Rechavia and Talbiyeh to the German Colony and Emek Refaim

November, 2006 - Copyright by Morris Rosenthal - - contact info

As I fool around with the format of this Jerusalem guide, I thought I'd try a slightly more complicated shortcut, from Rechavia and Talbiyeh down the German Colony and Emek Refaim. This is a little different from most shortcuts I'll be doing, because it consists strictly of roads that can be traveled by autos. The trick is, some of them are one way in different directions. In other words, if you initially take taxis and busses to get around town, you'd never figure out this route because even though there are roads, it can't be driven. I'm starting out just across the street from the Jerusalem Theatre on Marcus, officially David Marcus St. The downhill part of Marcus is steeper than it looks in the picture, I've seen the police close the street to car traffic on the rare occasions of snow. For cars, Marcus is a one-way street, uphill. We'll be walking downhill, along the stone wall of the Hanson's Disease (Leprosy) Hospital, and taking a left at the circle at the bottom of the hill onto Gedalyahu Alon.

The whole block we turn onto is taken up by the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem. I went to something there years ago, a Bar Mitzvah I think, very nice place with a large sunken playground that seems mainly given over to basketball.I don't know much about their structure, I believe they have both a High School and some outreach programs. The picture to the right is taken from a little parking area across the street from Harman's and shows one of the streets we could turn down to the right, Klein. You can continue all the way down Klein to Hazefira and take a left to get down to Emek Refaim, but I don't go that way. You can also head down Klein and take a left onto Hamagid, which will bring you to the intersection below, the same as if you'd continued on Alon and taken a right on Moholiver (I'm going to have to check the spelling on that one).

I took the picture to the right standing on Moholiver where Hamagid crosses, miraculously without changing names. Moholiver does change names at this intersection, the downhill part we'll be taking turns into Hildesheimer. The neat stone building on the left is Tafnit Real Estate, and they certainly did a good job using it all because there's not much space left for cars and people. There is a short little sidewalk that ends in a stairway behind the fence to the right, I'll show it from the bottom in the next picture. Cars can go down Hildesheimer, though I believe they are supposed to have a neighborhood sticker to do so, and I've seen cops staked out at the bottom pulling people over like with a zeal I wished they'd apply to all the lousy drivers in the country.

I wanted to include a shot of the little stairs here, because it's easy to mistake them for the front stairs of a private house. I suppose it is the front stairs of a private house, but there's a short sidewalk between the two walls that brings you up past the electric tower and out onto Hamagid. There's a real pinch point for cars right between the red and white painted post on the extreme right of the photo and the left-hand curb, especially if people are walking up or down or if somebody tries parking there. I've probably slapped a couple cars in this spot over the years for coming to close, as I lived for several winters on Hamelitz, the first left when you come down the hill. the challenge question for the day is what do Hamagid, Hamelitz and Hazefira have in common? Answer in transliterated Russian - Fsia Bwila Gazzete Ivriski viRassia Bolshe Chim Stoh Leyt Nazat.

Here I'm standing at the corner of Hamelitz and Hildesheimer, looking up Hildesheimer to the shortcut, with the corner of the Tafnit building just visible.The circular red sign with the horizontal white stripe means "Do not enter" for cars. Two circular red signs with horizontal white stripes means, "We're serious this time, there not room for two cars to pass no matter how aggressive you drive." Even though we aren't driving, I may as well point out that the red and white paint job on the curb has a similar meaning, "No Parking." Blue and white is OK, maybe, though make sure you check around for a parking ticket printer because it may be a paid spot. For some reason I'm reminded that there are usually a few U.N. vehicles and press cars parked in the area, it being a premiere neighborhood. The press cars are easy to spot because they like spelling out TV with white tape on the back window, sometimes the roof and the hood. I don't know about you, but if I was ever to throw a rock at a car, one with TV taped on it would be my first choice.

Nachalot to Gan Sacher | Rechavia to German Colony | Nachalot to Mahane Yehuda | Beit Hakerem to Givat Ram