Street of the Prophets (, Rehov HaNevi'im) is an east–west axis road in Jerusalem beginning outside Damascus Gate and ending at Davidka Square. Located to the north of Jaffa Road, it bisects the neighborhood of Musrara.
During its heyday in the late 19th century and early 20th century, Street of the Prophets was a favorite address for hospitals, churches, monasteries, hospices, government offices, foreign consulates, and wealthy Christian, Jewish and Muslim residents.
Today the street still boasts the same heterogeneous mix of residents and workers, as well as schools, hospitals, churches and government offices. The elegant 19th-century architecture gives Street of the Prophets the appellation of "most beautiful street outside the Old City", while its historic buildings make it the most popular site for guided tours outside the Old City.
Etymology The Street of the Prophets was established during the expansion of Jerusalem beyond the walls of the Old City in the mid-19th century. In the beginning, the street did not have a name. It was known as: "Street of the Hospitals" – due to the many hospitals, Christian and Jewish, situated along its route; "Street of the Consuls" – due to the many foreign consulates that opened offices here.
The street was officially named at the beginning of the British Mandate period by the Governor of Jerusalem, Ronald Storrs. At that time, the street was paved and infrastructure for water and electricity were installed.
According to one opinion, the street was named for the prophets of Israel, many of whom prophesied in Jerusalem. Another opinion holds that the street was named for the prophets of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, since the tomb of Nebi Akasha in the nearby Zikhron Moshe neighborhood was traditionally viewed as the burial site of prophets of the three monotheistic faiths.
Pre-1948 hospitals and Christian missions Early on, Street of the Prophets was a popular address for hospitals, often run by confessional organisations. In the mid-19th century, the hospitals that were located in the Old City were forced to move due to high population density and difficult sanitary conditions. Each hospital re-established itself on Street of the Prophets to maintain its proximity to the residents still residing in the Old City.
Street of the Prophets was also home to Christian missions. The most prominent was the London Jews' Society mission headquartered at the western end of the street (now the Anglican International School campus). This 32-dunam site housed and employed hundreds of impoverished Jewish immigrants from Russia in the 1880s (see below under "English Hospital"). The hospitals run by Christian missionary organizations offered free medical care to attract Jewish patients for the purposes of missionizing. This practice was decried by the rabbis of the era, who issued a cherem against Jews who used these health services. Despite rabbinical opposition, many Jews continued to turn to Christian missionary hospitals for medical care.
The hospitals established on Street of the Prophets in the late 19th century and early 20th century included: Marienstift Children's Hospital (#29), opened in 1872 by Dr. Max Sandreczky
Italian Hospital (#34), the creation of Giulio and Antonio Barluzzi. The project was started in 1912 and the complex, containing a hospital and a church, opened in 1919.
Meyer Rothschild Hospital (#37), the first Jewish hospital outside the Old City, built by Baron James Rothschild in 1888 and named after his father
German Deaconess Hospital (#49, corner with Straus St.), opened in 1894. After 1948 it was taken over by Bikur Cholim Hospital as the "Ziv Building".
Bikur Cholim Hospital (#53), built in 1910, ran by Shaare Zedek Medical Center from 2012, and closed around 2020. English Hospital (former), now Anglican School (#82). The hospital was opened in 18966 by the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews. Across the street and a bit further north is a modern hotel, built where the English Mission had opened a sanatorium in 1862.
Government offices and consulates Pasha's House (#61), built by the Greek Orthodox Church and rented out to the Ottoman governors of Jerusalem. The German consulate once stood beside the International Evangelical Church on the site of present-day Raoul Wallenberg Street. It was attacked by the Israeli underground when it flew a flag with a swastika in 1933, and was subsequently destroyed by the underground. The U.S. Consulate General, founded in the Old City in 1844, relocated to an address near the beginning of Street of the Prophets in the late 19th century. In 1912, it moved to its present address on Agron Street. Ethiopian Consulate (#38–40), built by Empress Zewditu I of Ethiopia in 1928; it housed that country's consulate from 1948 to 1973.
Hotels
Kamenitz Hotel (#65), built in 1878, was a five-star hotel with a carriage entrance from Jaffa Road. San Remo Hotel (#70), built in 1927, occupied the three-story building on the northeast corner of Street of the Prophets and Straus Street, opposite Bikur Holim Hospital.
Private homes
Unlike other areas outside the Old City which were exclusively Jewish, Christian or Arab, the Street of the Prophets was a heterogeneous zone. Ottoman and, later, British officials; foreign consuls and well-to-do residents all lived here, creating a cultural and social center.
