Once upon a time in Jerusalem,
The Liberty Bell Garden, 1980.
In 1965, the Jerusalem Municipality decided to plan the eastern area of the city, which was desolate and isolated due to its proximity to the ceasefire line with the Jordanians.
The planning was conducted through an architectural competition and proposals for the planning of the complexes, but as often happens in our districts, nothing came of it.
Later the city was unified, the ceasefire line disappeared and the municipality was required to re-plan the area.
The Bell Garden is located in the Omaria complex, at the end of King David Street and between the neighborhoods of Talbia, the German Colony and Yamin Moshe, and is the northern entrance to Emek R’efaim. Until the 1970s, the garden and the areas south of the Yemin Moshe neighborhood were a barren area dotted with ancient olive trees.
Initially, a large-scale residential plan was planned for the construction of residential towers and hotels, but following a public protest, the plan was canceled and, in its place, it was proposed to build a green and open park.
The garden was established in 1976 and was designed by the architect Ulrik Pelsner.
Pelsner was a world-renowned Danish architect who worked in Sri Lanka where he designed the houses of the island’s wealthy, later moved to London and also stayed in Israel for a while when he participated in the design of the Hilton Hotel. The amiable and talented Dane came to Israel in 1972 and settled in Jerusalem after meeting an Israeli woman and starting a family with her. Pelsner accepted the job of designing the gardens at the invitation of the Jerusalem Foundation, which was headed by Teddy Kolek at the time.
The garden was inaugurated on the 200th anniversary of the independence of the United States, and in the center stood a bell replica of the famous liberty bell in Philadelphia. The bell was given to the Israeli Knesset as a gift on the Independence Day of the State of Israel in 1955 by the Governor of Philadelphia, and it was determined that the Liberty Bell would be placed in the new Knesset residence. In the meantime, the bell was temporarily placed in the rose garden, with a sign stating that the bell will be moved to the new Knesset residence in the future.
The temporary became permanent, the sign did promise, but reality had a life of its own. The Knesset was established in 1966 and representatives of the US government asked the Knesset secretary when the bell would move, because the Knesset inauguration ceremony was approaching. The secretary of the Knesset turned to the Jerusalem district engineer at the time, who replied that the transfer would be done before the inauguration of the new tabernacle. The dedication of the Knesset House took place as a series, the bell remained in its place, and it stood lonely and sad in the rose garden and waited ten whole years for someone to ring it, until one morning it was moved to the planned area and construction began in the Omaria compound, named after the unruly bell. No one understood how the freedom bell arrived in the garden, which is about ten kilometers away from the rose garden, with ups and down Jerusalem’s hills. At first it was thought that the bell may have made a personal decision to go out into freedom after it got tired of standing alone and sulking (after all, it was a freedom bell) and jumped all the way to the new garden, but the sight of the bell and its weight dismissed the idea outright.
More speculations have been made, but no answer has been found. In 2022, on the occasion of the Knesset’s birthday, Knesset Archives employees searched for historical materials that have not yet been published. There, to their surprise, they found the smoking gun of the bell affair- Exchange of letters between Mayor Teddy Kolek and the Knesset chairman at the time Israel Yeshayahu. In the archive is a letter written by Teddy Kolek, who says that the municipality wanted to establish a garden to be named after the Liberty Bell and thought of purchasing a copy of the Liberty Bell itself, but then the municipality remembered that there is a copy of such a bell on the grounds of the Knesset, and the general public does not often see it. “It seems that the municipality has no point in purchasing such a bell, and the municipality requests that the Knesset make the existing bell available to it.”
The chairman of the Knesset replied after a week that he willingly agrees to move the bell and requests that the city will find a respectable way to indicate that the bell was placed there by the authority of the Knesset, in order to fulfill its obligation to the donors.
The bell did go. The sign didn’t. In fact, to this day there is no mention in the garden of how the unruly bell got there, A sort of mixture of Salah Shabti with the wonders of the Iisrabloff project. Since its opening in 1976, the garden has become an attraction for the Jerusalem public, and included a roller-skating rink, playgrounds, basketball courts and a footpath, an amphitheater for 500 spectators and a huge dragon statue named Jerry was placed in the northern part. The joy was great and the book week, parties and city events were held there. The “Karon Theater” also operated there, which moved to its new home in 2016. And only the Liberty Bell donated by the Governor of Philadelphia hangs in the center of the park, a reminder of past days, and hopefully future days of freedom that will come soon.
Shabbat of peace to far and near from Jerusalem.
Photographer – Fritz Cohen.
