Tucked between the better-known neighborhoods of Rehavia, Katamon, and Talbiyeh, Kiryat Shmuel rarely draws the spotlight. However, this small, quiet neighborhood in central Jerusalem offers a window into the city’s past – one shaped by religious leadership, urban planning under the British Mandate, and the trials of Israel’s early statehood.
Named for Rabbi Shmuel Salant, the revered 19th-century Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Jerusalem, Kiryat Shmuel was established in 1926 as a project of the Otzar Hachesed Keren Shmuel Association.
The goal was to provide interest-free loans for Jewish construction and trade, and build a modern garden suburb that would cater not to the wealthy or the scholarly elite but to working and middle-class Ashkenazi families of the Old Yishuv.
Unlike the densely packed courtyard neighborhoods of earlier decades, Kiryat Shmuel was modeled after the British garden suburb ideals taking root elsewhere in Jerusalem, such as Beit Hakerem, Talpiot, and Rehavia.
Architect Yehoshua Salant divided the land into 130 plots, each 250 square meters, which were smaller than most garden-style neighborhoods but large enough to support single-family homes with modest yards. The layout followed the topography: three main streets, narrow connecting alleys, and staircases that remain pedestrian-only to this day.
Purchased from Jesuits
The land itself had been purchased in an indirect deal from a Jesuit order – 5.4 hectares on what would become the neighborhood’s grid of streets, which include Aza, Rav Berlin, and Itamar Ben-Avi. Some obstacles emerged early on: The terrain was steep, the land bordered hostile Arab neighborhoods, and the plots were less appealing to the ultra-Orthodox public.
Still, demand outstripped supply. A lottery was held to choose the 126 residents who would form the founding membership of the Kiryat Shmuel Association.
For those selected, Otzar Hachesed offered interest-free loans of 200 Egyptian pounds, covering most of the construction cost. Ownership of the plots was formalized only after repayment, which could take up to 12 years.
Despite funding delays, construction began in earnest in 1929. That same year, the cornerstone was laid for the neighborhood’s spiritual center: the Ohel Rivka Synagogue, dedicated by donor Rivka Rothberg and inaugurated with the participation of chief rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.
1929 Arab riots
Just months later, violence erupted. The 1929 Arab riots swept through Jerusalem; and Kiryat Shmuel – then a fledgling neighborhood near the Arab sections of west Jerusalem – was not spared. But growth resumed quickly. The 1930s saw the addition of three-story apartment buildings, some built for rental income. By the time the War of Independence began, the neighborhood had grown to around 50 homes.
It was during this war that Kiryat Shmuel briefly found itself on the edge of battle. Adjacent to Arab Katamon, still under Arab control, it was paired with the nearby Merkhavya neighborhood by the Hagana and nicknamed “Shmu’ali.”
Operations to capture San Simon were staged from a house on Hapalmah Street. Once Katamon, Givat Shaul, and Talbiyeh fell to Israeli forces in May 1948, the pressure on the neighborhood eased, and Kiryat Shmuel became part of the new Jewish heart of the city.
Beit Kadima
On the western edge of Kiryat Shmuel stands a modest yet historically momentous residential complex known as Beit Kadima. Built in 1945 during the final years of the British Mandate, the compound was originally intended to house British officers and their families.
Though the complex initially stood empty, its secluded position on the fringe of Rehavia soon made it ideal for a sensitive mission. In 1947, the British selected the compound to host members of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), the team tasked with determining the fate of the land.
Shielded from the city and its tensions, the delegates lived and deliberated in the quiet halls of Beit Kadima. It was likely here that they composed the recommendation that would change history: the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.
With the UN vote on partition on November 29, 1947, and the subsequent outbreak of violence, the compound took on a new role. Jewish families fleeing the increasingly hostile Arab-majority neighborhood of Katamon found refuge within its walls.
As tensions escalated into war, the building transformed again – this time into a fortified post for the Hagana. One of the few available machine guns was stationed there, offering the beleaguered residents a means of defense.
Monastery and archaeological finds
Also located in Kiryat Shmuel is the striking St. Anthony Monastery, which was designed in 1936 by Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi. It was built as a Franciscan-run school for Arab girls, known in Italian as Collegio Sant’Antonio. However, with the outbreak of World War II, British Mandatory authorities seized the building, classifying it as enemy property.
The British fortified the site and repurposed it as the Supreme Military Tribunal of the Mandate. It became a central courtroom for trying members of Jewish underground movements like Lehi (Stern Group) and the Irgun. Several fighters were sentenced to death here, marking it as a key location in the struggle against British rule.
In 2009, archaeologists documented a Jewish burial cave from the Second Temple era on Aharoni Street in Kiryat Shmuel. Carved into limestone, the tomb featured a central chamber with six arched niches and an entrance sealed by a square stone.
Evidence of robbery was apparent, with several ossuaries and scattered bones discovered on benches within the chamber.
Among the finds was a notable ossuary made of hard limestone, sealed with a flat lid fastened by a bronze nail. It bore a rare two-line Hebrew inscription, cursing anyone who disturbed the remains: “Alexa son of Shalom daughter of Alexa / Cursed be whoever takes me from my place.” The wording reflects both a fear of desecration and a desire to emphasize lineage, hinting at the social standing of the deceased.
In 2012, another Second Temple-period cave was uncovered near the corner of Harlap and Hapalmah streets during construction work. This tomb, also cut from rock, featured a refined entrance and a layout of niches similar to others from the era.
Later modifications suggest that it remained in use into the Byzantine period. Dozens of Greek graffiti inscriptions from the 1890s were also found on the walls, likely left by Greek Orthodox pilgrims who viewed the cave as a site of religious or historical importance.
Rehavia, with original character
With Jerusalem’s rapid growth in the decades that followed, Kiryat Shmuel became increasingly absorbed into the fabric of greater Rehavia. Yet some of its original character remains, especially in its street names, which offer a tribute to Ashkenazi rabbinic figures.
Though some names were changed after statehood, the intention was clear: to root the neighborhood in a particular spiritual and communal lineage. Rabbi Charlap, Rabbi Berlin, the Aderet, and others are immortalized in stone and street signs.
One landmark that continues to reflect the neighborhood’s evolving identity is the Ohel Aharon Synagogue, which has always leaned more Zionist and liberal in tone. It was founded with a bequest from Aharon Teitelbaum, a Jewish Agency employee who stipulated that a Sephardi synagogue be built in the area.
By 1971, the new building was completed. Its inauguration was marked on Jerusalem Day by a crowd that included Rabbi Avraham Karol, religious affairs minister Zerah Warhaftig, and chief rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman. The synagogue contains not only a Torah scroll rescued after the Holocaust but also a striking silver hanukkiah, shaped like a stone gate and crafted by famed Jerusalem artist Frank Meisler in memory of a family lost in the Bochna Ghetto.
These are not the grandest monuments to be seen in Jerusalem and, likewise, Kiryat Shmuel is not a neighborhood that boasts. Its quiet lanes, modest homes, and sequestered synagogues reflect the understated aspirations of its founders – a place for productive, observant, working-class Jews to build new lives in a modern city.