In Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood certain individuals with
vested interests have joined forces with secular figures from
outside the neighborhood to thwart the expansion and
development of Har Nof by blocking a construction project
designed to allow new chareidi families to come to the
neighborhood, including young couples.
Local residents are irate over the attempt to stop the
building project, which is backed by local rabbonim and the
Community Administration board. They accused the project's
opponents of spreading lies and deceit and claimed the
majority of the opposition group members do not live in Har
Nof and are trying to cause tremendous damage to the
neighborhood by thwarting a rare opportunity to develop.
The opposition group is also acting in opposition to the
Community Administration, which faithfully represents the
vast majority of neighborhood residents, operates under the
guidance of the local rabbonim and aims to advance the
interests and needs of Har Nof residents and improve the
quality of life.
Jerusalem Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky also supports the
project and the activists working to promote it.
Over a year ago a group of chareidi entrepreneurs organized
to build 100 housing units in the Har Nof, where no
construction has taken place for 10 years, effectively
preventing any young couples from moving into the
neighborhood, whose population is aging.
Following long months of discussions between Community
Administration representatives and the project's promoters
the Community Administration, with a large majority, decided
to approve the new project, which involved changing the
zoning of the land from institutional to residential use.
In exchange the entrepreneurs pledged to provide extensive
funding to renovate and improve parks and playgrounds
throughout the neighborhood, to build a panoramic lookout
point and to allocate hundreds of square meters of finished
space on the project grounds to serve as a Tipat Chalav
station, a library and for other purposes to be determined by
the City of Jerusalem and the Community Administration. The
agreement also specified that smaller apartments, suitable
for young couples, would be built.
During the course of the negotiations the number of units to
be built was reduced at the request of the Community
Administration in order to minimize the obstruction of the
view from a nearby building. Numerous improvements were also
added, upgrading the building plan beyond recognition,
including arrangements for landscaped grounds.
The Local Construction and Planning Committee and the
Jerusalem District Committee at the City approved the plan,
but a fringe group of Har Nof residents linked with secular
outsiders is waging a major campaign to torpedo the project
by stirring opposition in the District Planning Committee.
Members of this group are going door-to-door, presenting
residents with completely false, ungrounded information and
persuading them to sign a petition against the project.
"There is no justification for opposition to this
construction project, which can serve as a tremendous
springboard for the neighborhood," says Rabbi Aryeh
Fuchsbrumer, chairman of the Community Administration. "The
opponents are waging an extraordinary smear campaign,
including slander against the Community Administration board
members, and are spreading unfounded lies. They are creating
a false impression of huge towers that will change the
character of the neighborhood, while in fact the construction
will be graduated in accordance with the accepted practice in
every neighborhood, with only three, four and five stories
built above street level. Likewise the view will not be
blocked for almost any apartment, with the exception of a few
apartments and the national-religious beis knesses. I
hope straight thinking will eventually prevail, rather than
allowing a few fringe individuals to harm the whole
neighborhood and the opportunity to upgrade it and bring in
additional families."
Rabbi Fuchsbrumer also says that after the facts were
presented to them and after learning the local rabbonim and
the Community Administration back the project, many of the
people who originally signed the petition changed their minds
and came into the Community Administration to sign a
retraction. Rabbi Fuchsbrumer is calling on other people who
signed the petition unawares to sign the retraction
statement, too.
