Once upon a time in Jerusalem,
And this time – Mahane Yehuda market, on the occasion of the market’s 100th-anniversary celebrations that took place this week in Jerusalem.
Mahane Yehuda Market began its journey at the end of the 19th century,
Long before he knew he was going to be a Jerusalem icon for generations,
When Arab farmers from Lipta, nearby Sheikh Bader and Deir Yassin, brought their agricultural produce in baskets to the large open field owned by the Valiro family in the Mahane Yehuda neighborhood, near the Nachalot neighborhood.
The open and improvised market was an alternative to the markets of the old city and provided a response to the residents of the Nachalot neighborhood, Beit Ya’akov, and the area – local entrepreneurship and 19th-century style power center.
In the night of languages that mixed together for them, Arabic Yiddish and Ladino,
Baskets full of vegetables, and on hot summer days the residents of Nachalat watered the Arab farmers standing in the blazing sun with cold water they brought from their nearby home.
Later, dilapidated wooden sheds were erected, and then booths,
The temporary became permanent, and the booths slowly turned into permanent booths made of tin and concrete.
After the disturbances of 1920-1921, the Jews stopped buying in the Old City market, and the price of the Mahane Yehuda market increased and the peasants gave way to Jewish merchants.
The nearby Etz Haim yeshiva, which was enclosed within a large square courtyard, took advantage of the situation and built about 40 shops on the western wall of the yeshiva complex, financed by the yeshiva’s donors, in order to provide a living for the Jewish residents of the city and to receive fixed rents for the yeshiva to finance the needs of the place.
A plaque with the name of the donor was placed over the entrance of each shop, plaques that disappeared from sight with the roofing of the market.
With the growth of the Jewish settlement in the city, another plot of land was purchased on the border of Agrippa Street, on which four rows of shops were densely built on two streets – Hatapuach Street and Haagas Street.
Most of the merchants in the new market were members of the Persian community,
Among them is Eliyahu Yaakov Banai, and his son Meir Eliyahu.
This was the beginning of the glorious Jerusalem dynasty of builders that began in a 2-room apartment on Haagas Street 1 above the poultry slaughterhouses – Jacob, Gavri, Yuval, Ehud, Orna Avitar, and Meir, and many more, from court judges to cardiologists and everything in between
And Yossi Banai, the friend of Simon and little Moises said “I am like a planted tree, my roots rest between the memory of Yosef and the Hapahim neighborhood”.
In 2000, the name of Hags Street was changed to Eliyahu Yaakov Banai Street,
But the Haagas street lives and breathes to this day in the poem of the grandson Ehud, who sings about the scents of jasmine, and an old melody that invites a meal.
In 1930, under British rule, the market grew significantly with a loan taken from the Loan and Savings Bank, which demanded that the name of the market be the same as the bank’s name and the ancient sign heralding the opening of the Loan and Savings Market is still found today at 1 Shaked Street.
After a year the opening of the loan and savings market, like all good Jews who see that a project is successful and developing,
An additional piece of land was purchased with the financing of the bank, west of the main street of the market.
This time they were a group of merchants from the Iraqi community, and that’s how the Iraqi market was built with pride, which is bordered by Beit Ya’akov and Shekma Streets.
On the street bordering the market, a small workers’ restaurant named Rahmo was built, which served home-cooked food cooked slowly on kerosene wicks, fine hummus, and rice and beans in bags to take home.
Years later, a small restaurant was opened in the Iraqi market where a young man named Ezra Scherpler, the late cook, whom Jerusalemites know today as Azura, and at the end of the stairs going down from the Iraqi market to Shekma Street, a young Jerusalemite opened a wholesale store in 1976 in a 40 square meter warehouse A small food products company that sold basic products at a small profit to a clientele that was looking for a discounted price.
Later the guy grew up and named his marketing chain, which in the meantime became an empire – “Sycamore Marketing” after the street where the old store was located which stands empty to this day, a reminder of the past and the saying “Know where you came from”.
The Mahane Yehuda Market used to be the beating heart of the city –
Every watermelon is the best, and every Loquat is extraordinary,
Almond or tamarind juice at Azora for the juices and Börek and Jacques Canty for the pickles and slated cheese, Zedkiyo for the pickles, fish shops with a wooden rolling pin that instantly determined the time of death of the chosen fish, pulled from a tub of water in which the fish condemned to death swam densely and wrapped in newspaper, the poultry shops and the butchers and the smell of the fresh pitas from the nearby bakeries.
Later, the market became a place of entertainment for Jerusalemites and tourists from all over the country, with nightlife, bars, restaurants, and an atmosphere unmatched anywhere else.
100 years to the most Jerusalem place there is.
Shabbat Shalom to all, far and near, from Jerusalem.
