Hurva Synagogue

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The dome of the Hurva dominated the Old City skyline.

The Hurva Synagogue, located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, was the main synagogue in Jerusalem from the 16th to the 20th century.

1 Origins
2 Excavations at the Synagogue
3 Rebuilding Plans
4 Gallery
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Origins

In the year 1700, a mass immigration of Rabbi Judah he-Hasid (Segal) and his 300 students (some sources claim over a 1,000 ^[1]) arrived in Jerusalem from Poland. They bought the courtyard next to the Ramban Synagogue, which had been closed by the Ottomans in 1589 due to Muslim incitement. On this site they began building a synagogue to accommodate the increased Jewish population of the city.

Due to the sudden death of their rabbi and the subsequent decline of the community, the immigrants were unable to finish construction. In 1721, the unfinished structure was burned together with the 40 Sifrei Torah it contained by an Arab mob. From this time on, the site was called Hurvat Rav Yehudah HaHasid ("the ruin of Rabbi Judah the Pious"). The name was commonly abridged to "the Hurva" or "the ruin."

The site remained desolate for about 140 years, until a new synagogue was built by the disciples of the Vilna Gaon. This group of ascetic Jews, known as Perushim, had immigrated to Palestine from Lithuania between 1809 and 1812 and settled in Safed. Several outbreaks of disease and the Great Earthquake of 1837 drove many to Jerusalem, where they formed the bulk of the Ashkenazic community.

The new synagogue took nine years to build, and was completed in 1864. The synagogue contained 42-foot-high window arches and a domed ceiling that rose 82 feet above the ground. It was the tallest structure in the Old City and was visible for miles. Although officially named "Beit Yaakov" after James (Yaakov) Rothschild, the synagogue was still universally known as the Hurva.

The Hurva, c.1935

For the next 84 years, the building was widely considered the most beautiful and most important synagogue in Palestine. It also housed the Etz Haim Yeshiva, the largest yeshiva in Jerusalem. It was the centre of Jewish spiritual life in the city and was the site of the installation of the chief rabbis of both Palestine and Jerusalem.

The Hurva synagogue was the last outpost of Jewish resistance in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Israel War of Independence. When it was captured by the Arab Legion of Jordan during the battle for Old Jerusalem in 1948, its captors dynamited it to show that they controlled the Jewish Quarter. The Jordanian commander on the scene is reported to have told his superiors: "For the first time in 1,000 years, there's not a single Jew left in the Jewish Quarter, and not a single building that hasn't been damaged. This will make the return of Jews here impossible."

[edit] Excavations at the Synagogue

During July and August 2003, an excavation took place inside the Hurva. It was carried out by the Institute for Archaeology at the Hebrew University and the Israel Exploration Society. The excavation was funded by the Jewish Quarter Development Company of Jerusalem.

Before the excavation, the Israel Antiquities Authority supervised the removal of the stone flooring which had been laid after the 1967 Six Day War. Earth was removed to a depth of two metres over an area of 300m2. The dig revealed evidence from four main settlement periods: First Temple (800-600BC), Second Temple (100AD), Byzantine and Ottoman.

[edit] Rebuilding Plans

After the reunification of Jerusalem by Israel in 1967, plans were made to rebuild the synagogue as part of the general renewal of the Jewish Quarter. Plans were commissioned from architect Louis Kahn, a world-renowned architect who was also a founding member of the Jerusalem Committee. Unfortunately, Kahn died before the project could be realized.

Disputes arose over the modern façade of the proposed new building, which some felt did not properly match the Jewish Quarter’s aesthetic. An Englishman, Sir Charles Clore, took the initiative and agreed to fund the project, provided it could be completed in a specified number of years (his wish was to see the project completed before his death). Sir Denys Lasdun drew up plans that were also modern but more closely adhered to the original; however, bowing to the objection of Prime Minister Begin, the Minister of Interior at the time refused to sign the papers so that construction could begin.

Time ran out and the Hurva was not rebuilt. However, Sir Clore’s daughter provided the necessary funds to create one of the few open spaces in the Jewish Quarter. Because no permanent solution could be found, a temporary, symbolic solution was agreed upon whereby one of the four arches that originally supported the synagogue’s monumental dome was recreated. The height of the original building, including the dome, had been twice as high as the symbolic arch.

In 2005, the Israeli government announced its plan to rebuild the Hurva Synagogue exactly as it had appeared before the Jordanian destruction, assigning the project a budget of 28 million shekels ($6.2 million). Work has started on the site and is expected to take four years.

[edit] Gallery

Postcard of the Hurva c.1920	The Hurva as it stood before 1948	The Hurva rose 82 feet above the ground	Former interior, c.1940
Former bimah, c.1940	Former interior, c.1940	Remains of the Hurva Synagogue	Sign indicating work being done in the site

[edit] References

^ Judah HeChassid, Shabbatean and Jerusalem Emigre. Retrieved on 2006-11-28. “Judah HeChassid spent a year traveling through Germany and Moravia gaining followers. By the time the whole group gathered in Italy, they numbered almost 1,500. They took two different routes: one through Venice and one through Constantinople. It was a terrible experience, and almost 500 people died on the trip. They arrived in Jerusalem on October 14, 1700 creating a variety of major crises. At that time only about 200 Ashkenazic Jews lived in Jerusalem. (There were about 1,000 Sephardic Jews.) The sudden influx of 1,000 Ashkenazic Jews created an economic crisis, because the Jerusalem community had no infrastructure or facilities to help such a large group.”