Our first Jerusalem Neighbor

After my husband and I got married we moved to Israel, traveling by boat.

We were among the lucky olim chadashim (new immigrants) to have a job waiting, and that job included housing.

He had been hired by World Betar to run the Maon Betar, Betar Student housing in the Old City of Jerusalem. The old city was a difficult place to live. There were very few Jews there in early September, 1970. You had Yeshivat Hakotel, Nachal Moriya, Maon Betar and Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Segel and his wife, Rachel. The Segels lived just across the lane/path from the Betar House, which is on the corner of Rechov HaYehudim, Street of the Jews, and Rechov Plugat HaKotel. The "Plugat HaKotel" had been a group of defenders of Jews in the Old City before the Jordanians conquered it and banished Jews. Their headquarters was the building we were in.

It's also the building that Yoram Gaon refers to as his "grandfather's house" in the movie "Ani Yerushlami," "I was Born in Jerusalem."

Harav Segel was a hero to us, besides being our only neighbor. Read all about him in the following article:
The man who sounded the shofar