Don’t pass them by

Next time you pass these gems that dot the city, stop and take a closer look.

By AVIVA BAR-AM
Moroccan Courtyard in Jerusalem (photo credit: SHMUEL BAR-AM)
Moroccan Courtyard in Jerusalem
(photo credit: SHMUEL BAR-AM)
For years, tour guides brought groups to the market neighborhood of Ohel Moshe and stopped behind its synagogue. “Back in the old days,” they would reveal, “neighborhood residents baked their dinners in a communal oven.” The guide would point at a spot on the wall. “The oven was here, behind the synagogue. Housewives prepared the raw materials, wrote their names on the pots and pans, and brought them to the oven before Shabbat. The fragrance of the dishes baking in the oven drove worshipers crazy during prayers.”
Then one day, not long ago, the director of the community center that stands right behind the synagogue decided to make life easier for the tour guides.
The result: a lively, humorous and not-to-be-missed mural in the community center yard, illustrating the entire process! If you roam the streets of Jerusalem, you come across all kinds of unusual and very special spots. Some, like the yard in Ohel Moshe, may be unfamiliar to you; others you may have passed dozens of times without noticing or stopping. I am sure you are familiar with other sites, but hope you will be pleased to learn more about them.
In Hebrew, these sites are called pinot, or corners, and many an Israeli guide offers – as a matter of course – “Pinot tours.”
There are so many of these sites that I have divided this article into two, in no particular order. Let’s begin this week’s offerings with the address of the community center mural: 42 Ohel Moshe Street.
BUSH PLAZA:
Located near the intersection of Agron and King David streets, there is a tiny little “corner” whose shade is especially welcome if you walk here in summer. The site is dedicated to George W. Bush – the second Bush to become president of the US. Bush, who served from 2001 to 2009 as America’s 43rd president, visited Israel in May 2008 and was in Jerusalem on Independence Day.
MOROCCAN COURTYARD:
Mahaneh Yisrael was the second Jewish neighborhood to be established outside the Old City walls; one of the founders was Rabbi David Ben-Shimon, a leader of the Moroccan community in Israel. Although his North African flock was very poor, they managed to establish this neighborhood in 1868.
The very first building in Mahaneh Yisrael had only two stories and housed the rabbi and several other families, a synagogue and a religious school. Over the years, the neighborhood deteriorated badly and many of the houses and courtyards were replaced with modern construction.
Fortunately, this historic structure was saved, and its renovation recently completed, with much of the work carried out by Moroccans brought specially to Jerusalem for the purpose. Today, it is the Center for North African Jewish Heritage and boasts a large courtyard, full of decorative Moroccan tiles: lovely during the daytime and artistically lit at night.
You will find it off King David Street, down a ramp next to the King David Residences at No. 16. Wheelchair accessible.
COURTYARD IN-BETWEEN:
Few people know about the splendid area located behind the YMCA on King David Street. In daylight, it is beautiful; at night the site is absolutely gorgeous.
Wheelchair accessible.
HANSEN HOUSE:
Until recently, high-school pupils studying in the neighborhood made a habit of crossing the street to avoid passing Hansen House. A German institution built in the 1880s, originally called Jesus Hilfe (Jesus Helps), the large and attractive edifice served as a hospital for the treatment of leprosy. It was designed by the multifaceted Conrad Schick, who constructed it around an inner courtyard and graced it with a tranquil and beautiful garden.
Saved by the Jerusalem Municipality from destruction by land developers, the city restored Hansen House and developed it with the help of the Jerusalem Development Fund, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund and the Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Ministry. Today, it hosts the Urban Design branch of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and is full of exciting, ever-changing exhibitions and unusual installations, with a permanent display about the original hospital. It is one of the city’s rare 19th-century structures open to the public, and worth a visit.
Bonus: The view from its second-floor balconies is wonderful.
Hansen House is located below the Jerusalem Theater, at 14 Gedalia Alon Street. Open six days a week.
CANAANITE VILLAGE:
If I hadn’t come across this site in Tzvia Dobrish-Fried’s intriguing book Secrets of Jerusalem, I might never have known about this site. Yet it was just sitting there in plain sight, right next to the Narkis Gate parking lot at the Malha Mall. Both a beautiful stone ramp and lovely staircase lead up to remains from two villages, built 200 years apart, during the Bronze Era – over 4,000 years ago.
The village was exposed during construction of the mall in 1985, and thoroughly excavated. Walk through the site to explore the ruins of an entire Canaanite dwelling, whose rooms surround a courtyard. Remains of a public building suggest its use for worship, especially after two monuments and a bench for sacrifice were discovered.
Most interesting, I think, were the acorns discovered in the ruins. These, according to Dobrish-Fried, probably mean that at one time oak trees covered the area of the mall.
Wheelchair accessible.
LION FOUNTAINS:
You are probably familiar with this exciting sculpture, and perhaps have even enjoyed its cooling mist on a hot summer day. But as this is one of the most delightful “corners” in Jerusalem, it is included here with some information about how it came to be.
Donated by the German government, the bronze and gold-plated fountains were designed by German sculptor Gernot Rumpf as a meeting place for the city’s diverse population. The Book of Genesis inspired the sculptures’ symbolism: the Tree of Life in the middle is split into three parts, and probably represents three major religions represented in Israel; the flowing waters symbolize rivers in the Garden of Eden. Lions, of course, are the symbol of Jerusalem.
Continually recycled, the water is fine for bathing – but not for drinking. Location: the corner of King David Street, near the newly restored First Station complex.
GAN PALMAH HAREL:
Not exactly a park, certainly not a garden, but way more than a monument, Gan Harel uses the topography of the landscape to become a work of art. Located on a steep slope above the more frequented portions of Sacher Park, Gan Harel is dedicated to 425 soldiers of the Harel Brigade who were killed in battle during the War of Independence – fully a third of the total number of soldiers in the brigade.
Artist Dani Karavan, 1977 recipient of the Israel Prize for sculpture, was aiming at “total simplicity” – something different from other monuments, something minimalistic. And the result is astounding.
Consisting of a rounded wall that begins at ground level on both ends and reaches four meters in height, the monument takes advantage of its location on a slope. Visitors follow a ramp between two shiny stone walls, engraved with names of the fallen and some of the brigade’s battles, and at the top enjoy a wonderful view of the city.
A lone tree, a straggly little terebinth, stands in front of the wall. Karavan has said that he always works around trees and doesn’t pull them out – and that this one was there from the beginning.
An extra: Facing the monument, take a little path to its right and turn right onto a paved sidewalk. At the end, you will reach a monument to over 1,000 people who died or were killed in Jerusalem during the War of Independence – soldiers and civilians alike. It was impossible to bury them on the Mount of Olives, and there was as yet no cemetery in New Jerusalem. They were buried right here, temporarily, in caskets that sat one atop the other; their bodies were re-interred at other sites a few years later.
Gan Palmah Harel is situated on Rothschild Street, across from the back of the Supreme Court.
TOMBS AT THE MENACHEM BEGIN HERITAGE CENTER:
During the First Temple period, wealthy families built burial caves for their loved ones (or themselves). When someone died, he or she was placed on a stone slab with a special indentation for holding the deceased’s head.
After one year, the remains were moved to a repository beneath the stone slabs. (This is probably the source for the biblical phrase “he was gathered unto his fathers” after someone died.) During excavations, more than 1,000 artifacts were discovered here. They ranged from glassware to silver coins, oil lamps and pottery. But the most important of them all were two tiny silver scrolls dating back to the seventh century BCE containing ancient Jewish priestly benedictions: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26). Entrance to the site is through the Begin Center on Hebron Road, open weekdays.
HEROD FAMILY TOMBS (OR SO THEY SAY):
In 1892, missionary/archeologist Conrad Schick discovered an ornamental family tomb near Jerusalem’s historic windmill and assumed that members of King Herod’s family were buried inside. He based his theory on something that Josephus Flavius had written wrote in The Wars of the Jews nearly 2,000 years before, and since Herod himself was known to have been buried at Herodion, that would have seemed to be the logical surmise. Today, however, many experts believe Herod’s family tomb is actually located north of Damascus Gate.
But who cares? For this elaborate burial site, carved into the rock, is a fascinating place to view.
Most interesting, perhaps, is the huge rolling stone typically found in Second Temple period tombs to close off the entrance.
The New Testament explains their function best: “...and they asked each other, ‘Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?’ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away” (Mark 16:3-4)
ODED OVERLOOK:
Born in 1961, Oded Avner was nine years old when his family moved to Givat Hamivtar, and was one of the first children to live in that brand-new Jerusalem neighborhood. As a boy, he loved working the fields at his grandfather’s moshav and planned to study hi-tech agriculture after his army service.
Oded was delighted to become part of an elite paratrooper’s unit after joining the army on February 2, 1980. Despite repeated medical setbacks, he persevered, but two years later – on February 16, 1982 – was fatally wounded during a training exercise.
Givat Hamivtar stands over 800 meters above sea level and the overlook in his memory offers a spectacular look at southwest Jerusalem. Find it along tiny Mifratz Shlomo Street.
Note: When you visit, you may notice a huge block of white stone right next to the overlook. Some North American Christian tour groups stop here, to learn from their guide that it will one day be the cornerstone of the Third Temple... •