Mea Shearim

Mea Shearim is a neighborhood north of Jerusalem. It is well known for being a neighborhood with exclusively ultra-Orthodox Jews. Various signs invite the visitors to not enter that neighborhood dressed in “indecent” attires.

Mea Shearim means one hundred doors in Hebrew. The name refers to the hundred gates evoked in the Torah and the Parshas HaShavua that read in the synagogue during the week in which the district was created.

It was built during the 19th century, as life in the Old City of Jerusalem was too uncomfortable. The neighborhood houses consisted of two rooms for about ten people each built next to each other, forming a natural wall, while schools were in the old town.

The War of 1948 left Mea Shearim in the hands of Israel, and the old part of the city was under Jordanian rule. When the State of Israel was created, took into account the population of Mea Shearim and its particular objectives.