Beyond the border

The architecture of Musara is a living museum of the history of Jerusalem outside the Old City walls.

By JOHN BENZAQUEN
Musara (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Musara
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Musrara, also known by its Hebrew name, Morasha, is a neighborhood in central Jerusalem with an extremely checkered history. Though it is geographically in the center of the capital, many would see it differently because after the 1948 war it was border country, the site of the cease-fire line between Israel and Jordan.
Affluent Christian residents of Jerusalem founded the neighborhood in the 1880s. By the mid-19th century, the Turkish authorities had begun to deal with the rampant brigandage and a general sense of insecurity beyond the city walls; by 1870, they had eliminated most of it, and the wealthy started building themselves houses outside the walls. This was the beginning of urban activity there, and Musrara was one of many neighborhoods that sprang up during the following years.
Though it began as an upper-class area, this changed in 1948.
The original Arab residents fled during the fighting, and since from their perspective Musrara was on the wrong side of the cease-fire line, the area became derelict until the early ’50s.
It was then that the government decided to use the empty homes in Musrara to house new immigrants mainly from North Africa. These people were poor and mostly uneducated. The houses were divided and subdivided, and Musrara, which had been one of the poshest areas of Jerusalem, became a slum. Over the years, those who could found alternative accommodation elsewhere; those who remained were from the lowest socioeconomic strata, and the area deteriorated.
These residents did not have an easy time. Due to their proximity to the new border, they were exposed to daily attacks from Jordanian snipers stationed along the border, who did their utmost to disrupt the residents’ lives. This became routine until after the Six Day War reunited the city in 1967.
The residents of Musrara were an embittered lot. They were poor, and their living conditions were not the best. In 1971, young, second-generation residents founded the Black Panthers, a protest movement against the government’s perceived injustice and discrimination against them.
BORDERING MUSRARA to the north are the Mea She’arim and Beit Yisrael neighborhoods; to the south and east, the Old City and what now goes by the name of east Jerusalem; and to the west, the Russian Compound and the Safra Square complex.
In its heyday, Musrara was an important Christian outpost, and there are many Christian institutions to remind us of this historical fact. These include the Notre Dame Hostel, the Church of St. Paul, the French Hospice and the Romanian Church.
Today, the neighborhood’s strategic location between the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) neighborhoods to the north and the secular neighborhoods to the west has contributed to a diverse population.
In the ’90s, because of its proximity to Mea She’arim, many haredi families moved in. In the last 10 years, however, steps have been taken to prevent Musrara’s becoming a haredi neighborhood, and its current 4,500 inhabitants are somewhat mixed.
The area has been restored, and it is one of the most picturesque in the capital. The architecture is a living museum of the history of Jerusalem beyond the city walls for the past 130 years or so. Its first houses were the large and luxurious mansions that the original residents built, well-constructed, strong stone buildings with grand entrances, beautiful masonry and shingled roofs.
The second phase started after 1950, when the spacious, grand mansions of the very rich became subdivided homes for the very poor, some of which remain.
Beginning in 1980s, the Jerusalem Municipality enacted bylaws meant to restore the neighborhood to its former glory, and prohibited tearing down existing houses, adding floors or annexes.
The aim was to restore the original houses either as single-family homes or as spacious apartments.
BESIDES ONCE more becoming the abode of the rich, Musrara has also become an important cultural center, with museums and centers for the arts. These include the Naggar School of Photography, known simply as “Musrara,” the Ma’aleh School of Television, Film & the Arts, the School of Eastern Music, the municipality’s art center, and the Museum on the Seam.
Meanwhile, the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design is scheduled to move to a new building in the nearby Russian Compound.
Since 2009, the Muslala group, composed of artists, creators and neighborhood residents, has been developing art routes: Different artists are invited to create site-specific installations in the neighborhood public spaces, and the public is invited to follow them, using maps that are distributed free of charge. The group also started the Musrara community garden.
Raphi Bloch, a real-estate agent with RE/MAX Vision in Jerusalem who specializes in the Musrara area, tells In Jerusalem that “from a real-estate perspective, Musrara is experiencing a rejuvenation and gentrification. Similar to the neighborhood of Nahlaot, the area is attracting the more sophisticated foreign buyers who appreciate the unique and beautiful architecture, and who have the funds to renovate and restore the magnificence of these old Arab homes.”
He explains that “although the neighborhood still has pockets of the original families who moved into the area in 1948, over the last 10-15 years, many of the properties have been sold to owners who have renovated [the houses].”
Generally speaking, the price of a renovated old Arab property is NIS 26,000 per square meter, which means that a 120-sq.m. apartment can cost over NIS 3 million. A non-renovated apartment costs NIS 18,000 per sq.m. on average, while modern luxury developments sell for NIS 33,000 per sq.m.