Even Yisrael

• Even (rhymes with seven) Yisrael used to be named Valero after the banking family. When a committee decided to rename the street after the 19th century neighborhood, the Valeros were not happy, even though they got another street some blocks away. It is a block-long pedestrian street leading from Yafo to the beginning of Agripas.
• Across Yafo is Ezrat Yisrael.
• Abstruse calculations at the end of the 19th century convinced a group of Jews that the gate to heaven opened near the beginning of the Street of the Prophets - Rehov HaNeviim ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/street-of-prophets.html ).
• Managing to buy property between Derekh Yafo and Rehov HaNeviim, they built the EzratYisrael neighborhood, from which it would be a few steps to the portal.
• In the fading days of the Ottoman Empire, Christian groups -- Ethiopeans to Anglicans -- favored the Street of the Prophets to build schools, hospitals, and churches. The Anglicans, no doubt in ignorance, blocked the access from Esrat Yisrael to the computed site.
• So goes the story. I do know the number of believers; the neighborhood, like others of the period, was tiny. Nor do I know much they depended on their belief.
• Ezrat Yisrael Street is a cul-de-sac, accessible to pedestrians only, between King George and Raoul Wallenberg (http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/ ). It is worth a slow walk. On the right is a small book store specializing in used textbooks. When traffic half a block behind you stops, pretend you've gone back 100 years.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox