Apartment-hunting in Jerusalem
By Joanne Palmer
Last year, a friend whose kids are in day school with Steve asked Steve to do her a favor when he was in Israel for a meeting. She and her family were planning on spending a six-month sabbatical in Israel; they were working with a realtor to find housing, but “they needed someone they trust to put his eyeballs on some apartments,” Steve said.
So he went to look at three apartments, all in the German Colony, off Emek Refaim. All were fully furnished, with kitted-out kosher kitchens. The first had seven bedrooms and two living rooms. (I moaned.) It had a giant balcony, with the built-in frame for a huge sukkah. (Another moan.) It was renting for $5,000 a month. (That clunk was my jaw, hitting the keyboard.)
The next one was a beautiful, graceful old three-bedroom apartment, with high ceiling and arches and sweeping lines and lovely Arab-style detail; the renovation was so recent that there was still plaster dust caught in the Jerusalem light. It was (more noises of disbelief) renting for $4,000.
The third was a standard three-bedroom in a courtyard filled with similar buildings, utilitarian, clean, comfortable, entirely appropriate. “Nothing special,” Steve said. The rent was $2,300; no, I breathed, but of course it was the one Steve recommended. “They took it, it worked out, the kids flourished.”
“Now they’re back at home, our kids are all in school together—and my family is likely to rent that place this July.”
As always, in loving memory of Shira Palmer-Sherman (z’l).
Joanne Palmer works for United Synagogue, where she edits CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism.
The “Focus on Israel” column is edited by Robin Fleischner, a Vice President of BJ’s Board of Trustees and Co-Chair of BJ’s Israel Steering Committee.