Looking for a job? Calm under pressure, and comfortable with heights? So were two chassidim from Ashdod — when they decided to become crane operators, spending their days 250 feet up
WHAT A VIEW Suspended between heaven and earth Chaim Leib Schwartz and Yitzchak Alberstein face lots of pressure from impatient foremen. But safety comes first — no matter how disgruntled the workers down below (Photos: Eli Segal)
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taring at that monstrosity from the ground up we wondered how on earth we’d be able to scale its tower to make the climb. When we initially embarked on this excursion we just assumed there would be an elevator to gracefully lift us up into the control cab of the crane operators we were to meet.
But there are no elevators to be found on these construction cranes. Access to the control cab is through a ladder staircase threaded through the vertical shaft supporting the crane’s arm. I tried not to look up (and after a few minutes of climbing not to look down either) and soon realized why they gave us gloves — it was for those metal hooks we were grabbing on to for support during the ascent. But I didn’t complain: Eli Segal our brave photographer managed the climb with all his photography equipment strapped on.
Yet after countless stairs and even more huffing and puffing there we were in the cab 240 feet in the air feeling a bit like when the Ferris Wheel stops at the top of the arc and leaves you swaying in the sky. This particular crane is at a construction site near theAshdodbeach with the entire city spread out on one side and the port and expanse of theMediterraneanon the other.
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