Komemiyut. No, it’s not the Soviet agrarian bureau or some other such body that may spring to mind with a title like that. It is actually the Hebrew name for the picturesque Jerusalem neighborhood of Talbiyeh.
Talbiyeh borders the , the German Colony and along Keren Hayesod Street, and is considered one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city. The neighborhood showcases a rich variety of architectural styles, typical of the different periods of Israel. The lands on which the neighborhood was founded were purchased by the Greek Church in the latter half of the 19th century from villagers around Jerusalem.
A Greek priest named Nikophorus Bittasis was particularly involved in these acquisitions, thus the neighborhood of Talbiyeh was named after him: Nikophoria. In 1921, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Palestine Land Development Company initiated a project to purchase lands in central and western Jerusalem. In 1923, the institutions began constructing the garden neighborhood of Talbiyeh on land adjacent to the Sha’arei Hessed neighborhood.
Most of Talbiyeh was rocky terrain with olive and mulberry trees. Construction in this neighborhood began in the early 1920s when affluent merchants from Bethlehem, Beit Jala, and Ramallah bought land in the area to build private homes or rental properties. The land was purchased directly from the Greek Church or through a Christian Arab named Constantine Salameh.
Salameh bought large plots of land from the Greeks and divided.
