Hekdesh

• Scattered among the dwellings built outside the walls towards the end of Ottoman rule are buildings marked "hekdesh" to a particular Jewish community.
• This property must be used for the good of that community forever (though I expect developers have lawyers working on how to break such covenants).
• If you read Hebrew, you can decipher signs marking such buildings throughout the Nakhalaot.
• In between Agripas and Bezalel, you can walk through a long courtyard with one such building along the Agripas side. Its tiny apartments, little improved since they were built over a hundred years ago, are leased to young couples for tiny rents.

COpyright 2006 Jane S. Fox