Shmuel HaNavi ( he, שיכון שמואל הנביא, ''Shikun Shmuel HaNavi'', lit. "Samuel the Prophet neighborhood") is a neighborhood in north-central

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

. It is bordered by the

Sanhedria Cemetery Sanhedria Cemetery ( he, בית עלמין סנהדריה) is a 27- dunam (6.67- acre) Jewish burial ground in the Sanhedria neighborhood of Jerusalem, adjacent to the intersection of Levi Eshkol Boulevard, Shmuel HaNavi Street, and Bar-Ilan ...

to the north, Maalot Dafna to the east, Arzei HaBira to the south, and the

Bukharan Quarter The Bukharan Quarter ( he, שכונת הבוכרים, ''Shkhunat HaBukharim''), also HaBukharim Quarter or Bukharim Quarter, is a neighborhood in the center of Jerusalem, Israel. The neighborhood was established by Bukharan Jews of the Old Yishu ...

to the west. It is named after Shmuel HaNavi (Samuel the Prophet) Street, which runs along its western border and is the main road leading to the

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

of Samuel the

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

(Hebrew: ''Shmuel HaNavi'') just outside Jerusalem's city limits.

Background

The first home to be erected on what would become known as Shmuel HaNavi Street was the Mandelbaum House, a large, three-story house built by Simcha Torever-Mandelbaum, a Jerusalem textile merchant, in 1927. Mandelbaum chose the location at the eastern end of the street, facing

Sheikh Jarrah Sheikh Jarrah ( ar, الشيخ جراح, he, שייח' ג'ראח) is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, north of the Old City, on the road to Mount Scopus. It received its name from the 13th-century tomb of Sheikh Ja ...

, with a desire to expand the northern boundary of Jewish Jerusalem at that time. In 1941, the

Jerusalem Biblical Zoo The Tisch Family Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem ( he, גן החיות התנ"כי בירושלים על שם משפחת טיש, ar, حديقة الحيوان الكتابية في أورشليم القدس '), popularly known as the Jerusalem Bibl ...

, initially a small children's zoo on Harav Kook Street in central Jerusalem, was moved to a tract at the eastern end of Shmuel HaNavi Street before relocating to the campus of the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

Mount Scopus Mount Scopus ( he, הַר הַצּוֹפִים ', "Mount of the Watchmen/ Sentinels"; ar, جبل المشارف ', lit. "Mount Lookout", or ' "Mount of the Scene/Burial Site", or ) is a mountain (elevation: above sea level) in northeast Je ...

in 1947. Houses built at the eastern end of the street before 1948 were largely inhabited by poor families and subject to sniper fire from Sheik Jarrah during the 1947 civil war. When

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

broke out in 1948, Shmuel HaNavi Street became a strategic gateway for

Arab Legion The Arab Legion () was the police force, then regular army of the Emirate of Transjordan, a British protectorate, in the early part of the 20th century, and then of independent Jordan, with a final Arabization of its command taking place in 1 ...

naires seeking to enter Jewish Jerusalem. The Mandelbaum House was used by the Haganah as a military stronghold and was partially blown up by the Arab Legion. The

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,no man's land of barbed wire and minefields separating it from Ammunition Hill to the northeast. From 1949 to 1967 the official crossing point between Israeli- and Jordanian-held territory stood at the eastern end of Shmuel HaNavi Street at a checkpoint called the Mandelbaum Gate. This checkpoint was named after the destroyed Mandelbaum House, whose ruins lay nearby.

