Walking Tour of Shivtei Yisrael Street in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM MUNICIPALITY TOUR SATURDAY APRIL 2, 2011

SHIVTEI YISRAEL STREET BY VIVIAN

Meeting at Safra Square 10 AM

1. Stop at corner with HYWAY #1 across from Jaffe Gate with back to City Hall.

Talk about 1948 War for Independence - Armistice Map - Moshe Dayan and Abdullah el Tell, Mendelbaum Gate, house in Beit Saffafa that was cut in half.

House on beit Sufafacut on half

Take first right into courtyard off of Shivtei Yisrael to see French hospital courtyard.

Give background of Crimean war - roles of French, British, Turks and Russians.

Go to #13 Shivtei Yisrael to see the Russian Pilgrims' Center - across from Lifeline for the Old.

Russians were truly pilgrims - walking from Jaffa to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Mention the Grand Due Constantine who built the Center.

Notice the "H" above the lintel - actually a Cyrillic "N" for Czar Nicklaus II

Point of were the ecclesiastical center was located in the alleyway to the left.

Explain about the White and red Russian churches.

Further down the street is the Russian womens pilgrim center. Point of the double gabled roof. British made this a prison. Zionist prisoners have become heroes. No one hung here but two themselves up.

Speak about about Etzel, assination of lord Moyne.

Railway station bomb threat.

Go down stairs 2nd level is rotary park in Musrara.

Murara was build by Christian Arabs in 1890s

After 1948 war it becomes Jewish Israel. Musrara evacuated by Arab residents February 1948. Arabs did no return. Israeli law. Those who abandoned property lost it. LaCustodian of absentee property

The border with Jordan was just behind Musrara

Musrara become a poor neighborhood for the poor Jewish immigrants from the Middle East. From 1948-67 it was considered undesirable and danger area.

Key money system of property ownership. After1967 this becomes a mixed neighborhood made up of both rich and poor Jewish residents.

The building at #23 Shivtei Yisrael is an Ethiopian Orthodox church property.

Further down we come to the St Paul Church built in the Neo-Romanesque style in 1873 by the London based Church Mission Association. The language of worship was Arabic. Today the church is under the administration of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission - headquartered across the street from the church.

Further down the street at the corner with Nivaiim (Prophets) St., we come to the lovely resident Mahanayim House [source of the name comes from Genesis 32:2] house. It was built in 1885 as a private residence for the German banker Jacob Frutiger - a Swiss missionary. This building become the Evelina d Rothschild Girls School in 1896 - lessons first taught in French, later in English and after Israel's independence in Hebrew. The British High Commissioner Plumer had is residence here and later the home of the Zionist leader Menachem Ussishkin. Today the Ministry of Education houses some of its offices here.

Further down the street we come the very impressive Italian Hospital designed by the Italian architect and Franciscan clergyman Antonio Barluzzi - his first of many projects in Israel. During WWII the Sisters were interned at the Austrian Hospice in the Old City and the building was taken over the the British Royal Airforce as their HQ here.

Notice the huge mezuzah that was place here by Minister of Education Zuvulum Hammer.

Turn right at Paz gas stations and walk 50 meters enter Rumanian Orthodox Church. Across the St. is the Polish guest house.

You can look down to the end of Shivtei Yisrael where the Mendelbaum Gate was located from 1948-1967. This area is now an Jewish orthodox section of Jerusalem.

At this point the tour ends.