Cross a road and, as if by a spell, find yourself in the past, in central Europe in the 1800's. In Jerusalem this happens too. Mea Shearim (which in Jew means 'of the 100 doors') is a district populated by Orthordox Jews. Built up since 1875, the district is the second agglomerate to form itself outside the old town by followers of Rabbi Auerbach. They closed themselves in a volontary ghetto to live in complete compliance with religious scripts and to dress as their ancestors before them: wide-brim hats, long beards and curls hanging down from their head coverings; distinctive of a community that does not recognize the state of Israel, because tradition asks that the Mesiah will establish it upon his return and not that it be done by the common man. Hebrew is not spoken, considered sacred and to be used only for prayer, instead expressing themselves in yiddish, the idiom of the original Jews from Eastern Europe. Between thousands of synagogues and yeshivot (Talmud schools), life runs slowly, steady and unchanged, as if crystalised in an hour glass. A way of staying the same and closing out a complex modernism, difficult to face, and often frightening. (More) ...