Emek Refaim
Emek Refaim (Hebrew: עמק רפאים is the main street of the German Colony, a neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel. It takes its name from the biblical Valley of Rephaim which began its descent from Jerusalem here.
Etymology
Emek Refa’im can be translated as either “the valley of the ghosts” or “the valley of the giants.” The 2nd-century CE Aramaic Targum of Onkelos translates the words as meshar gibaraya, or "plain of the mighty." Jerome’s 4th-century Latin Vulgate translates the phrase as "vallis Raphaim," and the English King James version follows the Jewish commentators, translating it as “the valley of the giants.”[1]
History
The first residents of Emek Refaim were German Templers, who settled there in the 19th century. Biblical inscriptions in German Fraktur script can still be seen on the lintels of some of the homes. As enemy aliens, the Templers were interned and later deported by the British during World War II. They built one and two storey houses similar in appearance to the homes they left in Württemberg.
Architecture
Many of the buildings on Emek Refaim date from Ottoman and British Mandate times. Some of the distinctive German Templer buildings are still standing, as are elegant villas that belonged to wealthy Arabs before the establishment of the State of Israel.
Some homes in the area were abandoned by local Palestinians or expropriated after 1948,[2] and many issues of property ownership and displacement have yet to be resolved. A former Arab resident of the Bauerle House, located at 10 Emek Refaim (originally built by the Templers), wrote about a painful visit to her home after 1967.[3]
A movie theater, Smadar, on the corner of Emek Refaim and Lloyd George Street, was built during the British Mandate, when it was known as the Regent or the Orient. At the corner of Emek Refaim, on a hill overlooking the Hinnom Valley, is the Scottish Church of St. Andrew's, built in 1927 and incorporating local Armenian tile-work. Similar tiling can be seen on the facades of some buildings on Emek Refaim.
The residents of Emek Refaim have banded together to protest plans to build a hotel and residential towers in the area, destroying the historic character of the neighborhood.
Emek Refaim today
Emek Refaim is lined with cafes, restaurants and boutiques. Upscale bakeries ply their wares next to stores selling household items, and high-class eateries sit alongside fruit and vegetable vendors.[4]The International Cultural and Community Center (ICCC) is located on Emek Refaim. [5]
See also
