We often times focus on Jerusalem for its spiritual, political, and historical importance. Yet, Jerusalem can be seen as something else as well. The current urban green movement has only recently reached Israel. We see amazing green buildings in Tel Aviv and even a few in the more modern areas of Jerusalem. However, we can imagine the Old City, with its winding maze of streets, walkable roofs, and ancient courtyards as a perfect place to weave a tapestry of urban gardens and sustainability projects throughout its walls.

Roof top gardens, urban nature parks within various courtyards as well as vertical gardens can be possible. In fact, there are already planes to create a green roof on the Galtizia roof top. More and more vertical gardens can be seen as well.

In The Spirit of Shlomo

Shlomo HaMelech was known to have planted a beautiful garden – called the King’s Garden. While this garden was located outside of the Old City in the Kidron Valley, the idea is compelling for within the city walls as well. Today, we can truly envision Jerusalem as an urban garden – uplifting the Creation in order to reveal the Divine within.