Pioneering Protestants in Jerusalem

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For today's That's My World let's look at a disappearing world.
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The Israeli army guard would not let me in the gate to photograph back in November 2008.
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Written in stone on the building are the Arabic and the German for "Syrian Orphanage."
The place is popularly known as the Schneller School or Schneller Compound.
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I could only get pictures through the perimeter fence and the barbed wire.
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Some of the buildings are roofless.
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Some are gone.

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The army, which had used the compound since 1948, moved out two years ago.

The plan is to build 600 apartments for the neighboring haredim (ultra-orthodox Jews).

The Jerusalem municipality talks of preserving some of the beautiful old European-style buildings and using them as public buildings or a museum.

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By chance, a wooden crate was recently found inside the old church.

In it was the original stone altar from 1860!

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Last night, at the symposium I showed in yesterday's post, the altar was brought to the Church of the Ascension on Mount of Olives to be installed and rededicated there, at Augusta Victoria.

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You can get an idea of the history and the great meaning of the Schneller School(s) for the German Protestants (and also see old photos of the orphanage and Johann Schneller and the kids) by looking at the PDF program of the international symposium, "Schneller--a living heritage in the Middle East."

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The history in brief:

Schneller was sent to Jerusalem as a missionary from a Swiss village in 1854.

From the Arabs of Lifta he bought plots of land and started building.

He and his wife and 4 apprentices became the first Europeans to live outside the protective Old City walls.

They rescued orphans following the 1860 Druze and Muslim massacre of 30,000 Maronite Christians in Lebanon.

The children (up to 180 orphans at its peak) found a new home and a fine school in Schneller's Syrian Orphanage.

Schneller's son and then his grandson carried on his work.

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In World War II all Germans and Austrians were deported from Palestine; many were sent to Australia.

The British Army took over the compound.

When the British Mandate ended in 1948, they handed the compound to the IDF.

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To read the whole fascinating story, please see this good Jerusalem Post article.

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Today the Schneller tradition of holistic education for peace and for future leaders continues at their two schools, in Lebanon and in Jordan.

And they still teach German.

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UPDATE Oct. 2020:  https://www.israel21c.org/landmark-building-to-house-new-museum-celebrating-jewish-heritage/

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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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Stonemason in a monastery courtyard

Cutting stone (LOTS of it) the modern way.

The shrill grating sound was grating on my nerves even for the few minutes it took me to walk through this monastery courtyard.
How do these guys stand it all day?
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Jerusalem stone answers

Readers of my previous post asked WHY the mandatory use of Jerusalem stone to face houses and structures in our capital.
Well, there is something we call "the dialogue of the stones." If you are quiet and listen, you can almost hear the building stones, ancient and modern, speaking to one another. But for that, you have to come here and be here, really BE here.

I hope you will come!
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I found this more historical, but less poetic, explanation at the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
"In December 1917, when General Allenby entered the Old City of Jerusalem on foot, through Jaffa Gate, British rule over Palestine began. The British, who governed first by military government, later (until Israel's independence in 1948) by Mandatory administration, set up their administrative center for the country in Jerusalem.

During these years, Jerusalem began its transformation from the provincial town of Ottoman times to a modern administrative, political, religious and cultural center. Building activity began almost immediately and Jerusalem expanded to the north, south and west.
The British determined municipal zones, commercial areas, density of construction, use of materials and height of buildings.
Perhaps their most influential contribution to the character of architecture in Jerusalem was a municipal ordinance - which remains in effect to this day - requiring all new buildings to be faced with stone, giving a certain romantic quality to the buildings."

And this from Wikipedia:

>Meleke (Arabic, “kingly” or “royal”) is a type of white massif limestone underlying much of central Israel. A type of dolomitic limestone, meleke has been extensively quarried for centuries and has been used in many of the region's most celebrated structures, including the famous Western Wall. "Jerusalem stone," as it is sometimes known, is extracted from quarries in the Jerusalem and Bethlehem areas.

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Besides meleke, a number of other building stone types in the Jerusalem area may fall under the general rubric of "Jerusalem stone" 1. White, coarse crystalline limestone originally referred to as "Meleke", the stone of Kings. 2. Cream-colored micritic limestone known locally as "Mizzi Hilu" (sweet rock). 3. Red-colored limestone known as "Mizzi Ahmar" (red rock). 4. Gray crystalline dolomite known as “Mizzi Yehudi” (Jewish rock – modern times). 5. Flagstone of thin-layered limestone.
These rock types were quarried from the Judean limestone and dolomite in and around the Old City of Jerusalem.
This variety of stone gives Jerusalem its unique character. The setting sun reflected on the cream-colored limestone facade of both ancient and modern structures gives them a golden hue, giving rise to the term 'Jerusalem of Gold.'"
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P.S. If you want to know still more click here to see pictures of the different stone colors and textures.
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