Issa Michael al-Toubbeh, but among them were some Latin rite Catholics (some from an Italian origin) and Armenian Protestants. A phenomenon which contributed to the neighborhood's cosmopolitan character was intermarriage between different Christian communities. The apartments were rented to Arab people and British officials, army officers and their families, who preferred to live in a Christian neighborhood. Most of the children were sent to high quality and expensive schools, usually private ones. The schools teaching languages were usually English, Italian, German or French. The members of the Greek–Orthodox community lived a secular lifestyle, visiting churches only on holidays and family events. They used to pray in the church of the San Simon Monastery, the church of the Monastery of the Cross or in churches in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. The Latin rite Catholic community made their prayer at the Chapel of St. Theresa in Katamon or in churches located in the Old City. Protestant families conducted their prayer at the St. George's Cathedral or in the Old City. Many of the residents worked in British public services and many were members of YMCA. Many consulates were established in the neighborhood including the consulates of Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Italy (which remains the consulates of Italy in Israel today), Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Three small hotels and a pension existed in the neighborhood before 1948 and there was a British sports club in the neighborhood, which was later used by Hapoel Jerusalem football club for a few years. 1948 War During the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine Katamon was largely abandoned by its residents. The evacuation of Arabs was reported already on 10 December, and British assistance to the evacuation was reported on the beginning of January. The neighbourhood's handful of Jewish inhabitants left during the war's first weeks. According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, they left either out of fear or under Arab intimidation. The neighborhood was an Arab neighborhood between two Jewish neighborhoods and the only one in a line of Jewish neighborhoods. On the night of 5–6 January 1948, the Haganah bombed the Semiramis Hotel in Katamon, killing 24 or 26 people. According to Benny Morris the Haganah believed that several irregulars' commanders lived there and, possibly mistakenly, that the hotel served as the neighbourhood militia headquarters. After the attack many Arab residents of the neighborhood began fleeing, most of them were women, children