Mea Shearim is one of the oldest Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem. It was built by members of the Old Yishuv, and is largely populated with Haredi Jews. Levi Kahana of Spain, the oldest Sephardic Haredi dynasty, has a religious cultural center in the neighborhood.
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Hertzl Museum
The Herzl Museum is located in Jerusalem and focuses on the visions and ideologies of Theodor Herzl. Shortly after Herzl’s death, the Anglo–Palestine Bank acquired about 2,000 dunams (2.0 km2) in south-central Palestine, where the Hulda Forest is located today. This forest was intended to house a farm and a large building that would contain the farm’s management and double as a museum dedicated to Herzl. However, the museum was unfortunately never executed, and only in the 1960s was a museum built on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. This included exhibits on Herzl’s life, including a reproduction of his study in Vienna. In 2000, it closed due to poor maintenance, but reopened in 2005, sitting at the main entrance plaza to Mount Herzl, following the centenary of Herzl’s death.
Old City Jewish Quarter
The Jewish Quarter is one of the four traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem (part of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem). In the early 20th century, the Jewish population of the quarter reached 19,000 people. The 116,000 square meter area lies in the southeastern sector of the walled city. It stretches from the Zion Gate in the south, along the Armenian Quarter on the west, up to the Street of the Chain in the north, and extends to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount in the east.
Mount Herzl
Mount Herzl (Hebrew: הר הרצל), also Har HaZikaron (Hebrew: הר הזכרון lit. “Mount of Remembrance”), is the site of Israel’s national cemetery and other memorial and educational facilities. It is found on the west side of Jerusalem beside Jerusalem Forest and named after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. Herzl’s tomb lies at the top of the hill while Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, lies to the west of Mt. Herzl. Israeli fallen soldiers are also buried there. Mount Herzl is 834 meters above the sea. Every plot section in Mount Herzl has a broad plaza for memorial services. Most state memorial ceremonies for those killed at war are conducted in the National Military and Police cemetery.
Rechavia
Rehavia, an upscale neighborhood, is popular for the wine bars, laid-back eateries, and gourmet food shops along Azza Street. Trails weave among olive trees in the Valley of the Cross, a park home to the 11th-century Monastery of the Cross. The modern Jerusalem Great Synagogue has a large mezuzah collection and striking stained glass, while Beit Avi Chai hosts film screenings, lectures, and art performances. Photo Credit: Deror Avi, CC BY-SA 3.0
Shrine of the Book
The Shrine of the Book is a wing in the Israel Museum near Givat Ram in Jerusalem. It houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in 11 caves in and around the Wadi Qumran in 1947–1956. The shrine was initially intended to be built on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University, adjoining the National Library. An elaborate seven-year plan led to the building’s construction in 1965, funded by the family of David Samuel Gottesman, the Hungarian émigré and philanthropist, who had purchased the scrolls as a gift to the State of Israel.
One of the architects, the pragmatic Armand Phillip Bartos (1910–2005) was evidently chosen based on his being married to Gottesman’s daughter Celeste Ruth Gottesman (who formerly had married Jerome John Altman in 1935 and divorced). For the other appointed architect, the eccentric visionary Frederick John Kiesler (1890–1965) Gottesman had earlier funded a fact-finding project to discover if Kiesler’s “Endless House” could be installed at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The architectural team also included Gezer Heller, who went on to build many important structures in the new State of Israel. He married Alice Hammer, sister of Ibbi Hammer, the woman who became the chief banker of the State of Israel. She was the daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Budapest.Initially, Israeli architects strongly objected to non-Israeli architects’ having been chosen through nepotism and to Kiesler’s having never completed his architectural studies in Vienna and Berlin (though licensed as an architect in New York) and having never built anything. He was primarily an avant-garde stage designer who taught occasionally. Nevertheless, the American-Jewish architects had been chosen by Gottesman as early as 1955.The shrine is built as a white dome, covering a structure placed two-thirds below the ground, that is reflected in a pool of water that surrounds it. Across from the white dome is a black basalt wall. The colors and shapes of the building are based on the imagery of the Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness; the white dome symbolizes the Sons of Light and the black wall symbolizes the Sons of Darkness.As the fragility of the scrolls makes it impossible to display all on a continuous basis, a system of rotation is used. After a scroll has been exhibited for 3–6 months, it is removed from its showcase and placed temporarily in a special storeroom, where it “rests” from exposure.The museum also holds other rare ancient manuscripts and displays The Aleppo Codex. Its dome, due to the unusual architecture, has been used as scenery for several science fiction movies.
En Prat Nature Reserve
En Prat is a spring of water, which rises in a spectacularly beautiful desert canyon. The spring flows into a natural rock pool, and its output (around 1500 m³ a day) creates a brook that flows all year round. In ancient times, the spring was an important source of water for Jericho. In Hasmonean times, an aqueduct, which was built in the Early Moslem period, carried water from the spring. Remain of the aqueducts from the Byzantine period as well as ruins of a flour mill, have been found east of the spring. In 1927, the British began to pump water from the spring to supply the residents of East Jerusalem with water. By 1970, all of Jerusalem connected to the national water system, and pumping stopped. The remains of the Mandate-era pumping station and pipes can still be seen within the nature reserve. In the past, the pool was used for irrigation, and today it is a bathing pool for the enjoyment of visitors to the site. – Israel Nature and Parks Authority Photo attribution: Bukvoed, CC BY 4.0
Hezekiah’s Tunnel
The Siloam Tunnel, also known as Hezekiah’s Tunnel, is a carved water channel beneath the City of David. In ancient times, it was located in the Arab neighborhood of Silwan in eastern Jerusalem. Its popular name derived from the most common hypothesis, dating back from the reign of Hezekiah of Judah (late 8th and early 7th century BC), and corresponds to the “conduit” mentioned in 2 Kings 20:20 in the Hebrew Bible. According to the Bible, King Hezekiah prepared Jerusalem for an impending siege by the Assyrians. He successfully blocked the source of incoming water from the upper Gihon, directing it down west to the City of David.
Mamilla Boulevard
Mamilla was a Jerusalem neighborhood established in the late 19th century outside the Old City, west of the Jaffa Gate, containing a mixed Jewish-Arab business district. Between the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the 1967 Six-Day War, it was located along the armistice line between the Israeli and Jordanian-held sectors of the city. Due to building destruction caused by Jordanian shelling, the Israeli government approved an urban renewal project for Mamilla. This allowed for apportioning land for residential and commercial zones, including hotels, shops, and office spaces, ultimately leading to The Mamilla Mall, which opened in 2007.
Rockefeller Archaeological Museum
The Rockefeller Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum, is currently an archaeological museum located in East Jerusalem. It houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the 1920-1930 Mandate Palestine excavations. The Israel Museum manages The Rockefeller Museum, which houses the head office of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Photo Attribution: Deror Avi, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
