Walk through Givat Mordechai on any given day, and you’ll encounter a cross-section of Jerusalem life that few other neighborhoods can match: yeshiva students hurrying to afternoon prayers, university students grabbing coffee between lectures, young mothers pushing strollers past aging apartment blocks, and secular professionals returning home from work. This is a neighborhood where Religious Zionists, haredim (ultra-Orthodox), and secular residents coexist in what locals describe as genuine harmony.
A Chicago philanthropist’s legacy
Surprisingly, the story of Givat Mordechai begins thousands of miles away in Chicago. The neighborhood owes its existence and its name to Mordechai (Maxwell) Abbell, a Jewish-American lawyer, accountant, and real estate magnate instrumental in founding the Mizrachi movement in the United States. When Abbell donated land to the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in the 1950s, he could hardly have imagined the diverse community that would one day bear his name.
In 1955, Hapoel Hamizrachi and the Mishkenot company broke ground on the first 100 housing units, with plans to eventually expand to 400. The vision was realized more rapidly than expected, and by 1970 all 400 units were occupied, with another 130 apartments under construction.
The neighborhood’s streets still bear witness to those Mizrachi roots. Shachal Street, the main thoroughfare, honors Rabbi Shmuel Chaim Landoy, one of the movement’s ideological architects. Turn down any side street and you’ll find tributes to Religious Zionist luminaries: Rabbi Yeshayahu Wolfsberg-Aviad; Rabbi Ze’ev Gold; Rabbi Chaim Heller; and David Zvi Pinkas. The latter served in the Provisional State Council and Israel’s first two Knessets before becoming transport minister.
Like so many Jerusalem neighborhoods, Givat Mordechai’s history is marked by conflict. On the first day of the Six Day War in June 1967, Jordanian artillery unleashed a devastating barrage on western Jerusalem. Givat Mordechai absorbed numerous shells. Near the neighborhood synagogue, one blast claimed the lives of teenage residents Avraham Ifrgan and Yitzhak Mansour.
The Teddy Kollek controversy
No discussion of Givat Mordechai is complete without addressing one of its most contentious chapters. In the 1970s and 1980s, the neighborhood became a focal point in Jerusalem’s cultural wars. As development accelerated, a distinct architectural pattern emerged. Tall apartment buildings, often exceeding eight stories, were built with what locals sardonically called “the copy-paste method.”
These buildings were efficient and energy-saving, but they shared a controversial feature. With minimal balcony space, they offered no room to build a sukkah.
Critics accused mayor Teddy Kollek of deliberately promoting this architectural style to attract secular residents and marginalize Yeshivat Chevron Knesset Yisrael, which had established its campus in the neighborhood. Whether or not the charges were fair, the “sukkah controversy” became a flashpoint in debates about Jerusalem’s character and future.
Today, Yeshivat Chevron is the neighborhood’s most prominent institution. Established in the late 1970s, this Lithuanian-style haredi yeshiva ranks among the most prestigious in the world, with over 1,500 students filling its halls. Streets have been renamed to honor Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, the revered rosh yeshiva, and Masaat Moshe Street commemorates Rabbi Moshe Chevroni, who succeeded Sarna and oversaw construction of the yeshiva campus.
The yeshiva’s presence dramatically altered Givat Mordechai’s demographics, adding a significant haredi population to what had been a predominantly Religious Zionist neighborhood. Yet, rather than creating friction, the melting pot works. Synagogues catering to different traditions – Ashkenazi, Sephardi, hassidic, and Lithuanian – operate side by side. There’s even Ohel David, a late-night shtibel for yeshiva students who keep nocturnal study schedules.
New influx
In recent decades, Givat Mordechai has discovered a new identity in the form of student housing central. Its location is enviable, just minutes from the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Lev Academic Center, Jerusalem College, and the Jerusalem College of Engineering. The completion of Begin Road and a new western entrance to Givat Ram sent property values soaring and made the neighborhood even more attractive to students and young professionals.
Walk through the neighborhood today and you’ll find many apartments rented short term to young couples and students. The demographic influx has brought vitality and turnover to a neighborhood that might otherwise have stagnated.
According to the Jerusalem Municipality, the neighborhood is home to 6,674 residents, most of whom are Religious Zionist, with significant haredi and secular minorities. Some 2,784 residents are under the age of 18, and around 950 are over the age of 65.
The neighborhood also serves as home to Samson Beit Bnei Akiva, the world headquarters of Bnei Akiva, inaugurated in 2024. From the building, the Religious Zionist youth movement coordinates its global operations across dozens of countries.
The neighborhood’s synagogue landscape tells its own story of coexistence. Schiff Shul, named after a synagogue destroyed on Kristallnacht, preserves the customs of Vienna’s Jewish community. The hassidic-Zionist Feinstov Synagogue blends hassidic traditions with Religious Zionist ideas. Two Chabad houses serve different audiences – one for the haredi community, another for Religious Zionists and traditional Jews.
Zachor L’Avraham serves the Ashkenazi community, while Mishkan Shmuel caters to Sephardi haredim, and Etz Yosef to French Jewish immigrants.
Beneath the modern neighborhood also lie layers of history.
Near the border with Emek HaTzva’im and Begin Road, archaeologists uncovered Khavat Huzir (Qa’ad al-Wazir), an ancient Byzantine and Muslim settlement complete with buildings, wine presses, agricultural installations, and burial caves.
In the 1920s, a Greek Orthodox monk named Vikandius settled between present-day Givat Mordechai and Ramat Beit HaKerem. He was killed during the 1948 bombardment, but locals still refer to the area as the Monk’s Grove or the Wazir’s Grove.
At the neighborhood’s edge stands one of Jerusalem’s more enigmatic sculptures: Ezra Orion’s Ma’alot, popularly known as “Jacob’s Ladder.” True to his artistic philosophy, Orion refused to give the work a definitive name, preferring to let viewers interpret it freely.
Children have their own landmarks.
Ball Garden earned its name from a now-destroyed playground structure featuring a pyramid of massive spheres, each about two meters in diameter. Though the original equipment burned down years ago and was replaced with conventional playground equipment, the name stuck, a small monument to neighborhood memory.
Less whimsical but more essential: Jerusalem’s main fire and rescue station, Bira Station, is located in Givat Mordechai, as is the city’s central traffic light control center.
Religious Zionist families live alongside haredi yeshiva students, who live alongside secular professionals, who live alongside traditional Mizrahi families.
Multiple synagogues serve multiple traditions. Schools cater to different educational philosophies. Youth movements compete for members.
It’s not utopia, but which Jerusalem neighborhood is? Givat Mordechai is something increasingly precious, namely a place where different kinds of Jews live together, not just beside each other. Maxwell Abbell, the Chicago philanthropist who made it all possible, might be surprised by how his neighborhood turned out.