Beit HaKerem (neighbourhood)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beit HaKerem (Hebrew: בית הכרם, House of the Vineyard) is an affluent neighborhood in west-central Jerusalem, Israel. To the northwest is the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, and to the south Mt. Herzl and the Sha'arei Tzedek Medical Center. The Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University is located to the east, while the Yefeh Nof neighborhood and the Jerusalem Forest lie to the west.
The neighborhood was founded in 1922 as one of six garden neighborhoods developed in Jerusalem during the days of the British Mandate for Palestine. Beit HaKerem was planned by Ricard Kaufman, 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. Beit Hakerem has continued to maintain its 'green' charcacter. The middle class character of its initial residents was so pronounced that the neighborhood was nicknamed with an acronym of the words teacher, clerk, and author. In recent years, housing prices have skyrocketed, resulting in a more affluent populace.[citation needed] The founders of Beit HaKerem were secular Jews and added a clause in the charter prohibited the funding of a public synagogue.[citation needed]Today Beit Hakerem has a number of Modern Orthodox synagogues (Dati Leumi),and a new Egalitarian synagogue, despite the intent of the original founders.
Beit HaKerem has expanded with the rest of Jerusalem and today boasts a population of 15,000. While there is still a majority of secular residents, many religiously observant (Religious Zionist) people live there and maintain religious-communal institutions.
At the end of 2006, a new shopping mall was completed in Givat Beit Hakerem, competing with the long-serving centre in Kikar Denia.
The new Jerusalem Light Rail will go directly from Beit HaKerem to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, the center of the city and the Old City, replacing the buses that currently traverse the main thoroughfare, Herzl Boulevard. It is scheduled to commence operation in 2010.
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