Light Rail<\/a> construction in downtown Jerusalem has forced the closure of many shops. Some of these stores have been taken over by new proprietors who are optimistic that just as Jaffa Road experienced a revival following many closures during light rail construction, the same will happen with other light rail projects. Still, it is sad to see the closure of any business, especially one that became a city landmark.<\/p>\nWhen Leon Koffler opened the first Jerusalem Super-Pharm on Histadrut Street in 1981, it was the second in the chain in Israel. The first was in Herzliya. Histadrut Street, which at the time housed the famous Fink\u2019s Bar and the budget-priced workman\u2019s restaurant Sova, long ago ceased to be the address for either, and now it is no longer the address for Super-Pharm.<\/p>\n
Large notices advise the public that there are other Super-Pharm branches close by. Indeed, the most glamorous is in Zion Square, a hop, skip, and a jump from Histadrut Street.<\/p>\n
Haredi pressure causes literature store to close down<\/p>\n
Another popular store that closed is Dani Sfarim in the Ramot Mall. This has nothing to do with construction but with haredi pressure. The Ramot Mall has gradually become a haredi enclave, and Dani Sfarim was the last in the neighborhood stocking secular literature, magazines, and newspapers, which certain figures in the haredi community said would poison their children\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n
A story about the closure, written by Yael Freidson, was published this week in Haaretz. The store had been boycotted by the bulk of the haredi population, she wrote, whereas other residents patronized the store not just to buy books but also to attend special events such as book launches and community singing, accompanied by a pianist playing the baby grand in the center of the store.<\/p>\n
The bookstore owner denied he was leaving because he was pressured. He contended that he\u2019d been offered a good deal and had accepted it. But other mall shopkeepers told a different tale. The new proprietor of the premises is Feldheim Publishers, which specializes in Jewish holy books and kosher fiction.<\/p>\n
Ben-Yehuda mall\u2019s safety concerns resurface<\/p>\n
Anyone who came to live in Jerusalem after 1983 may not be aware of the fact that what for more than 40 years has been the Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall used to be chock-a-block with motorized traffic, including buses. Former mayor Teddy Kollek, who grew up in Vienna where there are many pedestrian malls, dreamed of introducing pedestrian malls to the Jerusalem triangle to make the area more vibrant.<\/p>\n
Indeed, for the first few years, it was truly a joy to walk along the Ben-Yehuda Street mall and the side streets branching off from Ben-Yehuda.<\/p>\n
But gradually, after Kollek stepped out of the political arena, his successors paid far less attention to keeping the mall free of traffic, and delivery trucks came at all hours, followed by scooters, mini cars, motorbikes, and bicycles, all at high speed.<\/p>\n
The mall, which used to be one of the safest places in the city, has become dangerous for people with a mobility problem because they simply cannot move out of the way in time. The worst offenders are the couriers who, aside from whizzing through the mall, ignore traffic lights and crosswalks and ride on sidewalks. Whose job is it to control them?<\/p>\n
Beit Avi Chai revisits a powerful musical tribute<\/p>\n
The original Beit Avi Chai production of Who by Fire \u2013 a tribute to Leonard Cohen based on both the \u201cUnetaneh Tokef\u201d prayer recited on Yom Kippur and journalist Matti Friedman\u2019s book on Cohen\u2019s impromptu performances for Israeli soldiers in the Sinai Desert during the 1973 Yom Kippur War \u2013 will be revived at Beit Avi Chai on Tuesday, May 19, at 8:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Much of the material in Friedman\u2019s book was based on information he culled from Cohen\u2019s own notebooks.<\/p>\n
greerfc@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IDF veterans who were born before the state\u2019s establishment and who fought in the Six Day War, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[20578,15589,37,1189,20685,588,11284,36331],"class_list":{"0":"post-104859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-culture-in-israel","9":"tag-hebrew-university-of-jerusalem","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-jerusalem","12":"tag-six-day-war","13":"tag-tel-aviv","14":"tag-western-wall","15":"tag-yom-kipur"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116542950801806687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/493917.jpeg\"\/)
People some with face masks shop for grocery at the mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem on January 13, 2022. (credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n