The City of Jerusalem's Department of Public Facilities has
been advancing a program for the last two months to build an
NIS 120 million community center and educational complex in
the Ramot Daled neighborhood bearing the name Merkaz
Chaim.
For several years Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky has been
promoting the project, where chareidi educational
institutions will be built. The plans were recently approved
by the Local Planning and Construction Committee headed by
Rabbi Yehoshua Pollak. The Mayor said the project will serve
the chareidi public from different parts of the city.
The facility is to include 100 classrooms: a girls'
elementary school with 28 classrooms and an option to divide
them into two schools of 14 classrooms each, two talmudei
Torah with 11 classrooms each (two kindergarten rooms and
nine classrooms), an annex to an existing school, a community
center, an indoor swimming pool, a fitness room and playing
courts. The Department of Public Facilities anticipates that
the gym and pool will draw residents from other North
Jerusalem neighborhoods as well.
One of the program goals is to improve the appearance of the
entry to the city through Ramot along Sederot Golda Meir by
building a park along the length of the new complex. The
project will be overseen by the Public Facilities Department.
The planning of the public facilities, the classrooms and the
complex will come funds from the Education Ministry, Mifal
Hapayis and other sources. The plans are being made by urban
architect and builder Andrei Krishan.
