Har Nof

View of Har Nof

Har Nof (Hebrew: הר נוף, lit. scenic mountain) is a neighborhood on a hillside on the western boundary of Jerusalem, Israel, with a population of 20,000 residents, primarily Orthodox Jews.

History

In Talmudic times, Har Nof was an agricultural settlement that served Jerusalem. Remains of ancient wine presses, farmhouses and terraces built 1,500 years ago have been unearthed on the outskirts of Har Nof. The first homes in modern Har Nof were built in the early 1980s.

Geography

Har Nof is a terraced neighborhood on the slopes of a mountain that sits 813 meters above sea level. Due to the topography, many of the multi-storey apartment buildings have entrances on both sides of the building – one to reach the lower floors and another to reach the higher floors. Some streets are connected by long flights of stairs. At the foot of Har Nof lies the 1,200 dunam Jerusalem Forest (Yaar Yerushalayim), planted in the 1950s as a green lung around the city.

Demography

File:MayerHorowitzBoston.jpg

The Bostoner Rebbe of Har Nof

The majority of the residents of Har Nof are Orthodox Jews, both Haredi and Dati Leumi. Many residents are recent olim. The neighborhood has a large community of English-speaking olim, including a small group of Bostoner Hasidim, as well as notable French-speaking and Spanish-speaking communities. There are also communities of Ger and Vizhnitz Hasidim, as well many Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews. The former Sefardic chief rabbi and leader of the Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, lives in Har Nof. Spiritual leaders of the Ashkenazi Haredi community who reside in Har Nof are the Bostoner Rebbe-Har Nof, Rabbi Meir Alter HaLevi Horowitz , publisher of the Rambam HaMeir of the Machon HaNesher HaGadol, Rabbi Moishe Sternbuch of the Edah HaChareidis, and Rabbi Yitzchak Mordechai Rubin of Kehilat Bnei Torah.

Synagogues and public institutions

Orot Hatshuva study hall in Har Nof

Har Nof has a large number of synagogues, yeshivas and Torah study institutions, among them Heichal Hatorah, Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok, Machon Shlomo, Yeshivat Lev Aharon and Machon Yaakov. The campus of Neve Yerushalayim, a college for religious women, is located in Har Nof, as is Yechaveh Da'at, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's synagogue and spiritual headquarters.

Transportation

The neighborhood is linked to the city center by Kanfei Nesharim and Beit Hadfus Streets, with a number of bus lines providing public transportation.

Communal activism

The residents of Har Nof founded Shomera, a non-profit environmental protection association to thwart the building of high-rise luxury towers that would block the view of the Jerusalem Forest. Emergency medical care in Har Nof is provided by the volunteer group Hachovesh. Em Habanim is a volunteer organization founded in 1995 by Malka Yarom, a Har Nof resident who opened her home to religious divorcees who had nowhere to take their children on the Sabbath. Now the organization has a membership of 300 and offers support to single parent families in the Haredi sector.

External links

• har nof website (English)