Jewish Quarter

Jewish Quarter

:"For the article on Jewish Quarters throughout the Jewish diaspora, see Jewish Quarter (diaspora)"

The Jewish Quarter ( _he. הרובע היהודי, "HaRova HaYehudi" or the "Rova") is one of the four traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem. The 45,000 square meter area lies in the southeastern sector of the walled city, and stretches from the Zion Gate in the south, along the Armenian Quarter on the west, up to the Cardo in the north and extends to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount in the east.

The quarter has had a rich history, with a nearly continual Jewish presence since the eighth century B.C.E. At the turn of the 20th century the Jewish population of the quarter reached 19,000.cite web
url= http://www.aiq.co.il/pages/articles/39/jerusalem.html
title= The Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem
last= Hattis Rolef
first= Susan
accessdate = 2007-12-26
date = 2000
publisher = "Architecture of Israel Quarterly"
] . At no time was its population purely and homogenously Jewish - such a rule being neither desired by the Jewish inhabitants nor enforced by the Ottoman or British rulers; in fact, there had always been a considerable non-Jewish population living among its Jews.

In 1948 during the Arab-Israeli War, its population of about 2,000 Jews was besieged, and forced to leave en masse. Colonel Abdullah el-Tal, one-time commandant of the Jordanian Arab Legion, in describing the destruction of the Jewish Quarter, wrote in the volume of his Memoirs (Cairo, 1959):

The quarter remained under Jordanian rule until what Israelis consider to be its liberation by Israeli paratroops during the Six-Day War of 1967. During the 1960s American town planners, together with the Jordanian authorities, had planned that the quarter be transformed into a park. [cite book
last = Shepherd
first = Naomi
authorlink =
title = Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem
year = 1988
month =
publisher = Harper & Row Publishers
location = New York City
id = ISBN 0060390840
pages = pg.20
chapter = The View from the Citadel
quote =
] During the nineteen year Arab administration, a third of the Jewish Quarter's buildings had been demolished by the Jordanians. [cite web
url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20000930/ai_n14325612
title= Bloodbath at the Dome of the Rock
last= Fisk
first= Robert
authorlink=Robert Fisk
accessdate = 2007-12-26
date = September 30, 2000
publisher = "The Independent"
] All but one of the thirty-five Jewish houses of worship that graced the Old City were wantonly destroyed. The synagogues were razed or pillaged and stripped and their interiors used as hen-houses or stables. [http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/db942872b9eae454852560f6005a76fb/a8138ad15b0fcac385256b920059debf!OpenDocument LETTER DATED 5 MARCH 1968 FROM THE PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ISRAEL TO THE UNITED NATIONS ADDRESSED TO THE SECRETARY-GENERAL] ] The Western Wall, the most sacred site in Judaism, was used as a garbage dump. Tombstones were used as paving stones.

In 1969 the Jewish Quarter Development Company was established under the auspices of the Construction and Housing Ministry to rebuild the desolate Jewish Quarter.cite web
url= http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380710501&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
title= Trouble in the Jewish Quarter
last= Zohar
first= Gil
accessdate = 2008-02-26
date = November 01, 2007
publisher = "Jerusalem Post"
] At this stage the Arab population of the Quarter reached approximately 1,000, most of whom were refugees who had appropriated the vacated Jewish houses in 1949. Although many had originally fled the Quarter in 1967, they later returned after Levi Eshkol ordered that the Arab residents not be forcefully evacuated from the area. With Menachem Begin's rise to power in 1977, he decided that 25 Arab families be allowed to remain in the Jewish Quarter as a gesture of good will, while the rest of the families who had not fled during the Six-Day War were offered compensation in return for their evacuation, although most declined. The quarter was rebuilt in keeping with the traditional standards of the dense urban fabric of the Old City. Residents of the quarter hold long-term leaseholds, leased from the Israel Lands Administration. As of 2004 the quarter's population stood at 2,348 [ [http://www.jiis.org.il/imageBank/File/shnaton_2004/shnaton_c1404.pdf shnaton C1404.xls ] ] and many large educational institutions have taken up residence.

Before being rebuilt, the quarter was carefully excavated under the supervision of Hebrew University archaeologist Nahman Avigad. The archaeological remains, on display in a series of museums and outdoor parks to visit which tourists descend two or three stories beneath the level of the current city, collectively form one of the world's most accessible archaeological sites.

The most famous site of the Jewish Quarter is The Western Wall, "ha-kotel ha-ma'aravi" in Hebrew, the only surviving portion of the retaining wall around the Temple of Jerusalem. It consists of huge ashlar blocks that have been in place for two millennia. It is a major site for pilgrimage for Jewish people from all over Israel and all over the world. It is also a major tourist attraction for people of all faiths. Visitors insert handwritten prayers into the interstices between the stones. Pious men continually read the entire book of Psalms in front of the wall. Bar Mitzvahs are joyfully celebrated here.

Next to the Wall a huge plaza, covering a substantial portion of the Jewish Quarter (as may be seen from the map), allows worshippers and visitors a good view of the Wall and access to it. This is a plaza of austere simplicity, without any artwork or monuments, but it may be said to be the heart of Israel.

References

The Jewish Quarter in Fiction

*"The Hope" by Herman Wouk
*"A Beggar in Jerusalem" by Elie Wiesel


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