Even Sappir

Ein Karem (Hebrew: עֵין כֶּרֶם, ʿEin Kerem lit. "Spring of the Vineyard"; in Arabic ʿAyn Kārim; also Ain Karem, Ein Kerem) is a historic mountain village southwest of Jerusalem, presently a neighborhood in the outskirts of the modern city, within the Jerusalem District. It is the site of the Hadassah Medical Center. Ein Karem was an important Jewish village during the late Second Temple period, during which it became important to Christianity. Christian tradition holds that John the Baptist was …

Mount Herzl (Hebrew: הַר הֶרְצְל Har Hertsl), also Har ha-Zikaron ( lit. "Mount of Remembrance"), is the site of Israel's national cemetery and other memorial and educational facilities, found on the west side of Jerusalem beside the Jerusalem Forest. It is named after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. Herzl's tomb lies at the top of the hill. Yad Vashem, which commemorates the Holocaust, lies to the west of Mt. Herzl. Israel's war dead are also buried there. Mount Herzl is 834 meter…

Yad Vashem (Hebrew: יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the survivors; honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and Gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future. Yad Vashem's visi…

The Israel Museum (Hebrew: מוזיאון ישראל, Muze'on Yisrael, Arabic: متحف إسرائيل) is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopaedic museums. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, adjacent to the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Its holdings include the world's most comprehens…

The Church of the Visitation (formerly Abbey Church of St John in the Woods) is a Catholic church in Ein Karem, Jerusalem, and honors the visit paid by the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist (). This is the site where tradition says that Mary recited her song of praise, the Magnificat, one of the most ancient Marian hymns. Tradition The Bible doesn't mention the birth place of John, it only states that Mary went to "a town in the hill country of Judea"…

The Knesset (Hebrew: הַכְּנֶסֶת Hebrew: [haˈkneset]; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with the exception of checks and balances from the courts and local governments). The Knesset passes all laws, elects the president and prime minister (although the latter is ceremonially appointed by the President), approves the cabinet, and supervises…

The Jerusalem Forest is a municipal pine forest located in the Judean Mountains on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It is surrounded by the neighborhoods of Beit HaKerem, Yefe Nof, Ein Kerem, Har Nof and Givat Shaul, and a moshav, Beit Zeit. The forest was planted during the 1950s by the Jewish National Fund, financed by private donors. History In the early years of the state, Jewish National Fund planted thousands of trees along the western edge of Jerusalem, creating a green belt. The first tree of…

The Shrine of the Book (Hebrew: היכל הספר, Heikhal HaSefer) is a wing of the Israel Museum in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Aleppo Codex, among others. History The building was constructed in 1965, funded by the family of David Samuel Gottesman, a Hungarian-Jewish philanthropist. The building was designed by Armand Phillip Bartos, Frederick John Kiesler and Gezer Heller over a period of seven years. The shrine is built as a white dome, covering …

The Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations (Hebrew: גַן חֲסִידִי אוּמות הָעוֹלָם) is part of the much larger Yad Vashem complex located on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem. Along with some two dozen different structures within the Yad Vashem memorial – which is the second most-visited destination in the country after the Western Wall – the Garden of the Righteous is meant to honor those non-Jews who during the Holocaust risked their lives to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. The…

Teddy Stadium (Hebrew: אצטדיון טדי) is a sports stadium in the Malha neighborhood of Jerusalem. Three football teams currently use the stadium: Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel Jerusalem, and the Israel national football team for select home matches. The stadium is named after long-time Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, who was in office during the time of its construction and was one of its prominent advocates. History For Beitar, the stadium was a major upgrade after years of playing at the YMCA Stadium, …

Ein Hemed is a national park and nature reserve in the hills seven kilometres west of modern Jerusalem and some 12 kilometres west of the Old City. It is also known by the Latin name it received from the Crusaders, Aqua Bella, and as Khirbat Iqbalā in Arabic. The park is located on the path of an old Roman road, also used in later periods. The road connected the coastal plain with Jerusalem, passing through Bab al-Wad. A fortified Hospitaller building from the Crusader period, relatively well pr…

Har HaMenuchot (Hebrew: הר המנוחות, Ashkenazi pronunciation, Har HaMenuchos, lit. "Mount of Those who are Resting", also known as Givat Shaul Cemetery) is the largest cemetery in Jerusalem. The hilltop burial ground lies at the western edge of the city adjacent to the neighborhood of Givat Shaul, with commanding views of Mevaseret Zion to the north, Motza to the west, and Har Nof to the south. Opened in 1951 on of land, it has continually expanded into new sections on the northern and western s…

Rachel's Tomb ( Qǝbūrat Rāḥēl; Modern Hebrew: קבר רחל Qever Raḥel; Arabic: قبر راحيل Qabr Rāḥīl) is a site revered as the burial place of the Biblical matriarch Rachel. The site is also referred to as the Bilal bin Rabah mosque (Arabic: مسجد بلال بن رباح). The tomb is held in esteem by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The tomb, located at the northern entrance to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, next to the Rachel's Tomb checkpoint, is built in the style of a traditional maqam, Arabic for shrin…

