Dear Hasbro, Regarding Your Description of Jerusalem ...

I just sent this to Hasbro, in regard to the description of Jerusalem which they have on their World Monopoly voting page:

I'm sure you will hear many partisan "corrections" to your description of Jerusalem, so I will try to stay as fair as possible. Your description on Jerusalem is woefully inaccurate in several regards:

The city of Jerusalem, which has over 2,000 years of history, lies within Judea-Samaria Mountains 55km from the Mediterranean Sea and just 25km from the Dead Sea.

3,500 is technically more than 2,000, true.

The city is divided into Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters.

Here's the first MAJOR problem. The OLD CITY is divided into these four quarters. Apparently no one bothered to inform you that there is a thriving city called Jerusalem that exists outside of the old city. I'm sure you refer to Athens, Rome, or York as nothing more than what exists in the old city though, right?

The most holy Jewish and Muslim sites are located at Temple Mount, while the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is in the Christian quarter and is believed to be built on the site where Jesus was crucified.

The holiest Jewish site is on the temple mount, true (namely, the remains of their temple). The two most holy Muslim sites are in Saudi Arabia. The "third holiest" Muslim site is on the temple mount, but I doubt that Muslims would like you to call it the temple mount.

Many visitors to the church make their way along the Via Dolorosa (The Path of Suffering'), the route Jesus is said to have taken as he carried the cross on the way to Calvary.

A bit over-intensive on the Christian story here, while ignoring both Jewish and Muslim information. A few biblical and historical references might be of interest.

Spectacular views of the city can be seen from the Mount of Olives.

Wow. You must have had to discard about five hundred more interesting but more partisan facts to come up with that piece of trivia. A slightly more interesting fact might be something like: the majority of buildings in Jerusalem are faced with a white stone that gives the entire city a reddish glow around sundown.

Yehuda