Notable residents of the street include: "Thabor House" (#58), the home of Conrad Schick, German Protestant missionary and architect who designed and/or built several of the buildings on the street, including his own. Navon Bey House (#59) was the residence of Joseph Navon, a Jewish businessman and with Johannes Frutiger initiator of the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, from whom the former bought the house in 1885. Hunt residence (#64), built in 1869 by English painter William Holman Hunt. Later tenants included Dr. Helena Kagan, Jerusalem's first pediatrician. Hebrew poet Rachel lived in the small white house in the courtyard in 1925 and wrote a poem inspired by a pear tree Hunt planted in the courtyard.
"Mahanaim" (34, Shivtei Yisrael Street and Street of the Prophets), built in 1885 by Johannes Frutiger, a Swiss banker, who named this second home of his after a verse in Genesis (). His family was later forced to sell the mansion; it was later occupied, in turn, by the Evelina de Rothschild School, Menachem Ussishkin, director of the Jewish National Fund, and Lord Herbert Plumer, High Commissioner during the Mandate period. Today it houses offices of the Israeli Ministry of Education.
Various communities
In the late 19th century, several Jewish neighborhoods were founded at the eastern end of Street of the Prophets, near Damascus Gate. Kirya Ne'emana (commonly known as Batei Nissan Beck, "Nissan Beck Houses"), was founded in 1875 for Hasidic residents. In the 1880s and 1890s additional housing was built for Syrian, Iraqi, and Persian Jews. Eshel Avraham was established in 1893 for Georgian and Caucasian Jews. These neighborhoods were virtually abandoned during the 1929 Palestine riots and the homes taken over by Christians and Muslims. The remaining Jewish residents left with the Arab takeover of East Jerusalem after 1948.
Beginning in the 1880s, an Ethiopian Christian community developed around the Ethiopian Church of Debre Gannet (Mount of Paradise) located on a site in Ethiopia Street bought in 1888, just north of Street of the Prophets.Robin Twite, "Die Äthiopische Kirche – Afrika in Jerusalem", Ela Moszkowicz (trl.), in: Ariel: Eine Zeitschrift zur Kunst und Bildung in Israel, vol. 102 (1996; titled: 'Jerusalem mit 3000'), pp. 40–53, here p. 50. Under the initiative of Empress Taytu Betul, Ethiopian nobles and wealthy individuals contributed large sums of money to purchase houses on Ethiopia Street and Street of the Prophets, which belong to the community to this day. Situated immediately south to the Street of the Prophets, the Russian Compound was erected between 1860–1864 in order to accommodate the masses of Russian Orthodox pilgrims visiting Jerusalem.
Architecture
Most of the buildings on Street of the Prophets are constructed of stone and fronted by high walls built of stone and mortar. Private-home lots are large and include garden courtyards, either in front of the building (e.g. Hunt House, Navon Bey House, Mahanaim House) or behind it (e.g. Pasha's Village). The homes are one or two stories high; public buildings do not exceed four stories.
Many public and private buildings on the western side of Street of the Prophets, from Shivtei Israel Street to Davidka Square, are built in the European style and reflect the nationality of their builders. For example, the German Deaconess Hospital and its bell tower (today the eastern wing of Bikur Cholim Hospital) are typical of churches and other public buildings in Germany. Buildings and doors along the street are decorated with religious symbols such as crosses, Stars of David, crescents, symbols of religious institutes, and Bible verses.
Several buildings were designed by architect Conrad Schick: the mission of the London Jews' Society (today the Anglican International School); parts of the German hospital, and the Tabor House (today the Swedish Theological Institute) (#58), which Schick made into his own home. Schick planned the William Holman Hunt House (#64), which Hunt himself built.
The Renaissance-style Italian Hospital compound, containing a Tuscany-style church, was designed by Antonio Barluzzi, who created several other Christian churches in Jerusalem. It was completed in 1919; today it houses the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture.
In 1898, Theodor Herzl came to Jerusalem for the first time to meet with German emperor Wilhelm II, who was also visiting this city. Herzl met the emperor on an empty lot at #42 Street of the Prophets, where Wilhelm and his entourage were quartered in a tent camp. Herzl's efforts to plead the Zionist cause with the emperor were unsuccessful. Following the emperor's visit, the Ottoman authorities gave him the lot as a gift; Wilhelm, in turn, granted it to the German provostry, which constructed its headquarters there in 1903. Today the former provostry is part of the Jerusalem ORT campus.