Ateret Cohanim

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Ateret Cohanim, (lit. Crown of the Priests), also known as Ateret Yerushalyim, is a Religious Zionist yeshiva located in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem . Founded in 1978, it uses the building of the historic Torath Chaim Yeshiva.

1 History
- 1.1 Torath Chaim Yeshiva
- 1.2 Ateret Cohanim
2 External links
3 Further Reading

[edit] History

Early 20th century photograph of the Torath Chaim Yeshiva

[edit] Torath Chaim Yeshiva

In 1886 Rabbi Yitzchak Winongrad established the prestigious Torath Chaim Yeshiva on ha-Gai Street, facing the Temple Mount. At its peak, about 300 students from all over the world, including the late Rabbis Tzvi Pesach Frank, Tzvi Yehuda Kook, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog and Aryeh Levin studied there. The ground floor of the building served as a shop selling vegetables which provided funds for the yeshivas maintenance. In the wake of the 1936 Arab riots, the yeshiva relocated to the new city, leaving the building and its contents entrusted to an Arab watchman who faithfully preserved it until the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967. This yeshiva was the only one out of approximately 80 synagogues and study halls which wasn't destroyed during the Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem. In 1967, the caretaker handed the keys to Chaim Herzog (in his function as the military governor of the West Bank), telling him that "the holy place watched over me more than I watched over it" during those years.

[edit] Ateret Cohanim

On the first night of Hanukkah, 1978, eight young Orthodox Jews established a new yeshiva on the same premises.

Currently headed by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, it caters for 150 students from all over Israel, all of whom serve in the army.

The yeshiva was involved in buying property from Arabs in the Old City and its environs. Since around the year 2000, such activities are done by a separate organization carrying the same name. Currently, Ateret Cohanim reportedly owns more than 70 buildings in the Muslim Quarter, worth an estimated $10 million. The property includes their yeshiva, the building that houses Yeshiva Shuvu Banim, several dormitories, a museum, and about 50 apartment units. Some of the property once belonged to Jews who lived in the Muslim Quarter before they were driven out by pogroms in 1929 and 1936. Ateret Cohanim officials estimate that the cost to purchase the rest of the buildings in the Muslim Quarter is $100 million, with another $100 million for renovations.