{"id":662375,"date":"2026-10-31T04:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T04:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/662375\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T04:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T04:36:08","slug":"excerpt-from-fairy-lights-in-gods-backyard-a-jerusalem-love-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/662375\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt from \u2018Fairy Lights in God\u2019s Backyard: A Jerusalem Love Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every morning, my son\u2019s shuttle to his special needs preschool is accompanied by the oddest couple \u2013 a man and a woman who, under almost any other circumstances, might never choose to spend time together. His melava is haredi \u2013 profoundly religious and right wing, and a big fan of Itamar Ben-Gvir.<\/a><\/p>\n

The driver is as secular as they come, a regular at the protests who insisted his kids go to a mixed Jewish and Arab school, and who spends time on the front lines of Israel\u2019s fight over its own democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I have strong opinions about all of it<\/p>\n

They\u2019re on opposite sides of the argument about Israel\u2019s future, its identity, its very soul.<\/p>\n

Sometimes they debate in the car.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s mostly banter, really, though every now and then they try to pull me into the conversation.<\/p>\n

\"THETHE AUTHOR and her son at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. (credit: COURTESY SARAH TUTTLE-SINGER)<\/p>\n

I have strong opinions about all of it.<\/p>\n

I love being Jewish. I also believe that being Jewish makes me neither better nor worse than anyone else. I have plenty to say about religion and politics and the future of this complicated little country.<\/p>\n

But in that car, I usually stay out of it.<\/p>\n

Because at the end of the day, these are two people who have dedicated part of every morning to helping keep my son safe.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t call them friends exactly.<\/p>\n

But there is genuine warmth between them now.<\/p>\n

And I love that special education<\/a> can do that.<\/p>\n

The morning was hard<\/p>\n

It can take two people who might otherwise meet only across a protest line \u2013 or an argument \u2013 and gently compel them toward a common purpose.<\/p>\n

Loving my son.<\/p>\n

This morning was hard.<\/p>\n

Lately, my little one has stopped asking to go back to his \u201ccastle\u201d every day. That ache has softened.<\/p>\n

But every time we walk through Jaffa Gate to wait for the shuttle, I still brace myself.<\/p>\n

Maybe it was the heavy clouds. Maybe it was the wind. Maybe it was my own anxiety leaking through the brittle spaces in ways children<\/a> always seem to sense.<\/p>\n

Whatever it was, he had a full-blown meltdown in the back of the car.<\/p>\n

His melava quietly handed him a book.<\/p>\n

The driver reached over and put on The Beatles.<\/p>\n

I climbed into the front seat, girding my mental loins, feeling profoundly tired \u2013 less like the pirate queen I usually aspire to be and more like a bedraggled castaway trying to get home to her own life.<\/p>\n

Slowly, my son settled.<\/p>\n

He began turning the pages, pointing to each letter, tracing every shape carefully with one small finger.<\/p>\n

No one talked about politics.<\/p>\n

No one argued about religion<\/p>\n

We just listened to The Beatles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has to be so hard for you,\u201d the driver said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m praying for you every day,\u201d the melava added.<\/p>\n

And as we drove through Jaffa Gate into the morning, \u201cWith a Little Help from My Friends\u201d came on.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m willing to lean into it.<\/p>\n

Jerusalem is heavy \u2013 layer upon layer. And sometimes those layers don\u2019t impose, they support.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I found another apartment \u2013 another house to add to the list of places this wandering Jew will shlep her suitcase.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t my Ottoman dollhouse.<\/p>\n

But when I walked inside, I felt the faint possibility of home.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll buy another pink tea kettle. I\u2019ll hang more fairy lights.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve lived in so many houses.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ve learned that home is something you build with people far more than with stone.<\/p>\n

Maybe one day I\u2019ll live in my old house again.<\/p>\n

Not anytime soon.<\/p>\n

The Byzantine well courtyard is still buried beneath rubble.<\/p>\n

There is still a bloodstain, in the shape of my neighbor, on the stone floor by the stone steps leading up to my teal door and shattered garden.<\/p>\n

There are still moments when I feel haunted by every loss I\u2019ve ever carried.<\/p>\n

And yet\u2026<\/p>\n

I know I\u2019m going to be okay.<\/p>\n

Not because everything has been repaired.<\/p>\n

But because people keep showing up.<\/p>\n

A haredi woman.<\/p>\n

A secular driver.<\/p>\n

A little boy learning his letters.<\/p>\n

Friends from all corners of Jerusalem who carry impossible things together every morning before breakfast and still make sure to check in on me.<\/p>\n

So many people all around the world who\u2019ve helped in both spiritual and practical ways.<\/p>\n

Just then, the sun broke through the clouds.<\/p>\n

The Beatles kept singing.<\/p>\n

My son kept reading.<\/p>\n

And I realized that, for all the heartbreak of this past year, I really am getting by with a little help from my friends.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Tuesday. \u201cTwice good,\u201d our tradition teaches.<\/p>\n

So, good morning, Jaffa Gate.<\/p>\n

Good morning, magnificent city.<\/p>\n

Good morning great grandmother and all the ancestors whose winding, broken paths somehow led to ours.<\/p>\n

Good morning, Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Whatever happens next, I\u2019ll bring fairy lights. \u25a0<\/p>\n

FAIRY LIGHTS
IN GOD\u2019S BACKYARD:\u00a0
A JERUSALEM LOVE STORY
By Sarah Tuttle Singer
KDP
238 pages; $36\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every morning, my son\u2019s shuttle to his special needs preschool is accompanied by the oddest couple \u2013 a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[412,117675,85,46,3794,425,1619,43,1073,115373],"class_list":["post-662375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-books","tag-childcare","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jerusalem","tag-literature","tag-magazine","tag-news","tag-old-city-jerusalem","tag-special-needs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}