Mekor Chaim (also Makor Haim, he, מקור חיים, ''lit.'' Source of life) is a neighborhood in southwest

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. It was named for Haim Cohen, a wealthy Jewish businessman who donated large sums of money toward the purchase of land in Jerusalem before World War I.

History

The funds donated to

Hovevei Zion Hovevei Zion ( he, חובבי ציון, lit. '' hose who areLovers of Zion''), also known as Hibbat Zion ( he, חיבת ציון), refers to a variety of organizations which were founded in 1881 in response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russ ...

by Haim Cohen were transferred to the Jewish National Fund, which purchased 120 dunams of land on the southern fringes of Jerusalem. Mekor Chaim was established in 1926 by the religious Zionist Mizrahi movement. It was planned as a village of 20 small farmsteads, and was built along one main street which developed parallel to the railway line. Each family received a two-dunam plot for a house, garden and orchard. In the early days, the families had cow sheds and chicken coops. The building contractor, Mar Haim, was head of the first neighborhood committee. He arranged for the Hamekasher bus company to open a regular route between Mekor Chaim and the city center. Initially, there was one central water tap in the south of the neighborhood. The committee purchased the water from the municipality and placed a watchman at the tap to count how many buckets each family drew. Later, raised water cisterns were built in the garden of each home. During the Arab riots of 1929, the residents took shelter in the synagogue, which was built like a fortress. According to a

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

conducted in 1931 by the British Mandate authorities, Mekor Chaim had a population of 202 inhabitants, in 41 houses.Mills, 1932, p
41
/ref> Located between the Arab villages of

Malha Malha is a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem, between Pat, Ramat Denya and Kiryat Hayovel in the Valley of Rephaim. Before 1948, Malha was an Arab village known as al-Maliha ( ar, المالحة). History Antiquity Excavations in Malha revea ...

and

Beit Safafa Beit Safafa ( ar, بيت صفافا, he, בית צפפה; lit. "House of the summer-houses or narrow benches") is a Palestinian town along the Green Line, with the vast majority of its territory in East Jerusalem and some northern parts in West ...

, and far from other Jewish neighborhoods, Mekor Chaim was exposed to Arab sniping and endured a lengthy

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...

that began in December 1947. Convoys of supplies from

Talpiot Talpiot ( he, תלפיות, literally 'turrets' or 'magnificently built') is an Israeli neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem, established in 1922 by Zionist pioneers. It was built as a garden suburb on land purchased by the Tel Aviv-based P ...

to Mekor Chaim were turned back by the British Army. In the 1948 war, the Haganah was stationed there and it was the site of fierce battles. After 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 states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

, the

industrial zone was developed, ending the neighborhood's isolation. In the mid-1980s, the Jerusalem city council established zoning laws to stop the encroachment of commerce and preserve the residential character of Mekor Chaim. The Israel State Archives is located in the neighborhood.

Education

The Sudbury Democratic School is located in Mekor Chaim.

References

{{coord, 31, 45, 14.55, N, 35, 12, 45.2, E, display=title Neighbourhoods of Jerusalem