The Jewish Agency for Israel The Department for Jewish-Zionist Education

JUICE 2000 Jewish University in CyberspacE

Introduction
The advent of modernity, which occurred in Western Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries radically affected every aspect of European life. The arrival of modern ideas in the city of Jerusalem during this period left as lasting an impression on the history of the city. Jerusalem experienced modernity by bursting the boundaries which had always constrained the city - the walls. The expansion of Jerusalem beyond the walls of the city changed the face of the city in an unprecedented fashion. This phenomenon is surely the symbol of the cultural revolution effected by modernity.

The process of modernisation and westernisation which the city experienced may be considered a cultural change no less significant or traumatic than the transitions which we have discussed on previous occasions. We have already considered the impact of Hellenism on Jewish Jerusalem. We have traced the city's transitions from Judaism to Hellenism; from Jewish monarchy to Roman Paganism; from Paganism to Christianity, and from Christianity to Islam. It is interesting to note that all of these were brought on by acts of repeated conquest. By way of contrast, the transition to modernity occurred peacefully and without military conquest. It perhaps preempted the conquest of Jerusalem by the West and its return to "Christian" hands in 1917. But in itself this was a non-violent process.

1. Modernity and the West
Modernity is a new way of thinking characteristic of recent years. It stems from a developing form of scientific deduction which stores a great deal of credit for human understanding and rational thought. It is reflected in our attitudes to Government, religion, science, technology and new ideas in general. We moderns look favourably on originality, ingenuity and human achievement as a whole. The word "new" tends to have positive connotations for us. This is a modern response. The medieval man relied upon old ideas and respected the authority of time to such an extent that he would disguise his own originality with fabricated claims on antiquity. The medieval world worked within axiomatic barriers of faith which could neither be crossed nor challenged. It was bound by tradition, an esteem for the past and an insistence on the status quo. These barriers were burst open, like the walls of the city, by the ideas of the modern era. Every idea or concept was open to challenge and critical analysis. Restrictions were removed and new avenues of thought were explored. Age old traditions and taboos were broken in the name of progress.

Modernisation came to Jerusalem through two significant avenues:

1. The impact of western countries whose interests in Jerusalem were developed during the 19th century.
2. Western European Jews: Modern culture deeply affected Jewish life in Western Europe. The cultural change in 18th century Europe heralded by the "Enlightenment", and the legal implications of this new culture for the Jews which we refer to as the "Emancipation", caught the Jews unawares. The traditional infrastructure of Jewish communal life in Europe and the lines upon which Jewish/Christian coexistence had run for a thousand years were suddenly broken. The role of religion in society changed and with this, every aspect of Jewish life was affected. Jews were faced for the first time with the "Jewish Question":- How do we go about expressing our Jewishness in the Modern World? The question had never existed before because the vast number of alternatives which enlightenment offered the modern Jew were not there before. The position of the Jew in Western European society was radically different, the walls of the ghetto were broken down, the European Jew became a member of European society.

2. Moses Montefiore - The Emancipated Philanthropist
As a result of this cultural revolution a deep gulf divided between the Jews of Western Europe and the Jews of the Ottoman Empire. The latter remained a traditional society in a traditional environment. Their 'failure' to achieve emancipation and enlightenment, to embrace progress and prosper, rendered them pitiful and helpless in the eyes of Western European Jewry. From the "Olympus" of assimilation, scholarly ignorance and identity crisis, Western European Jews looked down condescendingly on the strife of the Jews of Eastern Europe and the Ottoman empire and sought their "improvement". Western European Jews believed that they had earned their emancipation through their own merit and were convinced unequivocally that emancipation was universally considered a good thing. The ethos that enlightenment and productivity would surely lead to emancipation was to be tested on the Jews of the East. If they wanted to improve their living conditions and earn the good opinions of the gentiles amongst whom they live they must set themselves earnestly on a path of self-improvement.

One such well intending Western European philanthropist was Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885). The well known, Italian born, British resident millionaire was a frequent visitor to the Land of Israel. He had made a fortune marrying into the Rothschild family and investing their money shrewdly in the London stock exchange. He was the President of the British Board of Jewish Deputies and had earned his way into the British aristocracy. He was of Sephardi origin and, as was common even amongst the most enlightened Sephardi Jews of his time, he was a traditional and practicing religious Jew.

From around 1825 and up until the end of his long life, Montefiore devoted his energies to philanthropic activity. He sought to alleviate the sufferings of his impoverished brethren around the world. He believed in his power to intervene on their behalf with heads of state and used his wealth and influence to earn them an opportunity for self improvement. With his own shining example he could encourage and inspire Jews throughout the world to bring about their own emancipation. He put his resources at their disposal, generously investing in projects which he deemed worthy of his support. He resolved to spread the enlightened values of productivity and self sufficiency in the conviction that these would breed dignity, self esteem and ultimately respect and prosperity. Montefiore hoped to help Jews all around the world by offering them the Western European example and providing them with the conditions necessary to emulate it.

3. The First Jewish Neigbourhood Outside the Walls
Modernity; as we said above, broke down the barriers of convention. This happened most dramatically in Jerusalem with the founding of the residential neighbourhood, "Mishkenot Shaananim" in 1860. This was the first settlement built outside the walls of the holy city which had been protected and defined by its walls since the time of King David. It was soon followed by other areas such as Nahalat Shiva and Mea Shearim. This was an age when barriers which had perhaps previously restricted growth and progress, were simply removed. Jerusalem flooded its banks and overflowed onto the surrounding hilltops. The city exploded in new life as settlements were built one after the other, outside the walls. Today the modern city of Jerusalem is a metropolis: a jungle of traffic Jams; theaters; cinemas; schools; shopping malls; synagogues and restaurants with a little quiet pedestrian neighbourhood in its heart full of tourists called "The Old City". As recently as 130 years ago, the "Old City" was THE city. Everything outside the walls was at best a neighbouring or satellite village. This remarkable progress and growth was set of inadvertently by Montefiore who "fumbled" his way into Jerusalem's history trying to help the Jews of the Old Yishuv find their way to political emancipation.

When Montefiore founded Mishkenot Sha'ananim outside the walls of the city, the Jewish residents of Jerusalem were dismayed by the prospect of moving there. Who was going to be the first idiot to spend the night alone on a barren hilltop unprotected by the city's walls? The neighbourhood, which consisted of three stone buildings and a windmill, all constructed using the best British wrought iron imported from Ramsgate, was an odd sight. When Montefiore arrived in Jerusalem, the Jews of the city came to greet him and wondered at his glamourous carriage bearing the heraldic coat of arms of the Montefiore house. He was also an odd sight. They looked on in awe at this remarkable Jew. Some thought that he was the Messiah, who had come from afar to rescue them and rebuild the Temple. To all he was as strange and foreign to them as the Sultan or the Queen of England. How could someone who looked like this possibly be a Jew? One of us?

Montefiore was totally misunderstood by the Jews of Jerusalem and he totally misunderstood them back. He sought their betterment. He thought that Mishkenot Sha'ananim was the first step towards emancipation and long term lasting prosperity. They wanted food, clothes, medical care and better living conditions. A windmill and some barren houses on a hill which offered future promises of self sufficiency were as useful to them as a checkbook might have been to Robinson Crusoe on his desert island. It is hardly surprising that noone agreed to move to Mishkenot Sha'ananim. The first residents were bribed and even then were reluctant to stay there overnight.

3. Moving Out of the Walls
During the 1870's, despite the initial failure of Mishkenot, overcrowding and disease encouraged more and more Jews to leave the confines of the walled city. Montefiore had started a phenomenon which ultimately yet not directly, lead to more and more settlements built beyond the walls. The population grew and the new neighbourhoods provided shelter for new immigrants who came in from the West and from Eastern Europe. Gradually, the Turks released land in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, allowing British, German, Russian and American investors to open enterprises in Palestine. Railways were built and post offices were opened. Societies within the city walls organised the purchase of Turkish land by Jews with foreign passports. As Western powers gained more and more influence in the city, Jews found more and more ways to buy land and build houses, synagogues, streets and shops. Jerusalem flourished with activity and growth. In 1890 a plague of dysentery in the city pushed more and more Jews out of the walls into houses with better sanitation where living conditions were less dense. Yemin Moshe, a neighbourhood named after Montefiore (Moshe is Moses) was tagged onto Mishkenot in that year and became a symbol of the ultimate success of the great philanthropist's project.

