Moses Montefiore was an English philanthropist. He was born as Blumberg in Livorno, Italy and married to his Dutch-born wife Judith Cohen from Amsterdam.
Lady Judith was of the Rothschild family a fact that also helped Montefiore a lot in climbing the political ladder in the House of Parliament in England.

Sir Moses Montefiore (nee Blumberg)

In order to understand what follows, I have included a short note:
In 1841, the author, S.Munk, wrote an article entitled "Palestine, description geographique, historique et archeologique" about a certain Mohammed Ali, the vice-roi of Egypt who wanted to possess more than he already had. In 1831, he got the French on his side to attack and possess Syria and Palestine, especially the city of Akko with whom Ali had some personal matter to settle against the sultan of Istambul. Nevertheless, Akko felt safe and protected itself against Ali by the strength of its walls. Ali sent Ibrahim Pasha with a fleet of 22 ships to take Akko that held him off by providing a ransom. Ali took the money but ordered Abrahim to keep 5000 troups around Akko whereas Ibrahim moved on to Tripoli which he took, and turned back to Akko to finish his job so that Akko fell in May 27 1832.
In July 15 1840, England, Prussia, Austria and Turkey made a pact that Mohammed Ali would get Egypt and Syria and Palestine for life (a vie) if he promised within 10 days to leave Akko alone and move out. Ali being Ali refused.
The allied fleet of the Europeans and Turkey took Beyrout and Sidon in September 1840 whereas on November 4, Akko was taken and with it Ali.
This political background in mind brought some rich European Jews together in establishing a foundation to collect financial contributions for the poor Jews in Palestine. Their idea was to found a hospice for poor Jews outside the walls of Jerusalem as well as a school with "European Education Techniques". At the top of the list of contributions stood the House of Rothschild that provided a sum of 100.000 Francs.
Armed with this money, Montefiore firstly built a Hospice and a windmill for the Jews outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The building of the Hospice (almshouse), today's Mishkenot Sha'ananim (lit. 'peaceful habitation'), started in 1854 and was completed in 1865.
At either end of the row of rooms he added two synagogues, one for Sephardi Jews and another for Ashkenazi Jews.
Twenty-five years later, in 1890, 160 houses each with a domed room were completed to the North of Mishkenot. This time, Montefiore used the heritage money of Judah Turah--born and buried behind the synagogue at New Port (1775-1854) on Rhode Island-- to build his new quarter for Jews, West of the Old City. Other Jewish quarters such as Nahalat Shivah snd Machaneh Israel were already existing so that Yemin Moshe became the third Jewish quarter outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Also here, the quarter was divided into the two parts: the 'House of Judith' and the 'House of Nathan' both names familiar to the Rothschilds.
Judah Turah inherited the money from his father Isaac who had immigrated to America from the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam and had settled in New Orleans. Judah settled in New Port where he founded the so-called "Touro synagogue"--in Hebrew Turah synagogue--, the first Sephardim synagogue in the US.
The new quarter in Jerusalem was later named Yemin Moshe, Hebrew for "the righteous Moses" in honor of Moses Montefiore, who closed the deal with the final signature of the sultan of Porta (Istanbul) to purchase the land for building the planned houses.
At present, there are 120 apartments in Yemin Moshe and it is central to the Mammilla shopping center, the Jerusalem Theatre and the renewed Cinemateque, as well as the Old City and the renowned Khan Theatre. The neighborhood is relatively quiet since there is no traffic in its four paralel streets and in spite of the busses while parking/unloading tourists on an ever-growing scale, it still is a cozy place to live in.
According to an English survey map of 1938, Mishkenot Sha'ananim originally belonged to Yemin Moshe being in the same Lot/Block 30030, whereas at present Yemin Moshe and Mishkenot Sha'ananim are two separated lots.
How was the renovation of this by a 1947-1967 war-pestered quarter eventually made into a reality?A year after the Six Day War, in 1968, two brothers and both architects, the Shimshonis of the Technion in Haifa drew a plan to make a green zone around the Old City of Jerusalem, free from any high-rise, a plan which the Major Teddy Kollek approved.
Among others, it was decided to restore the "spirit" of the old quarter of Yemin Moshe, leaving it to private people to submit plans to restore the purchased ruins. A committee was formed under Itziq Jacobi to overlook the submitted plans as well as the people who desired to live in Yemin Moshe.
Five streets run north-south, at equal distances cut by four west-east staircases of roughly 180 steps. After 100 years, the quarter which once was No-men's Land between 1948-1967 (Six Day War) deteriorated quickly as shown in the photograph already depicted.

 

Map of Yemin Moshe with its four staircases and its five parallel streets on a sloped hill where Titus had constructed one of his many camps around a place called Terebinythos oikos, or Pea-house which at present would correspond with the Bustan still existing and restored by a Moroccan family.
Our apartment which was originally built in 1890 about 128 years ago is located at the highest row of the quarter in Heinrich Heine street named after the German philosopher Heinrich Heine. The house is about 40 meters North from the windmill. When we bought our ruin in the early 1970s there were no paved streets, whereas every two houses had a well filled with rain water and a sewage tank. In 2021, when renwewing the lower floor for a bathroom in Hatachanah street, parts of the rain-water tank were found and the present owners asked me what this signified. I answered that these are the traces of what I found in 1974 and that I had built my first floor over it. The reason was that I wanted my groundfloor to start 10 cm above street level to overcome ground water climbing up the walls.  

The embedded rainwater tank dug into the bedrock and plastered all over dates back to 1890. Since then, the streets of Yemin Moshe are paved with roughly cut stones with a sunk-in row of stones that serves to channel drainage of rain water during the rainy season. The quarter is built on a slope which extends from King David street (famous for its King David-, Solomon-and Inbal hotels and the YMCA) to the Sultan's Pool (Birkat es-sultan) which today can be (and often is) converted into an open-air theatre where during the summer many cultural festivities take place. This pool which is dry at present, used to contain water that came from the Solomon pools between Bethlehem and Hebron.
In West-East direction, Yemin Moshe is higher than the Old City in spite of the optical illusion that the Old City wall is higher. The quarter is 50-100 meters lower than Mount Scopus (at 800 m.) on which resides the prestigious in 1918 founded Hebrew University with its faculties of the Humanities, the Social Sciences and Law. The walls of the Old City, as seen in the photo above, are from the time of Suleiman the Magnificent who built them in 1532 except for a tiny piece of wall that serves as foundation and dates to King Herod the Great (30-4 BC) at the right of the Jaffa Gate.
At the highest level, there is the largest car parking lot, one of the four, surrounding the quarter. Within the quarter, one simply walks.
All supplies of electricity, water, TV, gas and telephone are underground so that they don't disturb the view of the stone architecture and green features for which Yemin Moshe is so famous. TV antennas are forbidden, but Yemin Moshe has a central antenna as well as Cable-TV. Solar-heater panels on the roofs are allowed. Birds of all kind have made Yemin Moshe their haven, so have the cats in the trail of the birds.
We know the windmill for over 35 years having it observed most of the time from eye to eye on the top level of our home. Downstairs, we still have a view of the Montefiore windmill, after its restoration according to the original blue prints as it was intended by Montefiore in 1857.
Up to date, we have not spoken of the guestroom that we built in the patio just beneth the border of the carpark. This room consists of a built-in kitchen, bathroom and a couch that can be opened to sleep for two persons. Everything, as for example, the hot water for the bathroom is entirely independent from the rest of the house whereas also the room has an entrance with a single key for the guest. Herunder, two photographs of the South-East sides of the guestroom as well as the South-West side of the room.
 

The guestroom in the patio.
 

On the left the completely burnt-out but later restored chariot of Sir Moses Montefiore while in the glass cover the sunlight reflects a mirror image of the Benedictine Dormition church which is located on Mount Zion behind me when I took the photo. So I captured two items in a single shot.

View from the patio on the windmill with the guestroom on the right.

In the beginning years, Yemin Moshe was well protected by seven iron gates of which four remain today, two of which are in Windmill Street (Rehov Ha-Tachanah in Hebrew).

The original gate in Windmill Street preserved from 1892. At the left a view from Windmill street, whereas on the right a view toward Windmill street
In 1968, it was decided to restore the "spirit" of this quarter and individual families submitted architectural plans to restore the purchased ruins. A committee was formed to overlook the submitted plans.
All supports of electricity, water, TV, gas and telephone are underground so that they don't disturb the view or the stone and green features for which Yemin Moshe is so famous. TV antennas are forbidden. The quarter has a central antenna as well as Cable TV for one who wishes to be connected. Birds of all kind have made Yemin Moshe their haven, so have the cats in the trail of the birds.
The entire house--as every house in Jerusalem-- is made of cut stones with butted relief (Arabic "Mizzi Ahmar") and "Taltish" whose surface is cut diagonally by means of a chisel. The windmill was designed by an English architect and was planned to grind wheat for the population of the early Jewish hospice in 1865. The Jews had to be paid to come to work and live in the Hospice because in those days one was afraid to leave the protection of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.

 

The Benedictine Abbeay called the Dormition church on Mount Zion opposite our home. According to Christian belief it was the place where the Virgin Mary 'fell asleep'

 

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