Expanding The New Shiloh Neighborhood

The newest neighborhood in Shiloh is Rechov Techelet, which can be translated loosely as Sky Blue Street. If I remember correctly, the area was first planned and approved for building pre-Madrid Conference time.

The Israeli Government had approved a massive building project for Shiloh of something like 134 houses, which was to double the population. Half were to be in my neighborhood, including a large extension of it to the north, and the other half was in the middle neighborhood, extending it to the south and east.

My memory on the timing is pretty exact, because half the homes ended up being built in Shvut Rachel which was established in memory of our neighbor, Rachella Druk, who had been murdered when on her way to a demonstration in Tel Aviv, which was to encourage Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir to be strong and resist international pressure at the Madrid Conference. In those days it was considered important to memorialize someone murdered by terrorists by building a community in the person's memory. In order to make sure that Shvut Rachel got a good start, our Town Council requested that half the homes allocated to us be transferred to the new community to the east.

In the past decade or so homes have finally been built in that area, and it's a lovely neighborhood. A new section is under construction called  Karmei Shiloh, and here are some photos I took this week.

I find all of this building in Shiloh very exciting, and it's wonderful to hear that nowadays Shiloh isn't considered "out of the way." Shiloh is considered the Center of the Country, convenient and a wonderful place to live. Thank Gd!