The History of Meah Shearim

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Meah Shearim, means “One Hundred Gates” or “a hundredfold” in lashon haKodesh. It stands as one of Yerushalayim’s most significant Chareidi neighborhoods and represents a remarkable chapter in the return of the Jewish people to Eretz Yisroel. Its name derives from the Torah portion read during the week of its founding: “Yitzchok sowed in that land, and in that year, he reaped a hundredfold; Hashem had blessed him” (Bereishis 26:12).

The Visionary Leader: Yosef Yitzchak “Yoshya” Rivlin

At the heart of Meah Shearim’s founding stands the towering figure of Rav Yosef Yitzchak Rivlin (1836-1896), known as the “Shtetlmacher” (town maker) for his instrumental role in building new neighborhoods throughout Yerushalayim.

Rav Rivlin’s lineage was steeped in devotion to Eretz Yisroel. His great-grandfather, Rav Hillel Rivlin, was a student of the Gra (Vilna Gaon) who made aliyah with the Perushim in 1809 and served as the first head of the Ashkenazi Perushim Beis Din in Yerushalayim. His grandfather, Rav Moshe Rivlin, immigrated to Yerushalayim in 1841 and served as maggid and leader of the Perushim community. His father, Rav Avraham Binyamin Rivlin, served as a Talmud Torah menahel in Yerushalayim.

In 1857, at the age of 21, Rav Rivlin founded the Bonei Yerushalayim (Builders of Jerusalem) company with the ambitious goal of establishing Jewish neighborhoods outside the Old City walls. This was no small undertaking – at the time, the Jewish population of Yerushalayim was confined to the cramped quarters of the Old City, where they suffered from poverty, overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and heavy Ottoman taxation.

Rav Rivlin’s vision seemed so audacious that when he informed his Kallah, Sara Tzipa (daughter of Rav Yehuda Leib Goldschmidt), through her brother that he intended to found a new Jewish neighborhood outside the walls and be the first to live there, her family wanted to break off the shidduch. Even his own family thought a dybbuk had possessed him. Yet Sara Tzipa courageously agreed to share in his revolutionary dream.

The young couple’s faith was tested repeatedly. Rivlin worked tirelessly to secure funding, traveling to Russia and Europe with colleagues Yoel Moshe Salomon and Michal HaCohen to promote their plan. They enlisted signatories from wealthy relatives in Shklov and Mohilev, and committees in Amsterdam and London. A crucial breakthrough came when Rav Rivlin, sent with Rav Benzion Lyon to Constantinople by the rabbis of Yerushalayim, successfully procured an annulment of the Ottoman ban on construction outside the Old City walls in 1862.

The First Steps: Nachalas Shiva (1869)

In 1869, Rivlin and six partners established Nachalas Shiva, the first Jewish neighborhood outside the Old City walls. True to his word, Rivlin was the first to build a house and live in it at night, proving the settlement’s viability. Understanding the dangers, he constructed a high wall around his home and hired first a Turkish soldier, then an Arab guard, for protection. For two and a half years, he lived alone during weekdays (with another Jewish man boarding with him), returning to his wife in the Old City only on Shabbos. Only in 1872, when the neighborhood was sufficiently populated, did he bring Sara Tzipa to live with him.

Tragedy struck in the spring of 1873. Sara Tzipa gave birth to their first child, a daughter. That summer, she was attacked in their Nahalas Shiv’a home by a dagger-wielding Arab. Though she fought bravely and killed her attacker, she succumbed to shock and died of a heart attack. Their baby daughter later died as well.

Despite personal tragedy, Rav Rivlin’s vision remained undiminished. In 1873, he was among the founders of Meah Shearim, whose name he coined based on the pasuk from Bereishis. The neighborhood was established in 1874 by pioneers from the Old City who dared to venture beyond the ancient walls to create the fifth Jewish settlement outside Yerushalayim’s protective barriers.

The founders chose their location with deep spiritual intention, selecting a site near Har HaBayis, imbuing the new settlement with kedusha from its very inception. These courageous founders were members of the Perushim community, followers of the Gra’s teachings.

Into this pivotal moment stepped in Ferdinand Vester, a Swiss banker with ambitious vision. Recognizing the divine significance of Jewish return to Yerushalayim, Vester embarked on massive speculation that would shape the neighborhood’s destiny. He purchased property along what was believed to be the measuring line described in Yirmiyahu 31:38-40, constructing not only the hundred modest dwellings of Meah Shearim but also the imposing American Consulate building.

