Beit HaKerem, Jerusalem
Beit HaKerem (Hebrew: בית הכרם) is a largely secular upscale neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem, Israel.[1] It is located between Kiryat Moshe to the northwest and Bayit VeGan to the south. Beit HaKerem has a population of 15,000.[2]
History
Remnants from the First Temple, Second Temple, Byzantine and Mamluk periods were discovered in a dig on HaSatat Street in 2006.[3] It is named for the biblical city of Beit Hakerem near Jerusalem[4] mentioned in Jeremiah 6:1 and Nehemiah 3:14.
The neighborhood was founded in 1922 as one of six garden cities developed in Jerusalem during the days of the British Mandate for Palestine.[5] Beit HaKerem was planned by Ricard Kaufmann, an architect notable for his Bauhaus style, and was at the time separated from the rest of the city by large swaths of undeveloped land.[6] Beit Hakerem has continued to maintain its 'green' character.
In the 1960s and 1970s, many university professors and students sought housing in Beit Hakerem due to its proximity to the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University, built when the Mount Scopus campus was cut off from Jerusalem in 1948.[7]
Education
The neighborhood has 25 kindergartens, four elementary schools and three high schools considered among the most prestigious in Jerusalem.[8] David Yellin College of Education, established in 1913, is located in Beit HaKerem.[9]
Parks and monuments
Gan Ha'esrim park in Beit Hakerem (Park of the Twenty) commemorates 20 residents who died in Israel's War of Independence. Denmark Square (Kikar Denya) honors the Danish people for rescuing 90 percent of its Jewish population during the Holocaust. The monument in the square is shaped like a boat, recalling the boats on which Jews were smuggled to Sweden.[10]
Transportation
The Jerusalem Light Rail, which began service in late 2011, passes through Beit HaKerem and has several stops there providing convenient, rapid transportation to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, The Convention Center (Binyane Haooma), the forthcoming (early 2018?) terminus of the high-speed rail to Tel Aviv (28 minutes), Cinema City, the Machaneh Yehudah (the shuk) market, as well as to downtown Jerusalem, Zion Square, the Ben Yehudah pedestrian mall, Jerusalem City Hall, the Mamilla shopping mall and the Old City near Jaffa Gate and Damascus Gate.
Notable residents
- Nir Barkat, Mayor of Jerusalem
- Yehoram Gaon, singer, actor, director, producer, and TV and radio host
- Anat Hoffman, President of Women Of The Wall
- Reuven Rivlin, President of The State Of Israel
- Alice Shalvi,[11] Educator
- Karnit Flug, Governor of The Bank Of Israel
References
- ↑ Riding Out the Storm
- ↑ Jerusalem neighborhoods
- ↑ Israel Antiquities Authority - Articles
- ↑ Carta's Official Guide to Israel and Complete Gazetteer to all Sites in the Holy Land. (3rd edition 1993) Jerusalem, Carta, p.233 , ISBN 965-220-186-3 (English)
- ↑ British Mandate:Garden suburbs
- ↑ Jerusalem and its Environs:Quarters, Neighborhoods, Villages, Ruth Kark
- ↑ The Way They Were, In Jerusalem, Jerusalem Post
- ↑ The Way They Were, In Jerusalem, Jerusalem Post
- ↑ David Yellin College of Education
- ↑ Parshat Va-eira 5764 - Aloh Na'aleh - OU.ORG
- ↑ An interview with Alice Shalvi
External links
Media related to Beit HaKerem at Wikimedia Commons
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Coordinates: 31°46′44″N 35°11′24″E / 31.77889°N 35.19000°E