Sublets in German Colony, Jerusalem

Emek Refaim forks off Derech Beit Lechem (Bethlehem Road) opposite the First Station compound, just south of Liberty Bell Park, and runs south almost dead straight. From Kikar Hakhmei Yavan, where it crosses Rachel Imenu Street, you're already in the Greek Colony, and the street ends at Oranim junction, where Katamon, the Katamonim (Gonenim), Baka, Mekor Haim and Talpiot meet.

The border with Baka is Park HaMesila, which here runs along HaRakevet Street. Officially the neighbourhood is called Emek Refaim, but Jerusalemites just say HaMoshava, “the Colony”. And it's small: 1,930 residents in 2017. Nothing free on your dates? Look in the Greek Colony too, or across the park in Baka.

The Templers, Christians from Württemberg, bought land from the people of Beit Safafa at the northern end of the Refaim valley, about a kilometre south-west of the city as it was then. They built a German village, only in Jerusalem stone instead of timber and brick: one- or two-storey houses with cellars and tiled roofs. In the Second World War many of them were deported to Australia, and after 1948 new immigrants moved into the houses.

They still mark the northern end of Emek Refaim: the community hall at 1 Emek Refaim has become an Armenian church, and their school, at number 3, was absorbed into the Orient hotel, which has a display on the Templer settlement on its lower floor. Many of the side streets are named after non-Jewish supporters of Zionism, such as Émile Zola and Tomáš Masaryk.

An apartment in the Colony can belong to any of three layers. The Templers' stone houses, and south of them homes built by well-off Arab families. Apartment blocks from the 1960s and 1970s, which did little for the neighbourhood's looks. And since the 1980s, once conservation became a concern, every new building has followed the old ones: low, with a tiled roof, arched windows and a courtyard.

And a safe room (mamad)? The duty to build a protected space into every new building only came into force in 1992, and the stone houses and the 1960s–70s blocks were built before it. Buildings like these rely on a shared shelter, some don't even have one, and then people take cover in the stairwell. Ask the host what there is, and check how many minutes it takes to reach the nearest shelter.

For the next few years, the first question here is the light rail. After residents protested, it won't run through Park HaMesila: in October 2020 it was finally decided that it will run along Emek Refaim. It will be the Azure (Tchelet) Line of the Blue Line project: from Malha through Talpiot to the Rachel Imenu stop on Emek Refaim, then past the old station and along Keren Hayesod and King George to the city centre. On the published timetable it is due to open in 2029.

Since the work began in July 2025, you can't drive Emek Refaim end to end, and many bus routes have been diverted away from it. Plan your daily commute on that week's situation. And even after opening, through traffic won't return.

On foot or by bike, there's Park HaMesila, which starts by the old station. The railway route was chosen in the first place for its gentle gradient, and that's rare in Jerusalem: a long walking and cycling path with no real climbs. Except that in 2025 part of its northern stretch was torn up for the Blue Line and the heavy rail extension. And the city centre? It's close, which is one reason the neighbourhood is in demand.

Some call it the Sheinkin of Jerusalem: since the 1990s cafés, restaurants, bars and boutiques have opened along Emek Refaim. English speakers won't be alone here, and researchers will find the Shalom Hartman Institute in the neighbourhood. By the way, the Jerusalem Pool, on the street itself, reopened at the end of 2023.

Now the unvarnished part. This is an expensive neighbourhood: affluent families who moved in pushed property prices up. An apartment facing Emek Refaim hears the street and, until the light rail opens, the works too, so ask which way the bedrooms face. Coming with a car? Check whether the apartment has private parking, because you shouldn't count on the street itself.