Elvis Is Alive In Israel
By Gil Zohar

JERUSALEM

There hasn’t been a King of Israel in 2,000 years. But 10 km west of Jerusalem opposite the Globus film studio and near the hummus restaurants of Abu Ghosh there’s a monument to the man some say was the greatest king of all time. The roadside cafe and gas station, called Fundak Elvis (The Elvis Inn), features a four-meter high statue of the King. Not King David. Not King Solomon nor some other biblical hero. This highway rest stop is home to the world’s largest image of the King of Rock ‘n Roll, Elvis Presley (1935-1977).

The looming statue depicts a stylized Elvis with his hips thrust forward, hair slicked back, and guitar leaning against his leg – the quintessential sex-saturated pose for a musical giant who sent millions of adolescent girls into ecstasy every time he appeared on stage. The person behind this shrine is Uri Yoeli, a businessman who just happens to be a completely obsessed Elvis fan. “I got into Elvis when I was 14,” the seventh generation Jerusalemite recalls. “I quickly became the head of the fan club in the city.” That role required the teenaged Yoeli to dress up as the King. He turned his collar up, slicked his hair back, and imitated Elvis’s trademark smile. “I had all his [33 1/3 LP] records, which had to be ordered from Tel Aviv, because Jerusalem stores didn’t carry them. We used to have dance parties, where all we would play were Elvis slows,” he recalls with a nostalgic sigh. “Those were the days.” In the early 1970s Yoeli criss-crossed the U.S. in order to get near his idol He flew from New York to Salt Lake City for a day to see the King in concert.

And he stalked Presley’s home for hours to get a glimpse of the legend. When he finally caught up with him at a hamburger joint, the security guards prevented him from shaking hands with Elvis. Yoeli married a woman who didn’t share his passion, so the posters and magazine clippings went into storage. Yoeli didn’t foresee his eatery becoming Israel’s unofficial Elvis Heaven. When he opened the Mountain Inn in 1974, he hung two of his favourite pictures of the King on the walls. He didn’t even realize that anyone had noticed the photos until two truck drivers came in and asked to use the telephone. “They said to their friend, ‘Meet us at the place with the pictures of Elvis’,” Yoeli recalls, and he knew then he had something special. Today, the proprietor dresses in conservative button-down shirts and vests, and wears his thinning hair too short to be slicked back. But the walls of the restaurant are lined with 728 pieces of Presley memorabilia. Even the ceilings are covered with row upon row of framed pictures. “People come here from all over Israel, and all over the world,” Yoeli notes with pride.

The King’s birthday on January 8 and the anniversary of his death on August 16 always attract a crowd of Israeli devotees – some sporting paste-on sideburns and jumpsuits. Israelis can get pretty serious about The King. Ya’acov Tovi, the country’s leading Elvis impersonator, who learned English by listening to Presley records, once had his clothes torn off by an audience of women soldiers. If you’re lonesome tonight, Yoeli counsels stopping by. The Fundak Elvis will get you all shook up.

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Gil Kezwer is a writer, photographer and sculptor based in Toronto, Canada, and Jerusalem, Israel. [url=http://ca.geocities.com/gkezwer@rogers.com/]http://ca.geocities.com/gkezwer@rogers.com/[/url]