Jerusalem saves historic Bikur Cholim building after backlash over haredi seminary plan

Who says you can’t fight City Hall? Deputy Mayor Yosef (Yosi) Havilio did and won, but only a partial victory.

The western side of the street that was part of Bikur Cholim (“Visiting the Sick”) is already a school for a small number of haredi boys.

If the seminary is allowed to take over, as Mayor Lion wants, the border will move south to Jaffa Road. The city center will then not be allowed to have places of entertainment, cafes, or stores that could remain open on Shabbat or any liberal projects.

Currently, the girls study in the Mekor Baruch quarter, so they’ll have to be bused to Rehov Straus.”

“The mayor’s decision was illegal. I’m in his coalition, but I fought against him,” Havilio told In Jerusalem on Friday.

Lawsuits were threatened, so the older building has been saved,” he continued.

“Now, the hassidim have gotten permission from Lion to move 250 or 300 teenage haredi girls to the western building instead of 1,000, with strict separation between them and the boys. But at least they won’t control both sides of the street.

“There are other places in Jerusalem where the seminary could be located. If the hassidim take control of the eastern building, it will no longer be open to the public, and the gate will be locked,” Havilio warned. “It should serve the broader public.”

The opponents have proposed alternatives such as turning it into a cultural center, arts space, public heritage campus, performance venue, cafes and community spaces, or a museum/history complex tied to Jerusalem medicine and preservation.

It was also stated that the “temporary use for school purposes will be carried out in the western building of the complex only, a building that has already been adapted in the past for educational use, without harming the values, its preservation, and in accordance with all required permits.”

However, in Israel, “temporary” often becomes “permanent.”

Nargassi stated that the municipality considers the preservation of the eastern building and its heritage values ​​to be of paramount importance, and has been working over the years to preserve it in accordance with the provisions of the law and the guidelines of professional conservation agencies. But in addition, any work carried out on site will be done with close professional guidance from the municipal conservation department,” the legal adviser maintained.

He added that the future planning of the complex, as it is known today, is not intended for use as an educational building, but rather a plan that includes significant development of the complex, including a variety of public uses, while strictly preserving the historical buildings and their unique heritage values.

Havilio declared, “This is a tremendous achievement for preserving the character of the city center. I argued from the beginning that the move is wrong and illegal, and it is good that at the end of the day the right decision was made. I hope that now the municipality will turn the building into a cultural or entertainment center open to the entire public.

The decision to allocate a haredi school there was wrong from the start, legally and practically, and it is very good that it did not happen, also for the benefit of the children, and especially for the benefit of the balance in the city. The next step is to pour positive content into the building, in which every Jerusalemite can find themselves.

The building has the potential to become a national gem, and we will work to make it so.”

The Jerusalem district director of the Sites Preservation Council, Tzafi Shelef, commented: “We welcome the municipality's announcement and the fact that the building, with its historical and architectural values, will be preserved and not converted into a school. We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure the preservation of this building, and other historic buildings throughout the city.”

The hospital has a very checkered past, a mix of successes, failures, and questionable and controversial events.

Bikur Cholim was one of the most important institutions in the history of medicine in Jerusalem and the Old Yishuv.

Founded in the early 19th century, it became the oldest continuously operating hospital in the Land of Israel until its final closure around 2020.

In the early 1800s, Ottoman Jerusalem had almost no organized Jewish medical care.

Jews often had to rely on private physicians, Christian missionary hospitals, or even folk healers. This worried the Jewish leadership, who feared missionary influence over sick Jews.

Bikur Cholim emerged as a religious communal response.

Originally created in the Old City by the Perushim community, who were disciples of the Vilna Gaon and immigrated from Lithuania in the early 19th century, it first functioned as a charitable society caring for the sick in their homes before evolving into a hospital with only a few beds, operating in rented rooms.

A major figure in the hospital’s growth was philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore, who raised funds abroad, donated medicines, and visited the hospital during his trips to Jerusalem.

By the late 19th century, Bikur Cholim had become one of the central charities supported by world Jewry, even before Shaare Zedek Hospital was opened in 1902.

During Kaiser Wilhelm II’s famous 1898 visit to Jerusalem, he donated money that helped purchase land for a modern hospital outside the Old City walls. Although World War I delayed construction for years, the new building on Rehov Straus finally opened in 1925.

The main hospital building was designed by architect Zvi Joseph Barsky in the neoclassical style with modernist influences, featuring decorative bronze doors by Bezalel artist Zeev Raban.

During the early years, Bikur Cholim doctors and nurses treated victims of the 1929 riots, victims and casualties from the Arab Revolt that followed, Hagana and underground members who were sometimes admitted under false names to avoid arrests by the British, and civilians wounded in violence.

During the siege of Jerusalem, the hospital came under Jordanian artillery fire and took in patients evacuated from Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus.

The hospital was the place where the haredi community turned for emergencies, births, illnesses, and end-of-life care.

Because it was close to haredi neighborhoods to the north, pregnant haredi women who went into labor on Shabbat walked to Bikur Cholim instead of taking an ambulance. Even though it was smaller than Shaare Zedek and the hospitals owned by Hadassah, it developed competent departments in obstetrics, pediatrics, cardiology, neonatology, and bariatric surgery.

In the late 1990s, the hospital became linked to non-profit religious management and politics, which sometimes led to chronic debt, instability, and political disputes. Soon after, the hospital was often on the verge of collapse.

Russian-Israeli billionaire Arkadi Gaydamak stepped in and rescued the hospital from bankruptcy in 2007, buying it for some $35 million, but his funding dried up and he left Israel, plunging the hospital into crisis again.

Shaare Zedek Medical Center gladly took over Bikur Cholim and ran its obstetrics department, where SZMC staffers delivered 60,000 babies over several years. But a serious fire in the Bikur Cholim’s courtyard forced permanent evacuation, and the building on the eastern side was shut down.