Romema, Jerusalem
Encyclopedia
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, just off the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway
Highway 1 (Israel)
Highway 1 , is the main highway connecting Tel Aviv with Jerusalem.-History:The section between Latrun and Jerusalem roughly follows an ancient path connecting Jaffa and Jerusalem...
at the main entrance to the city. Romema is bordered by Kiryat Mattersdorf
Kiryat Mattersdorf
Kiryat Mattersdorf is a Haredi neighborbood in Jerusalem, Israel. It is located on the northern edge of the mountain plateau on which central Jerusalem lies. It is named after Mattersburg , a town in Austria with a long Jewish history. It borders Unsdorf and Romema...
and Mekor Baruch
Mekor Baruch
Mekor Baruch is a neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel.The neighborhood is bordered by Sarei Israel Street to the north, the Jerusalem Central Bus Station to the west, Jaffa Street to the south and the Zikhron Moshe neighborhood to the east....
.
Mandate Romema
Founded as a Jewish neighborhood outside of the historical city of Lifta, Romema was founded in 1921 and planned to be 24 houses centered on a central square during the British Mandate.The initiator of the Romema project was attorney Yom-Tov Hamon, an expert in Ottoman law and land ownership issues, who was often asked to arbitrate disputes between Arab landowners in the region. When there was a disagreement about ownership of the land on this hill, Hamon decreed that the plot should be sold, thus making it available for a Jewish neighborhood. The Jewish section of the neighborhood, unlike many other Jerusalem neighborhoods, it was built with private funding. Most of the original streets were named for Hebrew newspapers in print at the time: HaZvi, edited by Eliezer Ben-YehudaEliezer Ben-Yehuda
Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda was a Jewish lexicographer and newspaper editor. He was the driving spirit behind the revival of the Hebrew language in the modern era.-Biography:...
, Ariel, HaOr, Torah Mitzion and Moriah. The name Romema is derived from Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
(118:16): "The Lord's right hand is lifted high (romem)..." By 1948, the population was diverse, comprising both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, as well as Arabs .
A great deal of architecture remains from this period showing its relative affluence, wealth, and diversity of the neighborhood. Most notably is the three-story residence of a wealthy Arab Haj Muhammad, who owned quarries in nearby Lifta and served as a judge in the city's Muslim courts, the elegant home of Jewish hotelier and businessman Yehiel Amdurski, and the home of Moldova-born Rabbi Yehuda Fishman-Maim.
1948 Arab–Israeli War
In 1948, during the founding of Israel, the Christian Palestinians and Muslim Arabs living in the Arab section of Romana as well as the nearby village of Lifta were forced out of their homes due to violence from Jewish terrorist groups such as IrgunIrgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
as well as clashes with Arab militia men. Due to their the Laws for Absentees, no Arab residents were allowed to return by the Israeli government, a point of contention for Palestinians who held property there. Revisionist Israeli historian Benny Morris
Benny Morris
Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel...
describes the event as follows:
Post-1948 to Today
For many decades, Romema became a center of light industry, home to a large number of garages, foundries, carpentry workshops and factories. In 2007, as businesses closed and properties were bought up by developers, a master plan was commissioned for the neighborhood.Landmarks
Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby
Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby GCB, GCMG, GCVO was a British soldier and administrator most famous for his role during the First World War, in which he led the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the conquest of Palestine and Syria in 1917 and 1918.Allenby, nicknamed...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. It was erected by soldiers of the 60th London Division in 1920. The inscription around the base reads: "Near this spot, the Holy City was surrendered to the 60th London Division, 9th December 1917." Etched into the monument are the silhouettes of Crusader
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
knights, drawing a symbolic link between them and the British soldiers who conquered Jerusalem. The British also built a water tower in Romema, which was the highest point in Jerusalem at the time. Water from an adjacent pool was piped all over the city.
The Jerusalem branch of the Magen David Adom
Magen David Adom
The Magen David Adom is Israel's national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service. The name means "Red Star of David"...
ambulance service is located in Romema. Other landmarks in Romema include the Jerusalem Central Bus Station
Jerusalem Central Bus Station
The Jerusalem Central Bus Station is the main bus depot in Jerusalem, Israel and one of the busiest bus stations in the country. Located on Jaffa Road near the entrance to the city, it serves Egged, Superbus and Dan intercity bus routes...
, the Israel Television
Channel 1 (Israel)
Channel 1 is one of the oldest television channels in Israel and one of five terrestrial channels in the country...
building, the Jerusalem Gate Hotel
Jerusalem Gate Hotel
The Jerusalem Gate Hotel is a hotel located at the western entrance to Jerusalem, Israel. The hotel is attached to the shopping mall, Centre One....
and the Center One shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
. From 1950 to 1991, Romema was the home of the Biblical Zoo, after access to the zoo on Mount Scopus
Mount Scopus
Mount Scopus , جبل المشهد , جبل الصوانة) is a mountain in northeast Jerusalem. In the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Mount Scopus became a UN protected Jewish exclave within Jordanian-occupied territory until the Six-Day War in 1967...
was blocked in 1949.
Architecture
Many of the factory buildings in Romema were designed by Rudolf ("Rudy") Reuven Trostler, a pioneer of industrial architecture in Israel. In 1951, he designed a building for the Rafa pharmaceutical company specializing in the manufacture and marketing of medicines since 1937. Trostler also designed the five-story building housing the Israel Broadcasting AuthorityIsrael Broadcasting Authority
Israel Broadcasting Authority is Israel's state broadcasting network.It grew out of the radio station Kol Yisrael, which made its first broadcast as an independent station on . The name of the organisation operating Kol Yisrael was changed to Israel Broadcasting Service in 1951...
, which was erected in the 1960s as a diamond polishing center. The building was in the International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
with a gray breeze-block grille on the facade that became one of Trostler's stylistic trademarks. When the diamond industry in Jerusalem did not take off as anticipated, the building was renovated for television broadcasting.