Jerusalem Through the Eyes of a Skater-Girl from Jerusalem

What hasn’t yet been said about Jerusalem? In the world, in the news, we usually hear about hatred, division, religion, radicalism and politics. One city, two cities, a city within a city – obvious separation between religions and between secularism and religion, but despite that – everything co-mingling.

If you look at Jerusalem closely, through the skateboarding community, you will quickly find a very different city.

We Jerusalem Skater Girls meet together for skate session every weekend.

During the week most of us are busy – in school, at university, working. The weekends are our time to skateboard, to hang out together and just be. We meet at the Liberty Bell Skatepark, or in various spots around the city. Our group includes secular and religious girls – the religious girls keep Shabbat, so phones are off. We set a time and place in advance and they know where and when to meet up.

Skateboard is a feeling of freedom, but for us it is almost a physical place - this is where we express ourselves, our place to generate self-confidence and feel we belong. A community.

The skatepark is a mix of every imaginable population of Jerusalem – Jews and Arabs. We don’t really care what religion you are or what you believe in – just skate!

Jerusalem is perfect for skateboarding! Loads of unique skate spots – like the Lisa in Kiryat Yovel, the Tower of David outside Jaffa Gate, Zions Square and the Davidka in the center of town.

Our skatepark in Liberty Bell (Gan HaPa’amon) Park is world class, the best flow ever and easily equal to major skateparks we’ve skated in overseas.