Beit Yisrael

A number of prominent community activists of the Old Yishuv, looking for a solution to the skyrocketing costs of living quarters in Mea Shearim, came up with the idea to purchase the adjacent plot of land, a dirty and infested area nicknamed "the pool" because of its severe drainage problems.

The neighborhood book of regulations describes some of the difficulties of the time: Poverty and shortage spread their dominion over the holy city of Jerusalem, may it be rebuilt.

Even the measly stipend that served as a bit of relief for the poor of Jerusalem to pay their bills has, for various reasons, been reduced to almost nothing, and the sons of Zion will soon have to search for another place to live.

Lest it be too late and they find themselves, God forbid, compelled to sleep outside in the fields, on the stones and in the caves...they have, with the help of God, succeeded in gathering about a hundred members...to buy field and vineyard on which to build houses...Beit Yisrael originally consisted of one central street by the same name, which contained the main synagogue, with small alleyways branching off on which houses were built.

[1] The neighborhood's main synagogue, Beit Yaakov (Hebrew: בית יעקב), was established in 1887 using funds donated by a donor who wished to remain anonymous.

May God command His blessing to rest on them, and they and their descendants should reap their full reward, both physical and spiritual, until the coming of Moshiach, and they should merit to see the rebuilding of the Temple speedily, in our days.

Once, after forgetting that one of his debtors, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Porush, the administrator of the city's charity fund, had already repaid his loan, he asked for payment.

The Beit Yaakov synagogue also known as "Beis Yisroel Shtiblach" has 6 smaller rooms, known as shteiblach, in which minyanim can be found at almost any hour.