STYLE
Right:
Rivka Eliayav emphasized the
natural beauty of her Old City
home by leaving one wall of
native stone unplastered in her
wide open, many arched salon.
Photos by Shlomo Marcus.
Far Right:
Ruhama Hisdei stands in the in-
ner courtyard of her home, a
three-story space she and her
husband have tried to soften with
plants, pottery and a large hang-
ing chandelier.
Below:
A lush rooftop garden features
decorative plants and shrubs
along with vegetables.
Jerusalem Showpieces
The newly renovated Jewish Quarter in
Jerusalem's Old City challenges homeowners.
Many have found innovative ways to decorate
homes with domed roofs, high ceilings and
irregularly shaped rooms.
LEAH ABRAMOWITZ
Special to The Jewish News
--rom below, it looks
stark, sterile, simulated
and slightly monoto-
nous. From above, the newly
renovated Jewish Quarter in
Jerusalem's Old City is a
fairy tale scene of domed
roofs, breathtaking panoram-
ic views and beautiful in-
terlinking rooftop gardens.
Living in such a neighbor-
hood, homemakers often find
conventional ways of furnish-
ing their apartments unsuit-
able. Many of the residences
are renovated Arab-style
houses where high ceilings,
domed roofs, inner staircases,
arches, nitches and court-
yards are part of their interior
landscape.
lb take full advantage of
their unique setting, resi-
dents have cultivated several
innovations in style and
design. "I decided to submit
to reality," says Rivka
Eliayav, an artist whose roof-
36
FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1987
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
top apartment is a showpiece
of charm.
Rivka emphasized the nat-
ural beauty of her renovated
living quarters by leaving one
wall of native stone purpose-
ly unplastered in her wide
open, many arched salon. She
painted cupboards and shelves
white to fit into the setting.
A wide silled window with a
lovely view of Mount Scopus
was turned into a window
seat. She chose old fashioned
heavy wooden furniture be-
cause, she says, "modern for-
mica and aluminum chairs
and tables would be complete-
ly out of place here."
How did she achieve such
warmth and comfort in her
home? "I used a lot of
greenery," explains Rivka,
pointing to the plants and
hanging vines in her apart-
ment. "The stone is cold and
needs warming up. Flora is a
fine way to add life.
Rivka also hung pictures,
and selected muted colors —
blue, brown, turquoise and
especially white — for tex-
tiles and upholstery. The
salon has many comfortable
chairs, sofas and hassocks.
Size is a feature that must
be dealt with in many Jewish
Quarter homes. The ceilings
are high, sometimes curved
inversely because of a domed
roof, and the foyeror entrance
may be as tall as the building.
Sometimes the rooms are tiny
nitches; sometimes, huge,
barnlike structures. Some
apartments have three or four
levels with one or two rooms
on each floor.
Many of the renovated
homes are oddly shaped, with
irregular walls. Ruhama
Hisdei, who last year married
a resident of the neighbor-
hood, described how difficult
it was to align furniture and
cupboards in a room which
"doesn't have one true
angle — no corner, no
straight wall."
Yaakov, her husband, a
retired Army lieutenant col-
onel, did most of the recon-
struction work himself in his
unusual three-story apart-