Mordechai Reuven, his wife and their nine children are expected to move into a new seven room flat in the Katamon quarter within a week or two, but for the time being they are back in their one room quarters where, according to Reuven, three of their children became ill because of the over-crowded conditions, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned today. The case of the Reuvens broke into the news two weeks ago when 30 Hebrew University students, mostly sociology majors, seized an empty flat in the fashionable Talpiot suburb and moved the family in. Reuven, a $245-a-month municipal employe, agreed to evacuate the flat which the Housing Ministry had reserved for new immigrants after he was promised better living quarters for his family, The JTA learned that no action was planned against the 30 students since the police were not required to intervene in the seizure episode.
The Reuvens’ new flat, a combination of two apartments, was provided by the Prazot Co., a firm in which the Jerusalem Municipality is the major shareholder. A. Margalit, a Prazot director, told the JTA that he had offered Reuven another apartment in Yir Ganim, a well-kept suburb, but that the offer was “refused.” Reuven explained that he turned it down because it was only a three room flat that would not appreciably improve his family’s living conditions. The Katamon flat, which he says is adequate, will cost the Reuvens $19.60 a month rent. The Reuven case aroused interest here because it reflected a serious problem in which large, impoverished families live in squalid conditions while the Government provides large modern flats for immigrant families with only a few children.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
