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The Jewish Quarter


The Old City of Jerusalem is divided in four quarters: The Jewish Quarter is situated in the Southeast part of the Old City, and is the smallest of the four sectors. Its size is approximately nine hectares, or about 14% of the area of the whole Old City. The buildings of the current Jewish Quarter cover sites and relics from about 2,800 years of history, and sometimes a few stairs bring us to discoveries from the Second or even First Temple period.
Till 1860, when the first neighborhood outside Jerusalem's City Walls was completed, residents people lived in the Old City, or in more ancient times, in the City of David, south of the Temple Mount.

In 1967, after the Six Day War, when Jerusalem was re-united, before the restoration of the Jewish Quarter began and bulldozers of the renovating contractors moved in, a unique opportunity presented itself: archaeologists were able investigate open places and parts under foundations of the buildings to be renovated thoroughly.
These investigations and excavations were executed by N. Avigad.
The remnants of a large city wall from the time of Hezekiah, King of Judea (727 - 698 B.C.E. or 715-686, according to another opinion) was found and bore witness to the size of Jerusalem in the First Temple period, which had been a long-standing controversy till this uncovering.
The wall exposed here is about 65 meters long, 7.5 meters wide and 3 meters high, but it was probably originally 10 meters high. Remains of older buildings were found on both sides of the wall, confirming the biblical text: And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses ye have broken down to fortify the wall (Isaiah 22:10).
The wall was erected hastily to protect the area of the city that had expanded beyond the Solomonic city walls, from the Assyrian invasion. this attack began in 722 B.C.E. against Samaria by King Shalmaneser and continued in 701 against the towns of Judea by Sennacherib, according to report in the Old Testament: Now in the fourteenth year of King Hizqiyyahu did Sennacherib King of Assyre come up against all the fortified cities of Judea, and took them (Kings II 18:13)
Jerusalem was not conquered, and Hezekiah continued to rule, although he had to pay high taxes to Assyre which forced him to give him all the silver that was in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the King's house (ibid 15).

