September 11, 2008
Foreign investors who own homes and apartments in Jerusalem can do a mitzva for 20- and 30-somethings hoping to live in the Israeli capital. These absentee owners can become rental landlords, giving college students and other young adults a chance to stay in the city and strengthen it. In return, these young people will help discourage burglars and provide upkeep at the rental units.
Foreign investment has driven up the cost of housing, making the dream of becoming a toshav Yerushalayim, a resident of Jerusalem, harder to realize — especially for younger people, who represent the city’s future.
Nearly 20 percent of the apartments in Jerusalem’s central neighborhoods have foreign — and absentee — owners.
Consider this: About 280,000 Jews have left Jerusalem since 1990, half because of the outlandish real estate prices. Still, the 40,000 students in Jerusalem face a shortage in apartment dwellings. Continued flight will threaten Jerusalem’s continuation as a Jewish city with vital commerce and a growing economy.
“As an Israeli young adult thinking of a life in Jerusalem, I’m worried about the future,” says Shirley Rapoport, 22, an incoming student at Hebrew University who lives in a dormitory. “Jerusalem is very dear to our hearts.”
In a thoughtful letter to the Jewish press in America, this psychology and science major talked about how rising real estate prices in Jerusalem are posing a risk to a Zionist Jewish core.
The letter echoes.
“I am writing this letter in order to increase awareness of the housing crisis in Jerusalem — in part caused by Jews from the Diaspora — and to offer a solution,” Rapoport writes.
Her idea, having Diaspora landlords rent to young adults, even with the prospect of the renters temporarily having to leave during the year, has the earmarks of a win-win situation. It would put Jewish young adults in the neighborhoods and help protect the property owners’ assets.
A consequence of the real estate spiral in Jerusalem is fewer young people. And that’s alarming.
Nearly 20 percent of the apartments in Jerusalem’s central and potentially most bustling neighborhoods — almost 10,000 units — have foreign owners. Most of these folks spend summers and holidays in Jerusalem but live abroad. Their apartments in Jerusalem stay vacant most of the year.
“This turns the neighborhoods into a ghost town for long periods,” Rapoport says.
Further exacerbating the problem is a scarcity of available apartments in the biblical city.
Determined and focused, Rapoport is passionate about her cause. She comes from a family of four in Kfar Saba. She just finished her service in the Israel Defense Forces. Her main job is as a private tutor, teaching English.
This summer, Rapoport served as an Israeli culture specialist at a Jewish summer camp in St. Louis. Her Jewish and Zionist studies include a semester at Ein Prat Institute, an Israeli midrashah in Alon.
With poor long-term municipal planning, Rapoport says, Jerusalem boasts few housing projects for new families.
“Non-Jewish and non-Zionist populations are increasing,” she says, “making the city even less tolerant and friendly for the Jewish young adult.”
Rapoport is drawing on the energy of New-Spirit, which represents the student community of Jerusalem. Like her, the four-year-old nonprofit is trying to save the Jewish and Zionist future of Jerusalem’s neighborhoods.
One of New-Spirit’s most spirited programs is called Housekeeping. It promotes proactive participation in reshaping Jerusalem by encouraging foreign owners to rent their apartments to Israeli young adults, who would live under the jurisdiction of Hebrew U’s Faculty of Law. The young adults would pay a relatively low rent and would vacate residences temporarily during the owners’ visits. While not ideal, the circumstances still could stem the tide of excellent law students bypassing Hebrew U because of spiraling rental costs and not enough student housing.
Postgraduate young adults are looking beyond Jerusalem for more opportunity in where they live and work. This phenomenon is weakening the creative and productive workforce of the city, Israel’s eternal capital. Enhanced Jewish student life in the city is bound to spur economic and commercial vitality, eventually allowing for greater opportunity for students to stay and study there.
The Hebrew U law faculty, together with New-Spirit, will select and screen applicants and undertake every assurance that students participating in the Housekeeping program are eminently suitable and responsible for taking care of the units they are renting. Jerusalem Property Management Ltd. will provide professional supervision. The Chamber of Real Estate Brokers of Jerusalem and the reputable law firm of Hacohen-Wolf bolster Housekeeping’s credibility and influence.
The Housekeeping brochure tells clients: “You will be working with us to keep Jerusalem more Jewish, more economically viable, more alive — and helping the future generation of Yerushalayim.”
Jews the world over have lots of things to worry about relating to Jerusalem. But little else is going to matter if this Zionist city of gold loses the one thing that helps secure its future: young people with heart. Their presence and promise are indispensable building blocks for a vibrant, prosperous Jewish Jerusalem.
Contact New-Spirit’s housing coordinator, Amit Poni, at poni.amit@gmail.com.
Robert Sklar is editor of the Detroit Jewish News, where this article first appeared.
Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
