Neviim Street (Again) and then the Market

As you may remember from my previous post on the Ethiopian Church, Neviim Street is one of the main east-west arteries across the city and a street I find myself on quite often. Slowly but surely I am discovering the rich history of this street, especially during the early 20th century. It was at the end of the 19th century that the weakened Ottoman Empire began to loosen its grip on the Holy Land, and European countries seized the opportunity for a new presence in Israel. Some of this new presence began here on Neviim Street.

Here is one example: this is the Italian Hospital that was built in the 1910's. The hospital had two wings (only one of them appears in this photo) and a church in the middle and was operational from the end of World War I until the begin of World War II, when Italy found itself on the wrong side of the Allied Forces. The British, who were occupying Jerusalem at that time, kicked out the Italians and turned the hospital into Royal Air Force headquarters. When the war was over, the building changed hands again as the new Israeli state occupied it as a military base. They found the belfry tower, which you see in the picture, particularly useful as a look-out during their war for independence. Now it houses the Israeli Education Ministry.



But it still retains a very Italian flavor, not just in its architecture but also in its decoration. Have a look at this panel from the top of the building's main gate. It features Rome's legendary founder Romulus and his twin brother Remus suckling a she-wolf, a scene that is depicted all over Italy. The other panels consist of Crusader family seals. Interestingly, in the 1980's a mezuzah was affixed to the entrance. In order to fulfill the commandment given in Deut 6:9, Jews have a small scroll inscribed with Deut 6:4-9 and 11:13-21 set inside a case and placed on the "doorpost" (Heb. = mezuzah). These mezuzot are of course found all over Israel and in many Jewish homes throughout the world, but the Italian hospital is unique for being a Christian church building affixed with a mezuzah. I found it to be an interesting intersection of the two faiths.

Just up the street from here is the Tabor House, which was built around 1900 by the Swedish architect and missionary Conrad Schick, and it now serves as the Swedish Theological Seminary. Schick designed the building to look like Mt. Tabor (Emily and I visited Mt. Tabor when she was here), and he made the roof of his house to look like an Israelite altar by fixing horns on its four corners. (You can see one of the horns in the center of the photo.) On the right side of this photo you can see the chapel he built with his house.

Above the main entrance you can see the name "Thabor," and it also cites Psalm 89:12, which was apparently the inspiration for Schick's interest in Mt. Tabor.
Neviim Street ends at Jaffa Street (another street mention in a previous post on my walk to HUC), and if you go just a little farther down Jaffa, you come to the main market in Jerusalem: the Mahane Yehuda. Here is a shot from the inside of the market:
And this is just one street; the market covers several blocks. Here are some more shots:

In this next photo I wanted to point out that the orange, tomato-looking fruit beside this man in the hat is actually persimmon. I don't think people really eat persimmons in the US because they never get big or ripe enough, but here in Israel they are sweet and delicious and a very popular fruit, especially for dessert.

I think the market is probably busy everyday, but Friday (the day I visited) is definitely the busiest as religious Jews stock up for Shabbat the next day. Here is a stand, which was selling challah bread for the upcoming Shabbat.


So that was my Friday morning today. Nothing too exciting, but to my eyes even the ordinary in a city like Jerusalem is pretty interesting!