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Sarah Tuttle-Singer
A Mermaid in Jerusalem

#IAmTelAviv

i am tel aviv

I am the couple holding hands at the table next to you.

I am the man with the gold chains drinking a Goldstar and smoking his third cigarette.

I am the woman with the headscarf and the prayer beads.

I am the man with the broken heart, and I am the other man who broke it.

I am the woman who sells flowers.

i am tel aviv 2

I am the brothers who nearly come to blows over soccer teams.

I am the three kids who skipped school for an hour to sit by the sea because the day is nice.

I am the priest, and I am the rabbi, and I am the imam and this isn’t the beginning of a joke.

I am the 22 year old who just sold his startup.

I am the old woman with a number tattooed on her arm who drinks whiskey with her friends every Thursday on Shenken.

I am those two women kissing in the middle of the rainbow crosswalk.

I am the guy who squeezes the best pomegranate juice in Florentine.

I am the bus driver with the natty grey beard and black yarmulke who sings along with Taylor Swift. #HatersGonnaHate

I am the woman who draws on walls.

I am the barista with the dirty laugh.

I am the barman with the nose ring.

I am the old men who do tai chi in the park.

I am the fisherman in Jaffa, and I am his son who throws the fish back into the sea when he thinks his father isn’t looking.

I am the fashionista with red lipstick who rides a matching bike.

I am the old man who sells sunflower seeds.

I am the violinist at the Central Bus Station with the long red hair.

I am the crackhead who carries his book of poems, and I am the doctor who will take care of him without charging.

I am the pink-cheeked woman who gives out Shabbat candles.

I am the soldier home for the weekend who just wants to get laid.

I am the junkie whore who works every day,  I am the tsaddik who pays for her hour just to hear her stories about her broken skin and broken heart.

I am the mother and her children who sit by the sea.

i am tel aviv 1

And right now, I am vulnerable… And right now I am scared. And right now I am hurt.  And I am reeling.

But I am thriving and I am defiant, and I am one beautiful, loving accepting and warm f&ck you to terror.

Because #IAmTelAviv

 

 

 

About the Author
Sarah Tuttle-Singer is the author of Jerusalem Drawn and Quartered and the New Media Editor at Times of Israel. She was raised in Venice Beach, California on Yiddish lullabies and Civil Rights anthems, and she now lives in Jerusalem with her 3 kids where she climbs roofs, explores cisterns, opens secret doors, talks to strangers, and writes stories about people — especially taxi drivers. Sarah also speaks before audiences left, right, and center through the Jewish Speakers Bureau, asking them to wrestle with important questions while celebrating their willingness to do so. She loves whisky and tacos and chocolate chip cookies and old maps and foreign coins and discovering new ideas from different perspectives. Sarah is a work in progress.
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