The Batei Warsaw (Warsaw Houses) (also known as Nachalat Yaakov
A map by the Mandatory Survey Department, 1936, featuring the neighborhood name 'Nachalat Yaakov'.) is a Haredi neighbourhood on the outskirts of

Mea Shearim Mea Shearim (, lit., "hundred gates"; contextually, "a hundred fold", Ashkenazi Hebrew and Yiddish pronunciation: Meye Shorim) is one of the oldest Ashkenazi neighborhoods in Jerusalem outside of the Old City. It is populated by Ashkenazi Hared ...

, near

Kikar HaShabbat Kikar HaShabbat (, lit., "Sabbath Square"), known in the Haredi community as Kikar HaShabbos, is a major intersection joining five streets in Jerusalem, Israel, between Mea Shearim and Geula: Yehezkel Street from the north, Malkhei Yisrael Stree ...

. It was built in the

Ottoman period The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Central Euro ...

by Kollel Poland (also known as Kollel Warsaw), for Polish Torah scholars. Their families receive apartments for key money or low rent. The neighbourhood consists of two rows of two-story houses parallel to Mea Shearim Street, between Strauss Street and Chayei Adam Street.

History

The neighbourhood was established at the initiative of Kollel Warsaw under the leadership of the Lelov Rebbe, Rabbi David Biderman, to provide housing for impoverished Torah scholars, making it the first "kollel neighbourhood" outside the Old City walls. Although the plot was identified as early as 1884, financial difficulties delayed construction. Fundraising began in 1885, and the land was purchased in 1891 by Yehoshua Helfman. However, funds ran out before the houses could be built. In 1894, the philanthropist Yaakov Tenenwurzel from Lublin donated the necessary funds, and the houses were named "Nachalat Yaakov" in his honor. A notice in the ''HaḤavaẓẓelet'' newspaper on May 13, 1898, reported that the neighbourhood had 65 houses rented to families for five-year terms, after which they had to vacate for new tenants. The article described the homes as "good and splendid, large, spacious, pleasing in appearance inside and out, and uplifting to all who see them." Havatzelet, 13 May 1898. In 1924, philanthropist David Weingarten funded an expansion, adding a second floor to the buildings. The property is registered in the land records as the "Biderman Endowment." An inscription on a stone plaque at the neighbourhood’s entrance reads: Three water cisterns were dug between the two rows of houses. However, unlike many other neighbourhoods in Jerusalem, the cisterns did not supply enough water, and residents had to buy water from Arabs or from the

Kerem Avraham Kerem Avraham, in English Abraham's Vineyard, is a neighbourhood near Geula in central Jerusalem, founded in 1855. It is bounded by Malkhei Yisrael Street, Yechezkel Street, Tzefanya Street, and the Schneller Compound. The 1855 mission house ...

neighbourhood. Since Kollel Warsaw included both

Chasidim Ḥasīd (, "pious", "saintly", "godly man"; plural "Hasidim") is a Jewish honorific, frequently used as a term of exceptional respect in the Talmudic and early medieval periods. It denotes a person who is scrupulous in his observance of Jewish ...

and

Perushim The ''perushim'' () were Jewish disciples of the Vilna Gaon, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, who left Lithuania at the beginning of the 19th century to settle in the Land of Israel, which was then part of Ottoman Syria. They were from the section o ...

, two synagogues were built: ''Beit Yitzchak Perushim'' and the Chasidic ''Ohel Shmuel.'' The rooms beneath the latter were intended by Yaakov Tenenwurzel to serve as a Talmud Torah. When they were rented out as residences, a dispute arose between the Kollel and the benefactor. A newspaper report stated: the neighbourhood now consists of 65 houses for rentals, for five years per family, after which it must leave the apartment to other members of the Kollel. In 1924, the philanthropist David Weingarten donated money to add a second story.

References

{{Neighborhoods of Jerusalem Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Jerusalem Mea Shearim Polish-Jewish culture in Israel Neighbourhoods of Jerusalem 1894 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Populated places established in 1894

History

Further reading

References