Vester’s dwellings – each consisting of a room with a small kitchen – were designed to house waves of Jewish families fleeing the brutal Russian persecutions that intensified around 1882. However, his prosperity was built upon shifting Ottoman politics and desperate refugee circumstances.

Nisyonos of Aliyah

The path to Eretz Yisroel proved treacherous beyond imagination. Sultan Abdul-Hamid II would periodically become alarmed at mounting Jewish immigration and issue sudden decrees halting all entry into Palestine. When these orders came, scenes at Jaffa’s shores became heartbreaking theaters of human desperation.

Jewish families, having endured arduous journeys from Europe, would disembark from ships into small rowboats at Jaffa – for there was no proper harbor – only to find Ottoman authorities barring their entry to Eretz Yisroel. Caught between the unforgiving sea and closed gates of Ottoman-occupied Eretz Yisroel, these refugees became pawns in a cruel game. They were rowed back and forth between ship and shore, boat captains refusing to take them back, and Ottoman officials demanding ever-larger bribes for permission to land.

Families spent days in this maritime purgatory, their life savings dwindling significantly, until accumulated bribes satisfied Ottoman greed or until pressure from European powers forced Constantinople to reopen Palestine’s doors.

The Collapse and Transformation

During one of these brutal closure periods, Ferdinand Vester’s ambitious speculation collapsed. The Swiss banker, who had purchased property too lavishly in anticipation of continued Jewish immigration, found himself trapped when Ottoman gates slammed shut. The steady stream of desperate refugees that had sustained his enterprise suddenly vanished, leaving him with empty buildings and mounting debts. Vester was forced into bankruptcy, his grand vision crumbling as swiftly as it had risen.

Yet even failed human schemes could serve divine purposes. The magnificent mansion where Vester’s family had once enjoyed prosperity was eventually transformed into the Evelina de Rothschild School for Girls. The hundred modest homes he had built to profit from prophecy became foundation stones of one of Yerushalayim’s most sacred neighborhoods, though Vester himself would never witness their ultimate spiritual significance.

Fortress Design and Community Structure

Understanding security challenges of life outside protective Old City walls, the founders designed Meah Shearim as a medieval fortress. The settlement featured thick outer walls with no external openings for doors or windows, as the vulnerable location had already witnessed incidents of robbery and murder by marauders. The one hundred plots of land were distributed by lottery among founding families, with houses on the outskirts considered less desirable due to greater exposure to danger.

The brilliant design centered around interior courtyards where all communal services were located: the synagogue, mikvah, communal bakery, cheder, and water cistern. This layout fostered a tight-knit community where religious life could flourish in safety while maintaining traditional patterns of Jewish communal living.

Rav Rivlin’s Continued Leadership

Rav Rivlin remarried in 1874 to Miriam, daughter of Rav Moshe Fizetzer of Brisk, and together they had seven children. Despite personal losses, he continued his revolutionary work. His mehalech was to buy a house in each new neighborhood he helped establish, live in it for a while, then move to the next neighborhood he founded. In each neighborhood, he supervised purchase and construction of homes, assisted home buyers in acquiring loans, helped establish community institutions, and spoke in local synagogues.

In 1863, Rav Rivlin was asked to head the Central Committee of Knesseth Israel, the supreme council of the Ashkenazi community in the Old Yishuv formed by Chief Rav Shmuel Salant, a position he held for more than 30 years until his death. The Central Committee represented the community before Ottoman authorities on everything from day-to-day issues to critical events.

Rav Rivlin is credited with establishing 13 Jewish neighborhoods in western and northwestern Yerushalayim: Nahalat Shiv’a, Meah Shearim, Even Yisrael, Beit Ya’akov, Mishkenot Yisrael, Mazkeret Moshe, Ohel Moshe, Knesset Yisrael, Zikhron Tuvya, Shevet Ahim, Shaarei Zedek, Ezrat Yisrael, and Yemin Moshe. He helped name these neighborhoods based on allusions to psukim.

By the turn of the century, Meah Shearim had transformed from an isolated outpost into the largest neighborhood outside the Old City, home to 1,500 residents. The neighborhood that began with Rav Rivlin’s seemingly impossible vision had become a thriving center of Torah life, embodying the Vilna Gaon’s teaching that strengthening Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisroel would hasten the coming of Moshiach.

Today, Yosef Rivlin Street in the Nahalat Shiv’a neighborhood bears his name, a lasting tribute to the “Shtetlmacher” whose faith, courage, and unwavering dedication to the vision of the Vilna Gaon helped transform the landscape of Yerushalayim and paved the way for the flourishing of Torah communities outside the Old City walls.

The author can be reached at [email protected]