In Jerusalem

Living with history

07/05/2012 17:08 By JOHN BENZAQUEN

High asking prices in the Jewish Quarter limit the volume of trade.

Photo by: Marc Israel Sellem

The Jewish Quarter of the Old City is only a tiny part of the capital and has only about 2,500 residents. Yet despite its size, it holds a central position in the Jewish ethos, and many see it as a link between the Jerusalem of old – the one that thrived before the destruction of the Temple – and the Jerusalem of today.

Jews have been living in Jerusalem more or less continuously since the time of King David. At the start of the 20th century, and even before, those who could afford to bought land outside the city walls and built themselves houses so they could leave the crowded and unhealthy Old City. By the 1940s, most of the Old City’s Jewish residents were concentrated in what today is called the Jewish Quarter, in the south-central part of the neighborhood. It is one of the traditional four quarters of the Old City. The others are the Christian Quarter in the northwest, in the area around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; the Armenian Quarter in the southwest, around the Cathedral of St. James; and the Muslim Quarter, which covers a large part of the eastern area.

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Living with history

High asking prices in the Jewish Quarter limit the volume of trade.

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