Shops in the middle, residences on top - and a body at the bottom? The "abandoned mall" in Jerusalem
The Clal Center was designed to be a first-of-its-kind shopping center: instead of street-level shops, the retail space was built into an internal plaza, similar to the Dizengoff Center. However, a combination of infrastructure complaints and mysterious urban legends has left the building largely deserted.
It is hard to miss the Clal Center – a huge and heavy structure that sits between Jaffa Street, Agrippas Street, and the Mahane Yehuda Market, right across from the Davidka Memorial, in one of the most central locations in Jerusalem. It was designed to be an innovative commercial center, but in practice, it is an outdated structure. Although it has a special charm, with businesses that have been there for over 40 years, such as a billiard club or a Persian food business, it must be said honestly: it is a concrete monster that looks bad.
For nearly a hundred years, the Alliance school of the Kol Yisrael Haverim organization stood on the site. The school, which opened in 1882, was a groundbreaking institution in Jerusalem; alongside Torah and language studies, its students learned trades such as carpentry, jewelry making, mechanics, and sculpture, with the goal of enabling them to acquire a profession and not be dependent on donations. After the Six-Day War, the building was abandoned, the land was sold, and most of the historic school was demolished in favor of the Clal Center. From the original structure, mainly a partial reconstruction of the gate remains.
Construction of the Clal Center began in the early seventies, and it was inaugurated in 1978. Architect Dan Eitan designed a commercial space that rises in a kind of spiral, with entrances from different levels and offices above the shops. However, the fragmented management, poor maintenance, and competition with new shopping centers gradually turned it into a place that many pass by, but few enter. Dan Eitan himself said that it was one of his less successful works.
And then came the mysterious legend: in 1984, it was reported on Galei IDF (Army Radio) that members of "Gang Number 1" buried a person they murdered inside the building's foundations. The police defined the story as a baseless rumor. The dates do not really add up either: the murders attributed to the gang members occurred after the building had already been erected. There is no evidence that anyone is actually buried there, but the rumor has survived much longer than some of the shops in the center.
In recent years, the Muslala association has proven that it can be different, by turning one of the roofs into a green space of culture, community, and sustainability. But one initiative on the roof cannot revive an entire building. The Jerusalem Municipality, the property owners, and the state need to promote a serious plan to rehabilitate the center, bring the public spaces back to life, and also honorably commemorate the Alliance school that was erased for its sake. The Clal Center does not need another legend about a person buried inside it. It needs people to stop burying its potential.
