Talking to the Wall (1977)

1977 Dry Bones cartoon - Begin visits the Kotel before his visit with Carter.

Today's Golden Oldie is a cartoon that I drew exactly 30 years ago. It was published in the Jerusalem Post on June 16, 1977. Back then, before the birth of the Internet Age, my cartoons were written for Israelis and folks who really "knew" Israel. With that kind of audience I used the word "Kotel". Kotel is a Hebrew word which means wall. In the Hebrew-influenced English that we speak here in Israel, we use "the Kotel" when referring to "the Western Wall".

* * *The newly elected Prime Minster was Menachem Begin. An interesting "insider" feel to the cartoon comes from the fact that Jews come to the Kotel to speak with God, to place scribbled or carefully printed prayers on little scraps of paper to tuck into the crevices between the huge stone blocks. When Begin, the newly-elected Prime Minister of the Jewish State, went to the Kotel, neither he nor we thought that he was "talking to the wall".

When he went on to talk with Jimmy Carter, however, that was a different story.

* * *

Psssst! Want a close-up peek at the Kotel? Live? At this very moment in Jerusalem? Easy in this Internet Age. Courtesy of the good folks at Aish.com.

Just click on

the Aish HaTorah

live webcam at the Western Wall