Once Upon a Time in Jerusalem
And today – The house at Ben Maimon 1st Street-
the evolution of a building.
In the picture – the house on Ben Maimon Street 1, at the corner of A’zza Street, in a photo from 1930.
The building was constructed in the modern architectural style and was designed by an architect whose identity has been forgotten over the years. It resembled a two-story ship with a courtyard and was one of the first buildings constructed in the Rehavia neighborhood.
Over the years since its construction, the building served as a residence, and the ground floor facing Gaza Street was used for commerce.
Many years later, in the early 2000s, the building at Ben Maimon 1 became the legendary Café Moment, which initially started as a small shop located in a building on Azza Street 30.
It served for several years as a refuge for Jerusalemites who sought a small bar to see and be seen, to drown their sorrows in a glass on the bar, and to talk to Yoram, the owner of the place.
With the opening of the new place, the seating area expanded significantly, and Café Moment became the place to be during that time.
The Prime Minister’s residence on Balfour Street, located across from the building and the coffee house, was frequented by both local and foreign journalists, alongside the city’s youth and freelancers.
In September 2000, the Second Intifada began in the country, bringing with it horrific acts of terrorism.
Buses were being blown up, suicide bombers were attacking, and we experienced our share of incidents during the Second Intifada, including the Dolphinarium attack, the Sbarro restaurant bombing in Jerusalem, and dozens of suicide bombings year after year.
On M’otzaai Shabat of March 9, 2002, a suicide bomber from Hamas, located in the West Bank, entered Café Moment from the house’s garden at 1 Ben Maimon, wearing a long overcoat with a powerful explosive device hidden underneath.
The bomber mingled with the customers who were enjoying their Saturday evening in the inner part of the café and detonated the device.
The explosion killed 11 civilians on the spot who had come to spend their Saturday night, and 54 civilians were injured, including 10 severely.
The shop was almost completely destroyed, and a heavy mourning descended upon the city, adding to the sense of helplessness that pervaded the entire country.
That month, more than 135 Israelis were killed in a series of almost daily terrorist attacks – in the neighborhood of Ezrat Yisrael, the attack on soldiers at the Ofra checkpoint, the students of the Otniel yeshiva, the bus in Wadi Ara, and the month’s climax was the Passover Eve massacre at the Park Hotel in Netanya.
Twenty-three attacks in one month.
After the Park Hotel attack, which occurred on Passover Eve, the government declared a military operation called “Defensive Shield,” during which the attacks decreased, but they intensified in 2002-2003.
During 2002, more than 452 Israelis were killed, and about 2,200 were injured.
Café Moment did not return to order, nor did its owners.
The same Hamas terrorist organization that attacked us on October 7th had already shown its intentions at the end of the previous century.
Other cafes briefly took Café Moment’s place in the following years, but they didn’t last for long.
In 2015, a wealthy French-Jewish businessman acquired the building and with the help of a young and talented Jerusalem architect, constructed a luxury apartment building that stood proudly above the old house that preserved.
And If only the stones could speak..
The hundred-year-old building witnessed the different twists and turns of our lives in the city of Jerusalem and the entire country.
It was built at the beginning of the 20th century, as one of the first buildings in Rehavia by new immigrants who arrived from Europe and purchased land for the settlement of Jerusalem during the period of British mandate, our struggle for independence, the expulsion of foreign rule, the city’s development and population growth, the attempt to live a normal life, and the small Jerusalem bar that became an icon of the era, terrorist attacks and suicide bombers for many years, and hundreds of citizens, women, and children who were killed, A wealthy French-Jewish entrepreneur, the renewal of the city, and the construction of luxury buildings in this marvelous city that has witnessed over 3,500 years of history.
And yet, we still surprised by the intensity of hatred and evil, anew every time.
These days are just another link in the chain of the eternal people, pursued for hundreds of years in every corner of the world, a people who gathered the survivors of the Holocaust and the Jews from Arab countries and established an independent state for the Jews so that such sights would never be seen again, but they still return with all their ferocity and cruelty.
We will win because we have no other choice, and we will continue to build Jerusalem and the State of Israel with more determination, wisdom, and much more justice.
May we see better days, and may we hear good news for the people dwelling in Zion.
Shabbat Shalom to those near and far from Jerusalem.❤️
(Unknown Photographer)
