Constructed in 1874, Mea She’arim was one of the first neighborhoods to be built outside the Old City walls of Jerusalem.
She’arim is synonymous with ultra orthodoxy. This neighborhood is a window into a way of life that was practiced in Eastern Europe several centuries ago. Its religious inhabitants focus their lives on Talmudic learning.
Such devotion to religion and learning brings with it a desire for segregation from less observant people and the changing ideas of modernism.
Me’a She’arim is in another sense both miles and years.