Yemin Moshe

Yemin Moshe Review

This now-affluent neighborhood, with its attractive old stone buildings, bursts of greenery and bougainvillea, and well-kept cobblestone streets, grew up a century ago alongside the older Mishkenot Sha'ananim, and was named for that project's founder, Sir Moses (Moshe in Hebrew) Montefiore. In the 1950s and '60s, the area overlooked the jittery armistice line that gashed through the city, and was dangerously exposed to Jordanian sniper positions on the nearby Old City walls. Most families sought safer lodgings elsewhere, leaving only those who couldn't afford to move, and the neighborhood ran to seed. The reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli rule after the Six Days' War in 1967 changed all that. Developers bought up the area, renovated old buildings, and built new and spacious homes in a compatible style. Yemin Moshe is now a place to wander at random, offering joy to photographers and quiet nooks for meditation. A couple of restaurants are added bonuses.