In the Facebook group 'Jerusalem of the Past', of which I am a member, participants upload photos from decades ago - photos taken by professional photographers and tourists who came to Jerusalem and documented it with their camera lenses, from different angles.
I went to search for and document the same places shown in the photos, as they appear today. Some of the photos reveal special details about the city's history, to the point of verifying the story of the nun from the Saint-Louis Hospital near the Notre Dame complex losing her teeth., In the days when the city was divided between Jordanian and Israeli rule.
The story, for those interested, belongs to a nun who one day looked out of her room window across from the new gate. Suddenly she leaned forward a little and let out a short cough. Before she could react, her false teeth fell out of her mouth, straight into the no-man's land between Israel and Jordan. Then for the first and last time, in those 19 years that Jerusalem was divided, Israeli and Jordanian officers entered, along with a French officer from the UN Armistice Commission, just to pull out her teeth, not before all the people and representatives of all religions got involved in the affair.
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One of the group's members, Aviv Yitzhaki, who documented Jerusalem with his camera as a photographer from the 1970s to the late 1990s, uploaded a photo of the monastery. The group's director, Ami Shapira, responded after they wrote about the story, saying that he happened to know the policeman who entered the area. Simply because he is his father-in-law.
This completes the circle.
A few days ago, one of the group members uploaded a photo, taken by an unknown photographer, with the caption: "Mahane Yehuda Market from the Casino de Paris Hotel.".
I know this name from a restaurant in the market.
I decided to go look and see what it was all about, and try to document the market from that angle.
After quite a bit of wandering, I found the roof from which the old photo was taken. Then I also discovered that despite what I thought there was nothing to see from up there, from Machane Yehuda you can see almost all of Jerusalem - spread out in the palm of your hand.
I counted the pictures. If you are a true Jerusalemite, in heart and soul, you should recognize things in them that I was unable to recognize.
Respond, write, and fill in the gaps for us.
- 1. The KIAH - Kol Yisrael Chabir compound, and the 'Etz Chaim' yeshiva compound near the Mahane Yehuda market. In the background is the Clal building.
- 2. Machane Yehuda Market. Look at what the covered market looks like from above, like ventilation pipes.
- 3. View of the Geula neighborhood. Right: Dome of the Porat Yosef Beit Midrash. Left: Bayan Hasidic building. Center: Schneller Camp clock tower.
- 4. A general view of the northern neighborhoods. In the background is a tall building that I was unable to identify.
- 5. Jaffa Street, Mahane Yehuda train station. And to think that almost a decade ago only buses emitting heavy smoke traveled here.
- 6. Cranes of the 'Tnuvat Ha'aretz' project, Bayan Hasidic building, roof of the Yeshivah Yakiri Jerusalem.
- 7. The clock tower at the Schneller camp. The building is designated for preservation, despite the large construction boom in the area.
- 8. Porat Yosef Yeshiva building. A close-up. I've never seen this side of the dome in all its glory.
- 9. I was unable to identify where the tall building belongs. On the right: Ramat Eshkol neighborhood, in the center there is a flag. I'm satisfied if this is the flag on Ammunition Hill.
- 10. Right: French Hill. Center: The many-arched synagogue of Givat Hambatar. Left: French Hill Bridge. Left side of the photo: Beit Hanina neighborhood.
- 11. The roof of Cinema City, with the trees of the Sacre Coeur Garden and the Botanical Garden in the background. On the right: the construction project of the 'Mishkenot Ha'uma'.
- 12. The reconstructed image of the Mahane Yehuda Market, as it looks today. So what has changed since then? They closed the roof terraces, added tiles, the umbrellas have changed, and there are no vehicles in the market. But the atmosphere is probably the same.
- 13. A close-up of the stone relief found on the KIA building. This is a handshake relief, expressing the name of the society 'Kol Yisrael Chaviv'.
- 14. The 'Etz Chaim' Yeshiva building is also designated for preservation. Behind it, a project to build a huge residential building begins, on the market parking lot.
- 15. The entrance to the Mahane Yehuda Market. The light rail. In the background: the new Dodidoff Towers built on the housing estates of the ruined neighborhood.
- 16. And another photo: What the market looks like from above, when it's covered. It's a bit ugly, compared to the excitement and beauty that's down on the streets.
- 17. Aerial view of Jaffa Street, towards the walls. The protruding copper tower - is the tower above the Notre Dame Monastery, near the new gate in the Old City.
- 18. An attempt to photograph the sundial in the Zohari Hama synagogue through the bars was unsuccessful. So I tried to bring a symbolic image to Jerusalem, looking north.
- 19. But outside the roof railing, at an almost impossible angle, I managed to capture half a picture of the synagogue. The roof in this part is simply blocked by the air conditioning motors.
- 20. In this photo, taken looking north, I was unable to recognize almost anything. Even the building in the center of the photo, with the flag above it, is unfamiliar to me.
- 21. Schneller Camp Complex - the section designated for preservation. There used to be a roof tile factory on the site. On the right you can see the large building that was built in the complex on Bar Ilan Street.
- 22. Tachkemi Street. The roof on the lower right is the roof of Rabbi David Batzri's Kabbalah Yeshiva. In the background: 'Beit Tovei Ha'ir' nursing home on Bar Ilan Street.
- 23. Jerusalem graffiti. When viewed from above, it takes on a different shape and color. Suddenly it doesn't look so ugly.
- 24. The Israel Broadcasting Authority building on Torah Mitzion Street. This building will soon be demolished and a residential neighborhood will be built in its place, for the ultra-Orthodox, of course.
- 25. The central bus station complex in Jerusalem, with the giant clock on its facade. The clock, by the way, is very accurate.
- 26. The Central Bus Station complex. Adjacent to it, the German houses built with rare ceramics, which over time fall out and crumble. Beit Egged, the old Central Bus Station complex, the old Shaare Zedek Hospital, the end of Rashi Street and Jaffa Street.
- 27. The 'Mishkenot Ha'uma' complex - the new part, overlooking the market.
- 28. The 'Mishkenot Ha'uma' complex - the older part overlooking Gan Saker, Bezalel Street and the Cinema City complex. If the building weren't hiding, I could probably point you to the balcony of journalist Yedidia Meir.
- 29. Here at the bottom of the picture you see Gan Saker, and after it it looks like the Beit Haker neighborhood and a bit of Beit Vegan. I would appreciate it if you could identify the place for sure.
- 30. Saker Garden is at the bottom of the picture again. But above it, in all its glory, stands the Shalom Hotel, dominating the edge of Beit Vegan - which reveals that the neighborhood behind is Beit Vegan.
- 31. Bottom right: Shaarei Tzedek Hospital (you can read the caption). Left: The domes of the symbol above the courts symbolizing the Freemasons. Center: A building with a dome. I doubt if this is the Rabbinical Center. I would also like you to decipher this part of the picture and the buildings in the background.
- 32. The Israeli Knesset in all its glory. Behind: The monstrous building of the Holyland project stands proudly. Both look like one connection. And I thought to myself, this is the image that most expresses the sad story of "capital and power""
- 33. This part of Jerusalem is unfamiliar to me. I recognized a cemetery, I recognized a building with the words 'Ambassador' on it. But beyond that, nothing is familiar to me. What does the photo document?
- 34. The northern neighborhood again: the French Hill Bridge, the synagogue on Givat Hambatar. If you recognize any more details, please share.
- And this is where it all began: the picture of the past and the picture of today. The picture on the right was taken in 1905. The current one - 110 years later - in 2015.