Beit El Kabbalist yeshiva (Beit El means "House of God") (also: Midrash Hasidim 'School of the Devout' or Yeshivat haMekubalim, Yeshiva of the Kabbalists') is a center of kabbalistic study in Jerusalem. Today it consists of two buildings, one in the Ruhama neighbourhood of West Jerusalem, built in 1948, and another in Jerusalem's Old City, built in 1974. ==History == The yeshiva was founded in 1737 by Rabbi Gedaliah Hayon, originally from Constantinople, for the study of kabbalah in the Holy Ci…

Ratisbonne Monastery (Hebrew: מנזר רטיסבון) is a monastery in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel, established by Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne, a French convert from Judaism. Work on the building, designed by the French architect M. Daumat, began in 1874 on a barren hill, now in the center of West Jerusalem. History In 1843, together with his older brother Marie-Theodore, himself also a convert to Catholicism, Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne founded the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion. The a…

Talpiot (Hebrew: תלפיות, literally 'turrets' or 'magnificently built') is an Israeli neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem, established in 1922 by Zionist pioneers. It was built as a garden suburb on land purchased by the Tel Aviv-based Palestine Land Development Company and other Jewish building societies. Talpiot has become a major commercial center and a hub of nonprofit organizations. The Talpiot industrial zone is one of the largest in the country, with plans for expansion as a center of s…

Castel National Park (Hebrew: גן לאומי קסטל) is an Israeli national park, which consists of a fortified summit in the Judean Mountains, at the site of the former Palestinian village of Al-Qastal, known to Hebrew-speakers as HaCástel, "the Cástel". It is located 8 km west of Jerusalem on the road linking it to Tel Aviv (Highway 1). The site is mostly known as the place of the key battles of Operation Nachshon, which were fought there in April 1948 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Fierce battles …

The Valley of the Cross (Hebrew: עמק המצלבה Emek Hamatzlevah) is a valley in western Jerusalem, named after the Monastery of the Cross which is located in the valley. The monastery was built in the 11th century, during the reign of King Bagrat IV by the Georgian monk Prochorus the Iberian. It is believed that the site was originally consecrated in the 4th century under the instruction of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, who later gave the site to the Georgian King Mirian III of Iberia af…

Forest of the Martyrs (Hebrew: יער הקדושים) (Ya'ar HaKdoshim) is a forest on the outskirts of West Jerusalem, Israel. It is on the western edge of the Jerusalem Forest near Beit Meir. It was planted as a memorial to those who died in the Holocaust and contains six million trees, symbolizing the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators in World War II. History The first trees for the forest were planted in 1951. The World B'nai Brith Jewish service organiza…

The New Gate (Arabic: باب الجديد Bāb ij-Jdïd) (Hebrew: השער החדש HaSha'ar HeChadash) is the newest of the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was built in 1889 to provide direct access between the Christian Quarter and the new neighborhoods then going up outside the walls. The arched gate is decorated with crenelated stonework. The New Gate was built at the highest point of the present wall, at above sea level. Names The New Gate was the name used by the Ottoman administration. It was also k…

Zoharei Chama Synagogue (Hebrew: בית המדרש זהרי חמה, literally, "Sunrise Synagogue"), also spelled Zohorei Chama, colloquially known as the Sundial Building or Mahane Yehuda Clock Tower, is a three-story stone building with a wooden attic on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, Israel, which features a huge, diameter sundial on its façade. The building, constructed in stages by Rabbi Shmuel Levy from 1908 to 1917, was built to house a hostel for immigrants and a synagogue. It was damaged by fire in 1941 an…

Betar (), also spelled Beitar, Bethar or Bether, was an ancient Jewish town in the Judean Mountains. Continuously inhabited since the Iron Age, it was the last standing stronghold of the Bar Kokhba revolt, and was destroyed by the Imperial Roman Army under Hadrian in 135 CE. Ancient Betar's ruins can be found at the archeological site of Khirbet al-Yahud (Arabic: خربة اليهود), located about southwest of Jerusalem. It is located in the modern Palestinian village of Battir, which preserves its an…

Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium is an association football stadium on Dahiat al'Barid Street in Al-Ram. It is one of the home stadiums of the Palestine national football team. It is named after Faisal Husseini, a Palestinian politician who died in 2001. The stadium has a seating capacity of 12,500 spectators. Palestine international matches On 26 October 2008, the team played Jordan in their first-ever home international in 10 years of FIFA membership. In attendance were FIFA President …

ALYN Hospital (Hebrew: בית חולים אלין) is a comprehensive rehabilitation center for physically challenged and disabled children, adolescents and young adults, located in Jerusalem. ALYN Hospital is a private, nonprofit facility and treats all patients, regardless of religious belief, nationality or ethnic background. History ALYN Hospital was founded in 1932 by an American orthopedist, Dr. Henry Keller, who dedicated his life to voluntary work amongst physically challenged children in Jerusalem.…