Working in the midereḥov

I work in a retail store in the downtown pedestrian mall (the "midereḥov") of Jerusalem. That's the other side of the day job I'm not quitting. This is the second time I've worked in a store in the midereḥov since moving to Israel 6 years ago, so I am fairly familiar with the scene.

If you don't know what that is: well, first of all, it's not a mall. It's a couple of wide, stone-paved streets that are mostly blocked off to traffic and lined on both sides with storefronts, banks, and entrances to the apartments and offices that rise above the commercial landscape. There are islands in the middle of the street that provide a little greenery and a little seating here and there. It's a popular site for street festivals or throngs of Saturday night shoppers who prefer the outdoors to a "real" mall, grabbing the last few moments of the weekend before Sunday morning and the business week sets in. That's where the photos in this entry came from, plus these here.

I am guessing that the traffic is about half tourists, half Israelis. More tourists in the summer, of course. This means that I get to deal with a variety of nationalities and a variety of mentalities on a daily basis. There are also street performers all the time, and since I work near a major intersection I get to hear their entire repertoire, repeatedly. There is nearly never a dull moment.

Different people have different impressions of Ben Yehudah. I think for a lot of foreigners, even those who live here long-term, this is like the most glamourous spot in the city, a romantic hub of excitement and energy.



I don't experience the midereḥov like that. For me it has always been about business and efficiency, making every moment count because the clock is ticking. This is not unpleasant, but it puts me in a frame of mind that few of the street passengers I see are sharing.

I have no background in commerce and no formal business education, but "on the street" experience in the last decade has changed that. I used to be an academic, spent as much time on campus as possible, and never learned the rules of the "shuk", as it's called here, until I was in the middle of it.

Besides being a salesman in a store and dealing with a variety of customers, I've also managed a virtual office, that me and my fellow project employees built from scratch. It started out as an Israeli team, and eventually spanned four continents. This was completely different from the experience I'm getting now in manufacturing and retail, and it is great to see a variety of businesses, from all different angles.



And I have a dilemma. Especially given the elephantine memory of the internet, I don't know how much detail to go into regarding my personal interaction with customers and other people off the street.

I really want to. I want to tell you about the customer who verbally abused me for 15 minutes this morning, including banging on the glass to insist that she get her way. And I want to tell you how one particular nationality of people (a nation that I used to want to be a citizen of, obsessively trying to make myself one of them) is collectively driving me crazy, to the point that I dread hearing their accent when they walk in the store.

What do you think?



Changing the subject (ahem), this building has been decorated by an art form called "Trompe-l'œil" (optical illusion) that is particular to Lyon, France. Apparently the same artists were hired for these Jerusalem buildings, too. There are a few of them around town here, and I will try to get some good shots of them another time. But for now, the best I have to offer is the higher-resolution image you can see by opening this link.