Once upon a time in Jerusalem,
And this time – the Menorah Garden (Bor Shiber) 1964.
Gan Menorah is located at the corner of King George, Barry, Shmuel Hanagid and Ben Yehuda streets.
In the late 1920s, George Shiber, an Arab-Christian architect and contractor, purchased the land owned by a Jew along with other lands in the area.
The field was initially used as the soccer field of the H’apoel Jerusalem team.
The architect Shiber had grandiose plans for the area and in the part that will be called the Menorah Garden in the future, the possibility of building a theater, a cinema, a commercial center as well as a skyscraper and a hotel was considered.
In 1936, a large pit was dug in the plot to lay foundations for a 15-story building by workers of the Labor Battalion who were new Jewish immigrants who advocated Hebrew work and the redemption of the land of the land.
With the outbreak of the Arab Revolt in Israel, the works were stopped, the investors withdrew from the project, and a pit was left for their deaths, which was nicknamed Shiber Pit after the architect and ambitious entrepreneur.
After the end of World War II, the British Mandate authorities used the pit as an area to detain Jerusalem residents who violated the curfew imposed by the British on the city from time to time.
In 1950, as all recall, the Knesset moved to Beit Fromin nearby and the Jerusalem Municipality planned to build the city hall in Bor Shiber and near the Knesset.
The plan did not come to fruition and the pit was empty.
Later, the municipality established a public garden instead.
In 1965, the British Parliament gave a gift to the State of Israel – a bronze statue in the shape of a Menora with a description of events from the history of the Jewish people, those British who used the pit to arrest curfew offenders in the city 2 decades ago.
On May 15, 1956, the Independence Day of the State of Israel, the statue was placed in the garden with the participation of thousands of city residents. The Knesset and the garden changed its name from Bor Shiber to Menorah Garden.
The Menorah Garden was also used as a place for demonstrations in front of the Knesset building, and there were stormy demonstrations against the receipt of reparations money for Holocaust survivors from Germany after the Nazi era.
In 1966 the Knesset moved to its current residence in Givat Ram and the Knesset Menora was moved with it and placed in front of the main entrance gate to the Knesset in the Rose Garden.
The garden stood gloomy and dead and without a menorah, but its name, the menorah garden, remained.
And the story is not over-
In 1961 the Yishuv Training Company purchased the complex that was intended for commerce.
In 1968, the company returned the lot to the municipality in exchange for additional building rights on other lots it had nearby, and the municipality planned to build a public parking lot there.
The plan did not come to fruition, the years passed and in 1988, the mayor at the time, Teddy Kolek, promoted, along with the development of the settlement, the construction of a public parking lot on the site, and a tower including commercial areas, residences and offices.
This plan didn’t come to fruition either, and that’s a blessed.
In 2000, it was determined by the court that the Yishuv training company is entitled to buy back Bur Shiber, and during the time of Mayor Olmert, it was agreed that the company would submit within a year plan to build a 24-story tower on the area.
The planning lasted for over a year and the local authority sought to delay the promotion of the plan, and in 2007 a new city engineer, Shlomo Eshkol, was appointed to the city, who changed the municipality’s policy on the grounds that it is of utmost importance to maintain Bur Shiber as a green and open area.
The city has saved from of a high-rise building on one of the last open and green spaces in the heart of the city center.
In 1997, the Slovenian government gave the city of Jerusalem a statue in the shape of a horse on the occasion of the 3,000th anniversary of the founding of Jerusalem, the statue was placed in the garden, and the garden changed its name again to Horse Garden.
The garden later served as the central protest camp of the 2011 tent protest.
So what did we have on that small piece of land?
Jewish landowners, an Arab Christian architect, the work brigades of new immigrants who dug the hole, the Arab revolt that shelved big plans, British anemones who turned the hole into a gathering area for curfew violators, the same British gave as a gift the lamp that was placed in the garden and changed the name from Bor Shiber to Garden Menorah, which was used for demonstrations in front of the nearby Knesset building, which moved to Givat Ram with the sold menorah.
May we all have times of quiet, may all our soldiers and hostages will return soon and safe.
Shabbat Shalom to the near and far from Jerusalem.
Photo by Van Der Hall.