In 332 B.C.E., Alexander the Great swept through the city, and Hellenization was soon embraced by the upper class of the Jewish population.
In 198 B.C.E., a rebellion led by Judah Maccabeus broke out, and in 164 B.C.E. the Temple was resanctified. The Upper City, the name for the area of today's Jewish Quarter in time of the Second Temple, was again included in the City and a wall was constructed. The reason that no remnants were found from this period in the today's Jewish Quarter except the Hasmonean wall, was the rebuilding activities in Herod's time: deep foundations were required for the massive buildings, and posibly existing material, from former houses were used for those building works.
In 64 B.C.E., the Roman General Pompey seized control over Jerusalem and in 37 B.C.E. the Romans installed Herod to reign over what they called the Kingdom of Judea.
Under the Herodian dynasty 37 B.C.E-70 C.E., the Upper City reached the peak of its development: wealthy families belonging to the nobility of Jerusalem headed by the High Priests, built impressive homes, and some well preserved remnants can be seen in the Wohl Museum, erected over the archaeological excavations.
In the year 70 C.E., the Temple and the town were burned down by Titus, the population killed, cast, into slavery in Rome, or exiled. Some testimonies can be seen in the Herodian Mansions and in the remnants of the Burnt House in the Jewish Quarter.
A part of what is today the Jewish Quarter was occupied by the Roman Tenth Legion; only a few archaeological finds attest to the existence of this Roman camp, they include roof tiles, clay pipes and bricks generally bearing the Legion's initials Leg.X.F. (Legio X Fretensis). Possibly because the Roman soldiers lived in tents and in wooden constructions, no remains of permanent buildings from this era have been found in this part of the town.
In the year 130 C.E., Emperor Aelius erected a town he called Aelia Capitolina on the ruins of Jerusalem built a Temple on the Temple Mount which he designated as a place for sacrifices to the three Capitoline gods, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. This was the main motive for the Bar Kochba Revolt in the year 132 C.E., which was suppressed in the year 135 C.E. The Romans erected the pagan city of Aelia Capitolina built in the pattern of a Roman city.
The Cardo in the Jewish Quarter is a Byzantine addition to the more northern Cardo, from which only a few remnants have been found near the Damascus Gate. This addition was built by Justinian (527 - 565 C.E.), who also built the Néa Church, from which next to nothing remains. It was situated in what is today the Jewish Quarter, and was (and remains) the largest basilica built in the Land of Israel. The basilica was probably damaged, either during the Persian invasion of 614 C.E., or after the Arab conquest in 638 C.E. and finally destroyed in the ninth century.
Under tolerant Moslem rule, Jews were allowed to return to the City and houses and synagogues were built, but in the 10th century Jerusalem fell into the hands of the despotic Egyptian Fatimid Calif el-Hakim (996-1020 C.E.), who destroyed all synagogues and churches and instituted on their policy of persecuting non-Moslims.
In 1033 an earthquake destroyed all Jerusalem's fortifications; the following year, the Fatimide Caliph Tahir Ali began repairing the city walls leaving the Jewish Quarter outside the city limits. The Jewish Quarter was at that time situated south of the Temple Mount, so the Jews were forced to move to the northeast sector, which the Crusaders later named the "Jewish Quarter".
The closing of pilgrimage routes enraged Christians leading to Crusades in 1099 C.E., the Crusaders mercilessly slaughtered both Jerusalem's Jewish and Moslem population. The Crusaders Kingdom lasted almost 90 years. In 1187 C.E., Salah al-Din expelled the Crusaders, and both Muslims and Jews returned to the City. In the Mameluke Period (1250 - 1517 C.E.), the Jewish community became a significant factor in the City, whith its own internal leadership and institutions. In 1267 C.E., the noted Spanish Jewish scholar and biblical commentator, Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (1194 - 1270) immigrated to the land of Israel after winning his debate on religion with the royality of Spain and being forced to leave the country. He settled in Jerusalem and founded a synagogue on Mount Zion, which was moved in the 14th century its present site in the Jewish Quarter, occupying the ruins of a Crusader church. in 1474 the building collapsed, but was rebuilt in 1523 as the only synagogue in Jerusalem - an Otomans edict banned its use as a Jewish place of worship. After the reunification of the city of Jerusalem, the synagogue was reconstructed and returned to use after almost four centuries of neglect and other uses.
A large number of Jewish immigrants arrived in the fourteenth century and the community's residences included now the present Jewish Quarter.
In the eighteenth century, there was again a considerable increase in the number of Jews in Jerusalem, especially after the immigration of Yehuda Hahasid in 1700, together with his followers. After his death, his followers became a burden on the Jewish community in Jerusalem.
The nineteenth century, from the 1830s to the British conquest in 1917, was a turning point for the Jewish community in Jerusalem, which grew twentyfold in size.
These changes began with the conquest of Palestine by the Egyptians in 1831. They annulled the edicts of discrimination against the non-Moslems from the Ottoman Period (1517 - 1917). Jews were permitted to build and renovate prayer houses; thus; during the years 1835 to 1836, the four Sephardic synagogues and others were renovated; Jews were allowed to pray at the western wall without obtaining prior permission. This process of change also continued also when the Turks returned in 1840. Many churches were built or restored. The Jews concentrated their building activities mainly in the Jewish Quarter, where they erected a number of synagogues: Beit Ya'akov (1864), Doresh Zion (1857), Menahem Zion (1837), Nisan Bak (1872). Educational institutions were founded; the Leamel School (1856), the Evelina de Rothschild School for Girls (1857). Medical services were established; the English Hospital for Jews; the clinic of Dr. Frankel, sent to Jerusalem by Montefiore; in 1845, the Rothschild Hospital was opened and 1857 the Bikkur Holim hospital was founded, later the original Misgav Ladach hospital serving the needs of the inhabitants of the Jewish Quarter.
During the British Mandate Period, after the Balfour Declaration on 2nd of November 1917, a new stream of new Jewish immigrants caused hostility of the Arabs toward the Jews. The first outburst was in April 1920, leading to the riots and the late intervention of the British authority; as result, the Jewish community set up a defense organization. When the force defending the Jewish Quarter was attacked on 2nd of November 1921, the attackers were repulsed with a hand grenade thrown by the Haganah unit. Other riots took place in 1929, and the Jewish residents of the old City left in large numbers; the inhabitants of the Jewish Quarter declined from 15,000 in the beginning of the British Mandate, to 1,800 when the Britsh left Palestine in 1947.
During the War of Independence, the Jewish quarter was defended by a unit of the Haganah. On the 15th of May 1948, the Sixth regiment of the Jordanian Legion joined three companies of irregulars in the attack on the Jewish Quarter. The defenders succeeded in holding out for two weeks, then had no choice, but to surrender on 28th of May 1948. Two hundred and ninety people prisoners were taken; the rest of the Jewish residents of the Jewish Quarter were transferred to the new city.
During the Jordanian occupation of the Jewish Quarter from 1948 until the Six Day War in 1967, all the houses in the Jewish Quarter were pillaged, and many synagogues were systematically destroyed.
After the reunification of the City, the Quarter was restored, and Jews could again live there. Houses which could be preserved were restored and new buildings were erected, replacing the ruins.
Today, the Jewish Quarter is an upper-middle-class neighborhood, with an almost exclusively Orthodox Jewish population largely from America.

Composed by; Pinhas Baraq
Based on:Pictures by: Pinhas Baraq

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