Ma'alot Dafna ( he, מעלות דפנה) is an
Israeli settlement
Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...
and a neighborhood in
East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel.
Jerusalem was envisaged as a separat ...
.
It borders the neighborhood of Shmuel HaNavi to the west, Ammunition Hill
Ammunition Hill ( he, גִּבְעַת הַתַּחְמֹשֶׁת, ''Giv'at HaTahmoshet'') was a fortified Jordanian military post in the northern part of Jordanian-ruled East Jerusalem and the western slope of Mount Scopus. It was the site o ...
to the east, Ramat Eshkol
Ramat Eshkol ( he-a, רמת אשכול, He-Ramateshkol.ogg) (also Ramot Eshkol he, רמות אשכול) is an Israeli settlement and neighborhood in East Jerusalem. It was built on land captured from Jordan in the Six-Day War and was the first n ...
to the north and Arzei HaBira to the south.
The international community considers Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel.
Jerusalem was envisaged as a separat ...
illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.
History
Ma'alot Dafna was established in 1972 on the hillside through which Israeli troops in the Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...
made their way from the Israeli neighborhood of Shmuel HaNavi to fight the Arab Legion troops at the Battle of Ammunition Hill
Ammunition Hill ( he, גִּבְעַת הַתַּחְמֹשֶׁת, ''Giv'at HaTahmoshet'') was a fortified Jordanian military post in the northern part of Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, Jordanian-ruled East Jerusalem and the western slo ...
. Its name, translated to "Bay Laurel Heights", commemorates Israel's victory in that war, the Bay laurel being a symbol of victory.
The name Ma'alot Dafna also refers to the ''ma'alot'' (Hebrew for "steps") up to the ''dafna'' (Hebrew for overlapping rose petals), referring to the layered hills and the stepped approach to it.[Ehrenpreis Meyer, Yael. "I Found My Place In... Strength of unity in Anglo-sub communities". '' Binah'' Magazine, 9 May 2011, p. 41.]
The neighborhood includes a sub-neighborhood called Arzei HaBira (Cedars of the Capitol), which was built on territory on the Israeli side of the armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the La ...
line before the war. Arzei HaBira is now considered a separate neighborhood, with more than 200 families. The rest of Ma’alot Dafna was built on territory that had been either no man's land
No man's land is waste or unowned land or an uninhabited or desolate area that may be under dispute between parties who leave it unoccupied out of fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dump ...
or land used by the Jordanian military.
Ma'alot Dafna was built as part of the sequence of Jewish neighborhoods called the ''bariah'' or "hinge" neighborhoods[דוד קרויאנקר, ירושלים - המאבק על מבנה העיר וחזותה, ביתן זמורה 1988. Yerushalayim: Ha-maavak al mivneh ha-ir ve-hazutah (Hebrew Edition) by ]David Kroyanker
David Kroyanker (born 1939) is an Israeli architect and architectural historian of Jerusalem. He has written dozens of popular books about Jerusalem neighborhoods, streets, and buildings, and urban planning.
Biography
Kroyanker was born and rai ...
(1988)
סיור לאורך "הקו העירוני", אילן שפירא
connecting West Jerusalem to Mount Scopus. On July 1967, Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Levi Eshkol
Levi Eshkol ( he, לֵוִי אֶשְׁכּוֹל ; 25 October 1895 – 26 February 1969), born Levi Yitzhak Shkolnik ( he, לוי יצחק שקולניק, links=no), was an Israeli statesman who served as the third Prime Minister of Israe ...
gave a clerk named Yehuda Tamir unusual authority to overlook governmental building license policy in order to speed up the establishment of the "hinge" neighborhoods (Ma’alot Dafna, Ramat Eshkol, Givat HaMivtar
Givat HaMivtar () is an Israeli settlement and a neighborhood in East Jerusalem established in 1970 between Ramat Eshkol and French Hill. It is located on a hill where an important battle took place in the Six Day War. Archaeological excavations h ...
, and French Hill
French Hill ( he, הגבעה הצרפתית, ''HaGiv'a HaTzarfatit'', ar, التلة الفرنسية, ''at-tel al-faransiya''), also Giv'at Shapira ( he, גִּבְעַת שַׁפִּירָא) is an Israeli settlement in northern East Jerusa ...
). The neighborhood was designed so that it could serve the adjacent neighborhood of Shmuel HaNavi, a poorly designed and problematic lower-class neighborhood, which until the Six Day War faced a large enemy fort.
Demographics
Ma'alot Dafna now has a population of about 420 families, of which 220 are Anglo-born and 200 are Israeli. Most of the Anglo community consists of American Haredi couples who come to Israel for one or more years of kollel
A kollel ( he, כולל, , , a "gathering" or "collection" f scholars is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features shiurim (lectures) and learning ''sedarim'' (sessions); ...
study at the nearby Mir yeshiva. The latter group creates a high turnover rate in the Anglo community.
Architecture
Ma’alot Dafna is a small neighborhood, originally built for a population of 4,000 (1,400 apartment
An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...
s)), by the contractor company “Shikun U'Pituakh”; chief of architects Y. Drexler.[דוד קרויאנקר, ירושלים מבט ארכיטקטוני, מדריך טיולים בשכונות ובתים הוצאת כתר, 1996] It initially consisted entirely of four-story apartment houses of two to three bedrooms per apartment. The buildings are faced with Jerusalem stone
Jerusalem stone (Hebrew: אבן ירושלמית; Arabic: حجر القدس) is a name applied to various types of pale limestone, Dolomite (rock), dolomite and
Dolomite (rock), dolomitic limestone, common in and around Jerusalem that have been u ...
and include architectural elements typical to the Old City of Jerusalem
The Old City of Jerusalem ( he, הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה, translit=ha-ir ha-atiqah; ar, البلدة القديمة, translit=al-Balda al-Qadimah; ) is a walled area in East Jerusalem.
The Old City is traditionally divided into ...
, as well as modern ones. The neighborhood has large areas reserved for pedestrian traffic.
Notable institutes
* René Cassin High School serves the secular population of the northern Jerusalem neighborhoods. In its heyday, it had 60 classes of 40 students each. Its students learned three languages: Hebrew, English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
.
* Yeshivat Ohr Somayach is one of the most notable yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...
s in Jerusalem for '' baal teshuva'' men.
* The Jerusalem offices of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ( ar, قوة الأمم المتحدة المؤقتة في لبنان, he, כוח האו"ם הזמני בלבנון), or UNIFIL ( ar, يونيفيل, he, יוניפי״ל), is a UN peacekeeping m ...
Notable people
*Nachum Eisenstein
Nachum Eisenstein is the rabbi of the Ma'alot Dafna neighborhood, Jerusalem, Israel. He is one of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv's foremost disciples.
American-born Eisenstein heads the International Rabbinical Committee on Conversion. The committe ...
References
{{Coord, 31.796209, 35.225687, display=title, type:landmark
Neighbourhoods of Jerusalem
Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem