This is Where My Family Sought Refuge

On Friday, I had the chance to visit the Lutheran Church of Redeemer courtyard in Jerusalem. My extended family— 17 people— were given shelter there, crammed into one room, when they fled from the Musrara neighborhood in what became West Jerusalem in 1948.

The second photo is of beautiful, formerly Palestinian homes of their neighbors in Musrara. In 2017 I saw my Mom’s former family home nearby. This time I couldn’t find it. I’m afraid it may have been demolished as the gentrification of Musrara is happening now.

Our tour of Musrara was led by Reuven Aberjel, whose family raised him in Musrara after 1948. Musrara was turned from a prosperous Palestinian neighborhood to a slum housing mostly Jewish immigrants from North Africa. North Africans were crammed several families to each formerly Palestinian homes.

Like elsewhere in the new state of Israel, Mizrahi Jews were placed in the more dangerous settlements in areas bordering neighboring Arab countries.