This is the fourth Jewish family to move into ‘Arab Musrara’ – formerly the Jewish neighborhood of Kiryah Ne’emana (also known as Batei Nissan Beck), located opposite the Damascus Gate of the Old City.
The apartment was purchased recently with the help of an organization called ‘Uvneh Yerushalayim’. The organization worked through the courts, receiving an eviction judgment and police assistance to remove squatters who refused to leave the property.
On Wednesday, members of Uvneh Yerushalayim, together with the new tenants, finally broke down the concrete wall that sealed the apartment shut. Members of the court’s enforcement division, along with half a dozen police officers accompanied the young couple as they moved into their new home with only a bed, chair and table as furnishings for their first night.
“The conditions are very difficult, but we must reclaim the place otherwise the other ‘neighbors’ will re-occupy it,” Uvneh Yerushalayim’s President Chaim Silberstein told Arutz-7’s Ezra HaLevi. “There were 120 Jewish homes in Kiryah Ne’emana before the Arab riots of 1929,” said Silberstein, stressing the importance of an increased Jewish presence in what used to be a thriving Jewish neighborhood. “19 Jews were murdered there over the course of the rioting and buried in a mass grave on the Mount of Olives. After that the Jews there fled. Kiryah Ne’emana was one of the first Jewish neighborhoods outside the walls of the Old City in the late 19th century and in a flash it was emptied of Jews [as a result of the 1929 riots]. Our goal is to reclaim the entire neighborhood. We see it as a part of the natural process of the Jewish return to Zion and are privileged to play a part in such a historic part of Jerusalem’s history.”
Uvneh Yerushalayim began renovating the apartment today (Thursday), hoping to provide a more comfortable home for the brave couple.
For more information on Uvneh Yerushalayim’s activities or to offer assistance, contact: chaim@uvnehyerushalayim.org
The apartment was purchased recently with the help of an organization called ‘Uvneh Yerushalayim’. The organization worked through the courts, receiving an eviction judgment and police assistance to remove squatters who refused to leave the property.
On Wednesday, members of Uvneh Yerushalayim, together with the new tenants, finally broke down the concrete wall that sealed the apartment shut. Members of the court’s enforcement division, along with half a dozen police officers accompanied the young couple as they moved into their new home with only a bed, chair and table as furnishings for their first night.
“The conditions are very difficult, but we must reclaim the place otherwise the other ‘neighbors’ will re-occupy it,” Uvneh Yerushalayim’s President Chaim Silberstein told Arutz-7’s Ezra HaLevi. “There were 120 Jewish homes in Kiryah Ne’emana before the Arab riots of 1929,” said Silberstein, stressing the importance of an increased Jewish presence in what used to be a thriving Jewish neighborhood. “19 Jews were murdered there over the course of the rioting and buried in a mass grave on the Mount of Olives. After that the Jews there fled. Kiryah Ne’emana was one of the first Jewish neighborhoods outside the walls of the Old City in the late 19th century and in a flash it was emptied of Jews [as a result of the 1929 riots]. Our goal is to reclaim the entire neighborhood. We see it as a part of the natural process of the Jewish return to Zion and are privileged to play a part in such a historic part of Jerusalem’s history.”
Uvneh Yerushalayim began renovating the apartment today (Thursday), hoping to provide a more comfortable home for the brave couple.
For more information on Uvneh Yerushalayim’s activities or to offer assistance, contact: chaim@uvnehyerushalayim.org