Tilt and trepidation

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Tilt and trepidation were today's T words for ABC Wednesday as I walked down Jaffa Street.
Two workers were trying to either raise or lower the tilting sign.

The one man I could not see but from behind the tarp he could be heard warning his comrade "Shwaya shwaya, shwaya shwaya."
(That's Arabic for slowly slowly / little by little / be careful / easy does it!)

Enlarge the photo and you'll see he is balancing on an inch of stone and hanging on to the railing with one arm.

The fear and trembling typical for Jewish Mothers rose up in me, so I took a quick snapshot and kept on walking so as not to distract or embarrass the worker. God forbid he should fall on my account!
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They are doing a great job preserving and restoring the facade of the hundred year old Saidoff building while a highrise is being built behind it.
See how the gutted building looked a few years ago here and see how another endangered worker put his nose to the grindstone here.
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"Where history meets luxury"

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You have a good view of the sky when the roof is gone.

This incredibly long building on Jaffa Road is called Batei Saidoff, meaning Saidoff Houses.

Isaac Saidoff built the complex in the 1920s, after he moved to Jerusalem from Shanghai.

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The great influx of Jews to Shanghai began in the second half of the 19th century and continued to grow in bursts through the end of World War II. The city was known as a bustling international trade and commerce hub, free from anti-Semitism and ripe with opportunity. At its height during the Holocaust this Jewish community, the largest in China, stood at nearly 50,000.

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In 1919 the Saidoff family sought refuge from the pogroms in Bukhara (in southern Russia). They fled to Shanghai and settled there in search of a new life. A few years later the family immigrated to Israel.

(source)

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As you saw in a recent post, the almost-century-old building is being reconstructed.
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Hard to imagine at this stage, but the contractor advertises it as "Your residence in Jerusalem--where history meets luxury."

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This video from Ashdar/Ashtrom Group will help us imagine what it will become.

This photo from a gray day in February shows the beginnings of the foundation for the 23-storey high-rise that will be part of the Saidoff Houses complex.

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The high-rise itself will have ninety 3- to 6-room apartments.

Globes says sales so far include a 270-square meter 6-room apartment for NIS 8.5 million and a 190-square meter 4-room apartment for NIS 6.3 million. At today's rate, that is $2,333,243 and $1,728,850.

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The view of Jerusalem, the Old City, and the Hills of Jerusalem doesn't come cheap!

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I imagine most buyers will be residents of the USA or UK who come to Israel only for the Jewish holidays, a few weeks a year, such as at Jerusalem's David's Village complex, which is a ghost town most of the year.

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Meanwhile, it is fun to follow the stages of deconstruction, reconstruction, and construction.

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Saving old stones

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Saving Jerusalem's nice old buildings so that new luxury residences can be built inside their shell is a lot of work.

This worker was cleaning an arch, stone by stone, of the hundred-year-old Saidoff Houses on busy Jaffa Street.
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That whirling steel brush could be bad for the eyes.
I'm glad they gave him plastic safety glasses. But enlarge the photo and see where they are!
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In the next few days I will have more on this big project that has been going on for years.
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That's it for now for That's My World Tuesday. Shalom!
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