Beit HaKerem was founded in 1922 after 280 dunam of land was bought from the Greek Orthodox Church.
It was the first Jewish neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem during the days of the British Mandate. The neighborhood was left completely isolated until the foundation of Kiryat Moshe in the northwest and Bayit VeGan in the south. In those days the residents of Beit Hakerem suffered from the hostility of Arabs who lived in the area.
In its early days Bet Hakerem was a neighborhood of educators, clerks and writers. Many educational institutions were built there following the famous David Yellin collage of education. The neighborhood has about 25 kindergartens, four elementary schools and three high schools considered among the most prestigious in Jerusalem.
Today, with population of 15,000 residents, the first houses and buildings of the neighborhood are disappearing while new and modern homes are built.
The Jerusalem Light Rail , which began service in late 2011, passes through Beit HaKerem and has several stops there, providing convenient, rapid transportation to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, The Convention Center (Binyane Haooma), Cinema City, the Machaneh Yehudah market (the shuk), as well as to downtown Jerusalem, Zion Square, the Ben Yehudah pedestrian mall, Jerusalem City Hall, the Mamilla shopping mall and the Old City near Jaffa Gate and Damascus Gate.
The area includes three sub neighborhoods: Beit Hakerem, Yefe Nof and Ramat Beit Hakerem.
Yefe Nof is located right beside Beit Hakerem and borders with the Jerusalem Forest. The neighborhood is distinguished with three story buildings and a few cottages.
Ramat Beit Hakerem was founded south of Beit Hakeren. Its initial planning program was to build 2,500 residential units. The buildings in Ramat Beit Hakerem are mostly three to five story buildings with apartments of three to five rooms. Part of the apartments has a private yard or a porch and most of them come with private parking. The main street is Moshe Kol with a circular road around the neighborhood.
