window
By Michal Ronnan Safdie
Published by powerHouse Books