Mea Shearim מאה שערים | |
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Neighborhood | |
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  Mea Shearim Location in Jerusalem | |
| Coordinates:31°47′13″N35°13′20″E / 31.78694°N 35.22222°E /31.78694; 35.22222 | |
| Country |  Israel |
| City | Jerusalem |
| Founded | 1874 |
Mea Shearim (Hebrew:מאה שערים, lit., "hundred gates"; contextually, "a hundred fold",Ashkenazi Hebrew andYiddish pronunciation:Meye Shorim) is one of the oldest Ashkenazi neighborhoods inJerusalem outside of theOld City. It is populated byAshkenaziHaredi Jews, and was built by members of theOld Yishuv.
The nameMea Shearim is derived from a verse fromGenesis, which happened to be part of theweekly Torah portion that was read the week the settlement was founded: "Isaac sowed in that land, and in that year, he reaped a hundredfold (מאה שערים,mea shearim); God had blessed him" (Genesis 26:12). According to a tradition, the community originally had 100 gates, another meaning ofMea Shearim.[1]
Meir Auerbach, the chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Jerusalem, was one of the founders of the neighborhood.[2]Conrad Schick, a German Protestant architect, drew up the first blueprint for Mea Shearim in 1846. Mea Shearim, one of the earliest Jewish settlements outside the walls of theOld City, was established in 1874 by a building society of 100 shareholders.[3] Pooling their resources, the society members purchased a tract of land outside the walled city, which was severely over-crowded and plagued by poor sanitation, and built a new neighborhood with the goal of improving their standards of living.
Yosef Rivlin, one of the heads of the Jewish community in Jerusalem, and a Christian Arab fromBethlehem were the contractors. The work was carried out by both Jewish and non-Jewish workers.[4]
Mea Shearim was structured as acourtyard neighborhood. It was surrounded by a wall, with gates that were locked every evening. By October 1880, 100 apartments were ready for occupancy, and a lottery was held to assign them to families. By the turn of the century, there were 300 houses, a flour mill, and a bakery. Conrad Schick planned for open green space in each courtyard, but cowsheds were built instead. Mea Shearim was the first quarter in Jerusalem to have street lights.[4]
Today, Mea Shearim remains an insular neighbourhood in the heart ofJerusalem.[4] With itsHaredi, and overwhelminglyHasidic, population, the streets retain the characteristics of a pre-warEastern Europeanshtetl.[1] Life revolves around strict adherence toJewish law,prayer, and the study ofJewish religious texts. Traditions in dress include black frock coats and black hats for men (although there are some other clothing styles, depending on the religious sub-group to which they belong), and long-sleeved, modest clothing for women. In some Hasidic groups, the women wear thick black stockings all year long, even in summer. Married women wear a variety of hair coverings, from wigs to scarves,snoods, hats, and berets. The men havebeards, and many grow long sidecurls, calledpe'ot. Many residents speakYiddish in their daily lives, and useHebrew only for prayer and religious study, as they believe Hebrew to be a sacred language, only to be used for religious purposes.[5]
Hasidic groups with a large number of followers in Mea Shearim include:Breslov,Slonim,Toldos Aharon,Toldos Avraham Yitzhak,Mishkenos HoRoim, andSatmar. The Pinsk-Karlin dynasty also has its center here. TheEdah HaChareidis, which superviseskashrut certification and runs a Jewish religious court, has its headquarters at the western end of Mea Shearim. Mea Shearim is the stronghold of both factions of theNeturei Karta movement, which opposesZionism, as well as the movement from whence they sprang – the descendants of the originalPerushim community, also known as "Yerushalmis". Some Neturei Karta members have asked to live under Arab rule.[6] The late RabbiYosef Shalom Eliashiv, the leadingposek ofLitvish /Yeshivish Jewry, made his home here.
The oldest Sephardic Haredi dynasty, Levi Kahana of Spain, has a religious cultural center in the neighborhood.[citation needed]
"Modesty" posters in Hebrew and English are hung at every entrance to Mea Shearim. When visiting the neighborhood, women and girls are urged to wear what is deemed to be modest dress (knee-length skirts or longer, no plunging necklines or midriff tops, no sleeveless or short-sleeved blouses or bare shoulders); men and boys are urged to avoid wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts; tourists are requested not to arrive in large, conspicuous groups; and in some of the older signs, even non-Jewish men are requested to wearkippas. DuringShabbat (from Friday night at sundown to Saturday night at sundown), visitors are asked to refrain from smoking, photography, driving, or using mobile phones. When entering synagogues, men are asked to cover their heads.[7]
Some residents have been criticized for attacking police, and other government officials entering the area, with stones, and blocking the streets, or setting fire to rubbish when they try to do so (otherwise known as Hafganahs).[8]
A small, violent group called "The Sikrikim", of less than 100 families, enforce censorship on bookshops, causing over 250,000 NIS damage to a shop that resisted their demands.[9]
On 24 June 2010, politiciansUri Maklev andMoshe Gafni of the Haredi partyUnited Torah Judaism were attacked in Mea Shearim, after they had visited theSlonim rabbi and had entered his synagogue to pray. When they emerged, they were set upon by young men affiliated withNeturei Karta who spat at them and physically assaulted them.[10]
In April 2015, anIDF officer was attacked by men and women of Mea Shearim who allegedly threatened to kill him, while children blocked his exit. The incident received national attention. The attack was condemned by Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu as "outrageous", and byShas leaderAryeh Deri as "an act of terror".[11]
On the other hand, the leaders of the sect have recently published a manifesto calling for "the laws of the autonomy in Arab territories to be applied in our neighbourhood (Me'a Shearim) too, without dependence on the Zionist regime".
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