4. Allenby and the Conquest of Jerusalem
Jerusalem has age old symbols associated with it which are an inescapable feature of the life in the city. When Montefiore came here to build his neighbourhood beyond the walls, he was greeted as the Messiah. The new ideas which he brought with him, even though they were misunderstood and ill suited to the Middle East, inspired hope and optimism. Hope, change and optimism can hardly be separated, in Jerusalem's recent history, from Messianic fervour. When Allenby conquered the city from the Turks in 1917 the fervour surged again. He was greeted by the Jews of Jerusalem as a saviour. The powers of the enlightened and Jew loving West had come with declarations of good intention in hand to redeem the Jews of Jerusalem from the clutches of Arabia.

What is really interesting however about Allenby is not the way he was perceived by others but the way he played the role himself. The story/legend goes, that General Allenby on the night before bringing the Turkish defence forces in the city to their knees, was hungry in his camp outside the city. He summoned the company cook and ordered an omelette for his supper. The apologetic cook was unable to meet the General's demands having run out of eggs. He was sent, at the General's bidding, to make his way to the virtually defeated city and ask for eggs. On his way he was met by a band of Turkish soldiers who, on seeing a man dressed in British uniform, promptly surrendered the keys of the city. The poor man protested that he was simply a cook and would much rather have some eggs. The Turks insisted and dragged the cook to find a superior officer. On entering the British camp, the miserable and eggless cook directed the Turkish soldiers towards an officer. They immediately reenacted the surrender apparently only too anxious to bring four hundred years of Ottoman rule to an unceremonious end.

Allenby was thus the third British soldier to receive the Turkish surrender. It was never recorded for posterity if the illustrious General ever got his omelette. However, unlike his two predecessors, he received the keys of Jerusalem at the stairs of David's citadel in an elaborate ceremony. The walls built by the Turks were broken through around the Jaffa Gate. Allenby, flanked on all sides by dignitaries, rode up to the city's gates on a white horse. With Messianic humility he dismounted at the Jaffa Gate and entered the city on foot. He saw himself as the emissary of Christendom, reclaiming the holy city after 800 years of virtually uninterrupted Moslem rule. Allenby, quite deliberately acted as Messiah, believing that it was a privilege granted to him by God to capture the city in the name of the Crown. The free and emancipated world which he represented in its struggle against offensive imperialism, was swallowed up in Christian metaphor and Messianic symbolism when it came to Jerusalem. The First World War was no holy war, but the conquest of Jerusalem was a unique and other-worldly event. The meaning of this conquest transcended the political and military circumstances which allowed it to happen. The Jews of the city cheered and screamed. Some believed that God had sent Allenby to redeem the Jews. By now, some of them cheered and screamed because they now hoped that Allenby, and British Mandate in Palestine was a significant step towards establishing a national homeland for the Jews in the Land of Israel. Either way, they all screamed with joy and they all believed that Allenby was their Messiah.

The Jews of the Old Yishuv and the Jews of the New Yishuv, were perhaps unaware of the deep significance of their differences. As for now, in 1917 they each celebrated their redemption. They of course could not know of the disappointment and frustration which the future was storing for them all. The first British High Commissioner in Jerusalem was Herbert Samuel, a Jew. Samuel was the first Jew to rule in Jerusalem since the Second Temple period. He too was greeted as a Messiah. You can imagine how astonished the Jews of Jerusalem were when they honoured their "Messiah" in the Synagogue and discovered that he was unable to participate in the service; Samuel simply couldn't read Hebrew! Modernity reached Jerusalem. The symbols which had been associated with the stairway to Heaven since the time of Abraham did not disappear with modernity. But their immediate and practical meanings were going to change radically. Just how these should be interpreted in the modern world is a point of conflict in the city still today.