Kiryat Wolfson

Kiryat Wolfson is situated on a ridge at the western edge of Sha'arei Hesed, northwest of Rehavia. The towers overlook the Valley of the Cross, the Knesset, and the Israel Museum. ==History==

In the early 1960s, Jerusalem Mayor Mordechai Ish-Shalom sought entrepreneurs to improve Jerusalem's cityscape. He approached Mordechai and Moshe Meir of Israel, business partners with Sir Charles Clore of England and Sir Isaac Wolfson, to invest in the city. With Ish-Shalom's assistance, Mordechai Meir selected a plot overlooking the Valley of the Cross for an apartment project. The land was purchased from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the Israel Land Administration for $1.2 million. Pei submitted his design, which called for three towers of 29 stories each. The local planning committee responded with "total opposition", claiming that the towers would "dwarf the Knesset", ==Description==

Kiryat Wolfson comprises 300 apartments and 50 terraced apartments, or "villas". The units are spacious, ranging from for a two-bedroom apartment to for a four-bedroom unit. and have Shabbat elevators. ==Demographics==

Most residents of the Wolfson Towers are foreign retirees. A 2006 Israel Central Bureau of Statistics survey reported that 22.1% of residents of Kiryat Wolfson were aged 70 or older. Kiryat Wolfson consistently logs the highest median age of any Jerusalem neighborhood, religious or secular, in the annual Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies (JIIS) survey. In 2010 the median age in Kiryat Wolfson was 66, down from 68 in 2009. Kiryat Wolfson also has the lowest housing density in Jerusalem. A JIIS survey reported a housing density of per person in Kiryat Wolfson in 2005, compared to an overall housing density of per person in Jerusalem. ==Offices==

• International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation • World Jewish Congress Israel The Embassy of Costa Rica in Israel was located in one of the Wolfson Towers before 1980, and from 1982 to 2006, after which it moved to Tel Aviv. ==Other uses==

Kiryat Wolfson is the name of an immigrant housing project in Acre, Israel, financed by the Edith and Isaac Wolfson Trust and inaugurated in 1966. ==References==