New construction

In the 1950s the new state of Israel struggled to absorb large numbers of immigrants, moving them out of temporary tents and huts into permanent apartments. Shmuel HaNavi was one of the neighborhoods built to accommodate these immigrants. Constructed in the early 1960s, it was situated next to the 1949 armistice line that ran parallel to Shmuel HaNavi Street, in order to reinforce the city's hold on its northern border. Considering the location, the complex of "long train" tenement buildings were built in the manner of fortresses. The buildings were erected on a base of reinforced concrete and the walls were finished in rough stone, since this type of material could be handled by hundreds of unskilled workers. The Israel Housing Ministry mandated that the external concrete walls of the buildings be three times the normal thickness to withstand shelling. The roofs of the buildings had raised parapets fitted with gun slots. The buildings themselves were arranged in a "confusing zig-zag pattern" to slow down Arab armies that might charge the complex, and the courtyards between the buildings were designed to accommodate mass mobilization of Israeli troops in the event of an attack. For many years, residents barricaded their building entrances with

sandbags A sandbag or dirtbag is a bag or sack made of hessian (burlap), polypropylene or other sturdy materials that is filled with sand or soil and used for such purposes as flood control, military fortification in trenches and bunkers, shielding gl ...

and reinforced or blocked windows exposed to the border with Jordan. Shmuel HaNavi courtyard

The project was largely populated by

Sephardi Jewish Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

immigrants from North Africa. The buildings – each "four stories in height, 32 apartments to a building, containing small flats of 70 meters housing large families" – suffered from overcrowding and lack of infrastructure, and quickly turned into a slum.

Urban protest movement

By the late 1970s, when the population had reached 4,000, a significant number of youth had dropped out of school and organized themselves into

gang A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collective ...

s. In response, Ohalim, an urban protest movement that promoted "positive activity" among disadvantaged immigrant populations in Jerusalem, established a community council in Shmuel HaNavi, along with similar councils in

Nachlaot Nachlaot ( he, נחלאות, also ''Naḥlaʾoth'') is a cluster of 23 courtyard neighborhoods in central Jerusalem surrounding the Mahane Yehuda Market. It is known for its narrow, winding lanes, old-style housing, hidden courtyards and many sma ...

, Baka, and Kiryat Yovel, between 1977 and 1981.Hasson (1993), p. 12. The Shmuel HaNavi branch called itself Ohel Shmuel. It "organized neighborhood clean-up campaigns, helped rid one of the buildings of prostitutes, organized cultural activities and holiday celebrations, initiated activities for the elderly, helped involve marginal youth in productive activity by setting up a lighting fixture factory for them, and organized learning centers for children and youth".

Project Renewal upgrade

In 1968, a year 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 ...

and the reunification of Jerusalem, a community center opened in the neighborhood. Shmuel HaNavi underwent a significant upgrade under Project Renewal, a national

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

program that upgraded housing, infrastructure and utilities in 84 Israeli neighborhoods between 1977 and 1984. A new facade was added to each building in the complex, and apartments were enlarged and even combined to create larger living quarters. The

Jewish Agency for Israel The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...

, a Project Renewal co-partner, paired cities in the United States with Israeli neighborhoods slated for rehabilitation;

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

was twinned with Shmuel HaNavi.

Demography

As the first generation of immigrant children matured and left the neighborhood, their parents followed, and

Haredi Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...

families from Mea Shearim, Bukharim and Geula took their place. Today the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood is largely Haredi. The neighborhood has deteriorated over the past number of decades, however, due to the low socioeconomic level of its residents. In 2007, a 3-room apartment was selling for $70,000 to $100,000.

Archaeology

Sanhedrin Park, north of the Shmuel HaNavi-Bar Ilan intersection, contains burial caves from the Second Temple period. In 2009, archaeologists discovered an ancient quarry dating to the end of the Second Temple period (c. 2,030 years old) on Shmuel HaNavi Street near the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood. According to the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, he, רשות העתיקות ; ar, داﺌرة الآثار, before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of ...

, the immense size of the stones suggests that they were destined for use in the construction projects of King Herod, including the Temple. The Shmuel HaNavi quarry is part of a series of stone quarries stretching over the entire slope, from Musrara to Sanhedria.

Notable residents

*Eliyahu Amedi, a yeshiva student whose 1986 murder sparked five days of anti-Arab rioting in and around the Old City. * Yaakov Yosef, rabbi, rosh yeshiva, and former

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

member for the

Shas Shas ( he, ש״ס) is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily ...

party * Puah Shteiner, author of Forever My Jerusalem

References

Bibliography

* * {{Authority control