The Greek Colony (, ''HaMoshava HaYevanit'') is a neighborhood in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, bordering the German Colony and Katamon.

History

The lands of the Greek Colony were purchased by wealthy members of the

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

community in the early 20th century.

Archimandrite The title archimandrite (; ), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot ('' hegumenos'', , present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") whom a bishop appointed to supervise several "ordinary" abbots and monaste ...

Euthymios () of the

Church of the Holy Sepulchre The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem. The church is the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchat ...

encouraged them to establish a neighborhood outside the Old City's overcrowded Christian Quarter. Architect Spyro Houris () designed the first twenty homes and a community center before World War I. Most of the Greek Orthodox residents fled before the 1947–1949 Palestine war in 1948. After the war, apartment blocks were hastily built to accommodate large numbers of Jewish immigrants from Yemen and Morocco.The lost tribes: How gentrification decimated Israel's original ethnic communities and neighborhoods

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

In the 21st century, the neighborhood underwent gentrification and is now one of the most expensive in Jerusalem. The Greek Colony community center, consisting of five buildings, organizes regular cultural activities that include traditional Greek dancing and Greek language classes. Th
Greek Consulate in Jerusalem
is located in the Greek Colony, at the junction of Rachel Imeinu and Tel Chai. A popular attraction in the neighborhood is the Greek Community Center, built in the year 1902 at Joshua Bin Nun Street. The community center, Beit Elisheva, at the corner of Hizkiyahu and Elazar Hamodai, was built in 1962. The birthing hospital, Misgav Ledach, which was originally established in 1854 in the

Old City of Jerusalem The Old City of Jerusalem (; ) is a walled area in Jerusalem. In a tradition that may have begun with an 1840s British map of the city, the Old City is divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Arm ...

, funded by the

Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt. The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, ...

, was later moved to the Greek Colony, and has been there since then.

Archaeology

In July 2007, archaeological excavations in the Greek Colony prior to the construction of a residential building carried out by the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

found remains of a northeast-southwest oriented wall. Based on the findings, it was probably the retaining wall of a farming terrace. Some ceramic finds dating to the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

periods were unearthed, as well as a large stone quarter dating to the Byzantine period.Jerusalem, the Greek Colony: Final Report
Hadashot Arkheologiyot, vol 121, 8 January 2009

References

{{Authority control Greek diaspora in Israel Neighbourhoods of Jerusalem European culture in Jerusalem 20th-century establishments in Asia Populated places established in the 20th century