The old Shaare Zedek building, from the year 1902, another glimpse of old Jerusalem.
In the picture, you can see the hospital on 161 Jaffa Street after its opening, the dirt road in front of it, and a camel caravan walking along the path that would later become today’s Jaffa Street, ending just before the walls of the Old City.
Shaare Zedek Hospital was the second Jewish hospital outside the Old City walls, after the Rothschild Hospital, which was built on HaNevi’im Street in 1888.
The building was constructed on what was then the edge of Jerusalem, near the small Shaare Zedek neighborhood.
The hospital was built following the strange internal conflicts among Jews that have accompanied us throughout history, this time sparked by a hospital’s refusal to provide medical services to members of the Austrian Kollel in the city.
The project was initiated by the “Committee for the Establishment of a Hospital in Jerusalem,” joined later by a young, energetic ultra-Orthodox German physician, Dr. Moshe Wallach, who was already working as a doctor in the Old City and traveled to Germany to raise funds.
The beautiful structure was designed by the well-known German architect Theodor Sandel, who also designed Beit Hansen and other iconic Jerusalem buildings. It featured impressive facades, arched windows, and high ceilings that gave the place dignity and grandeur.
The hospital complex consisted of three separate buildings: a central hospitalization building, a building for infectious diseases, and residences for the medical staff.
It also included deep water reserves, a stone wall surrounding the compound, vegetable gardens, open areas, and even a dairy farm that supplied patients with fresh milk and cheese, a kind of miniature self-sufficient farm.
The building was inaugurated on January 27, 1902, in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm’s birthday, in a ceremony attended by many.
Dr. Wallach, the energetic “Yekke,” became the hospital’s guiding figure. He insisted on strict hygiene, lived on the hospital grounds, and devoted every centimeter of the building to his life’s work.
Alongside him worked Nurse Selma, another iconic Jerusalem figure who also came from Germany. She lived in a small room in the hospital, adopted orphaned children, and became the heart and soul of the institution.
The hospital experienced World War I, serving as a triage center for wounded Ottoman soldiers. It continued operating during the British Mandate and played a major role during the War of Independence, when access to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus was restricted by Arab attackers and the Arab Legion.
Dr. Wallach retired in 1947 and died at the age of 91, ten years later. He was buried in the small cemetery next to the hospital.
And so glory fades.
In 1980, the hospital moved to its new location in the slopes of Beit Vagan, and the old, magnificent building stood empty and neglected. It was mortgaged to banks to cover budget overruns from constructing the new Shaare Zedek hospital.
In the early 1990s, banks began foreclosure proceedings, after private companies attempted to purchase the property and build a residential neighborhood there.
Another chapter followed: in April 1993, plans were made to build the Israel Broadcasting Authority complex on the site instead of the old building in Romema.
In 1996, the Authority took a loan of 135 million NIS to establish the communications complex, television studios, and other uses. Parts of the building were renovated, but progress was slow and plagued by major budget overruns and wasteful spending.
The building served the Israel Broadcasting Authority until 2018, alongside its eventual dissolution.
In March 2020, the Israel Land Authority put the compound up for sale in a public tender, which was won by Israel-Canada for 512 million NIS.
The company donated the building’s temporary use to local Jerusalem nonprofit organizations until construction permits are issued, and in 2022, the Merchav Hevrati Association took responsibility for the site.
Today, a grand residential project is being built on the compound, consisting of three high-rise towers including hotel space, offices, residences, and commercial services on the lower floors.
The magnificent hospital building will be preserved and converted into a hotel, where once patients drank fresh milk, tourists from around the world will stay.
This is our Jerusalem, a city where every stone tells a story.
A first hospital outside the walls on HaNevi’im Street, followed by a beautiful iconic building near the small Shaare Zedek neighborhood; Ottomans, British, and Dr. Wallach, who walked the grounds with a permanent ring of keys to every room; Nurse Selma, who gave the place its soul; doctors from the Third Aliyah from Germany who strengthened the staff; care for War of Independence wounded; and a central hospital in the city until the 1980s.
Then came media personnel replacing patients, public-fund waste, neglect of the iconic building, and the move to a modern hospital in Beit Vagan.
Foreclosure, a public tender, and finally three giant towers beside a preserved historic structure, reminding us where we came from and where we are going.
The camels that once carried goods along the dirt road of Jaffa Street are long gone, replaced by the electric light rail, which, unlike camels, does not chew cud.
Only the internal Jewish conflicts remain, and have even intensified, like an unavoidable fate with no cure, not even in a hospital.
Shabbat shalom to those near and far from Jerusalem.
Photo from the Ben-Zvi Institute Archive.
