This is not just any park bench. It is the bench that Naomi Yoeli’s mother donated to the Bloomfield Park (above Mishkenot Shaananim), in memory of Naomi’s father. This is the same park in which the couple walked daily arm-in-arm. Positioned on a stone balcony, the bench is overshadowed by two intertwined olive branches that “join hands” just as her parents did. Next to the bench is a plaque with the words: “Seating area in memory of Tzili and Shlomo Yoeli who loved Jerusalem, and especially this park.”

Sitting on the seamline that divides east and west Jerusalem is a bench that overlooks the walls of the Old City and the Mount of Olives. A bench for lovers that serves the city’s residents night and day, a bench that does not differentiate between Arabs and Jews, secular or religious, heterosexuals or homosexuals and which is a story in its own right.

Armed with binoculars and earphones, spectators were invited to the bench which served as a “home” of sorts, as Naomi shared familial, national and universal myths and hosted visitors in her earthly heaven opposite the Mount of Olives.