Jerusalem, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Jerusalem n.

[according to the Bible, Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, but note (Egan), Real Life in Ireland 91: [note] ‘Donkeys and their riders are so called in honour to a late entry into Jerusalem by some female crusaders against common decency’]

a donkey; also attrib.

1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 91: All the pleasurable ladies from the Liberty, rode criss cross upon their neddies, forming a braying (or brazen) regiment of Jerusalem cavalry.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 501: ‘But what is a Jerusalem?’ [...] ‘Jerusalem—jackass!—jackass—Jerusalem!
1866		Wild Boys of London I 33/2: ‘A mule.’ ‘Was it? [...] I’ll stake my davy it wasn’t a real jerusalem.’.
1879		‘’Arry on Niggers’ in Punch 15 Mar. 113/2: Nigs is jest like Jerusalems — fags, nothin’ more, made to fetch and to carry.

Proper name in slang uses

In phrases

go to Jerusalem (v.) [? drunkenness being ‘the promised land’]

to get drunk.

1737

B. Franklin ‘Drinkers Dictionary’ in Pennsylvania Gazette 6 Jan. in AS XII:2 91: They come to be well understood to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK. [...] Going to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem slim (n.)

(US prison) a prison chaplain.

1960

(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 4: Autumn bawler – a parson; sky-pilot; Jerusalem-slim; missionary, etc.

Jerusalem the Golden (n.) (also Jerusalem-by-the-Sea, Jerusalem-on-Sea) [the large number of Jews who retire to Brighton and other towns along Britain’s south coast]

Brighton.

1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 383: Many went to ‘Jerusalem-on-Sea’ – i.e., Brighton.

little Jerusalem (n.) (also little Jewrusalem)

(US) the Jewish area of a town or city.

[1895		Mirror of Life 26 Jan. 15/2: Jerusalem the fallen; otherwise Petticoat Lane [...] has been the birthplace of many renowned fistic heroes We had recently [...] the portrait of a Jewish patriarch, the father of Harry Levy, or Savage, the caterer of the prize ring].
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 130: They were in little Jewrusalem now, and they could probably catch a couple of Jew-babies.
1970		D. Marcus New Irish Writing 115: For many years the South Circular Road district in Dublin was known as Little Jerusalem because of its large Jewish community.
1977		(con. c.1900) Bulletin Missouri Historical Soc. XXXIII–IV 71: The [St Louis] neighborhood actually contained two ethnic colonies, ‘Little Jerusalem’ and ‘Little Italy’.
1986		(con. late 19C) R.A. Rockaway Jews of Detroit 63: Variously dubbed ‘New Jerusalem,’ ‘Little Jerusalem,’ and ‘the Ghetto’ by the city’s press, the Jewish district [etc.].
1994		P. Applebaum Wetsmans 78: ‘Little Jerusalem,’ Detroit’s immigrant-Jewish neighborhood.
2005		(ref. to 1892) Deane & Mac Suibhne in Field Day Review I 90: It is significant that when the Dublin Hebrew Congregation moved south of the Liffey in 1892, it located its new synagogue outside the Little Jerusalem area.