Beit HaKerem

• The neighborhood of Beit Hakerem was founded in the 1920's shortly after Rechavia (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-jerusalem-neighborhood.html ). It’s not as green as Rechavia, but the parks are larger. In his Book of Intimate Grammar, David Grossman (http://www.blogger.com/(http://www.ithl.org.il/author_info.asp?id=104 ) describes the neighborhood as it was when he was a child in the 1960s. Beit HaKerem of that era (when streetlights were on only until midnight) also appears in books by Amos Oz (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/oz.html ) and Meir Shalev (http://www.ithl.org.il/author_info.asp?id=233 ). One of Jerusalem''s earliets traffic lights was at Denmark Square.
• At that time Beit HaKerem ended high on the hillside. People were proud of their gardens. Old bedsteads, and other furniture too large for garbage cans (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/frogs.html ), went over the hedge, down into the wadi. Today streets farther down the slop parallel the valley's path. The Begin highway runs along the valley bottom. Right below Beit Hakerem is an extensive park that seems to be entirely without shade.
• The 17, 17 alef, 14, 18 and other buses run along Sderot Herzl and stop at Kikar Denia – a large plaza with an impressive modern sculpture of a Danish fishing boat (and dangerous, shallow hidden steps – watch out!). Plaques in five languages explain what the Danes did. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/denmark.html and http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/danish/ have details.
• If you have read any of the books set in Beit HaKerem, by David Grossman or others, a walk along the quiet streets will let you imagine the characters ahead of you on the sidewalk. Many of the buildings are the same as they were in the 1960s, and, except for all the cars (but little traffic away from Sderot Herzl), the atmosphere has not changed.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox