Ein Kerem
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Ein Kerem (Arabic: عين كارم; Hebrew: עין כרם) (literally, "Spring of the Vineyard"; commonly known as Ein Karem) is a picturesque neighborhood nestled in the hills of southwest Jerusalem. According to Christian tradition, this is the site where John the Baptist was born, hence Ein Kerem's attraction to Christian pilgrims and the proliferation of churches and monasteries.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early history
A spring that provides water to the village of Ein Kerem stimulated settlement there from an early time. Pottery has been found nearby dating to the Middle Bronze Age [1].Archaeological evidence exists of settlement at the site's spring as early as the second century BCE. It was mentioned during the Islamic conquest and again, under the name St. Jeehan de Bois, during the Crusades. Ottoman tax registers from 1596 showed a population of 160.
During excavations in Ein Karem, a marble statue of Aphrodite (or Venus) was found, broken in two. It is believed to date from the Roman era and was probably toppled in Byzantine times. Today, the statue is at the Rockefeller Museum.[2]
[edit] Christian traditions
According to the Bible, Mary went "into the hill country, to a city of Judah" [3] when she visited the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Theodosius (530) says that the distance from Jerusalem to the place where Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, lived is five miles. The Jerusalem Calendar (dated before 638) mentions the village by name as the place of a festival in memory of Elizabeth celebrated on the twenty-eighth of August.[citation needed]
[edit] Modern history
The population of Ein Karem in 1931 was 2,637 and in 1944/45 it was 3,180, in each case including the smaller localities of Ayn al-Rawwas and Ayn al-Khandaq.[4]
The 1947 UN Partition Plan placed Ein Karem in the Jerusalem enclave intended for international control.[5] Immediately after the April 1948 massacre at the nearby village of Deir Yassin (2 km to the north), most of the women and children in the village were evacuated. It was attacked by Israeli forces during the 10-day truce of July 1948. The remaining civilian inhabitants fled on July 10-11. The Arab irregular forces which had camped in the village left on July 14-16 after Jewish forces captured two dominating hilltops, Khirbet Beit Mazmil and Khirbet al Hamama, and shelled the village. During its last days, Ein Karim suffered from severe food shortages. [6]
US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas provides an eye witness account of the exodus from Ein Karem based on his visit there at the time:
Ein Karem, an Arab village for hundreds of years, was the birthplace of John the Baptist. In the recent war it was never attacked by the Israeli army. It was indeed not on the path to Jerusalem. It had no apparent military value. Yet it was evacuated by the Arabs. Every man, woman, and child left, all except eight old women. The refugees put a few personal belongings and what food they had in their cupboards on the backs of donkeys. They walked out of their ancestral homes in Ein Karem, shut the doors, and turned to the east. They did this, though no shot was fired, though their village was neither encircled nor threatened. Some went through Jerusalem to Jericho down the corkscrew road on the east that drops off Judea. Most went around the Eternal City, seeking a path down the precipitous Judea Mountains, fording the Jordan, and climbing the hot and blistering ridge of Moab.[7]
Israel later incorporated the village into the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem.[6]
Ein Kerem was one of the few depopulated Arab localities which survived the war with most of the buildings intact. Jewish refugees mainly from Yemen moved into the abandoned homes, though over the years the "country" atmosphere attracted a population of artisans and craftsmen.
In 1961, Hadassah founded its medical center on a nearby hilltop, including the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology.
[edit] Church of St. John the Baptist
There are two churches by this name in Ein Kerem. One is a Catholic church built in the second half of the 19th century on the remnants of earlier Byzantine and Crusader churches. Inside are the remains of an ancient mosaic floor and a cave where, according to Christian tradition, John the Baptist was born.
The church is mentioned in the Book of the Demonstration, attributed to Eutychius of Alexandria (940): "The church of Bayt Zakariya in the district of Aelia bears witness to the visit of Mary to her kinswoman Elizabeth."
The church has been in the hands of the Franciscans since 1674. In 1941-1942 they conducted excavations in the area immediately west of the church and the adjoining monastery. Several rock-cut chambers and graves were found, as well as wine presses with mosaic floors and small chapels with mosaic tiling. The southern rock-cut chamber contained pottery of a type found elsewhere in Jerusalem, probably from the first century CE. [8]
The other is an Eastern Orthodox church built in 1894, also on the remnants of an ancient church.
[edit] Church of the Visitation
Another ancient church at Ein Kerem is located across the village to the southwest from St. John's. The ancient sanctuary there was built against a rock declivity. It is venerated as the pietra del nascondimento, the "stone in which John was concealed," in reference to the Protevangelium of James. The site is also attributed to John the Baptist's parental summer house, where Mary visited them.
The modern church was built in 1955, also on top of ancient church remnants. It was designed by Antonio Barluzzi, an Italian architect, who designed many other churches in the Holy Land during the 20th century.
[edit] Les Soeurs de Notre-Dame de Sion
The monastery of Les Soeurs de Notre-Dame de Sion (Sisters of Our Lady of Zion) was founded by two brothers from France, Theodore and Marie Alphonse Ratisbonne, who were born Jewish and converted to Christianity. They established an orphanage here. Alphonse himself lived in the monastery and is buried in its garden.
[edit] "Moscovia" Monastery
Built by the Russian Orthodox Church at the end of the 19th century, this church (originally "Gorny Monastery") was nicknamed "Moskovia" (Arabic for Moscow) by the local Arab villagers, because of its tented roof similarity to other Russian churches. The monastery has two churches enclosed within a compound wall.
[edit] St. Vincent
St. Vincent-Ein Kerem is a home for physically or mentally handicapped children. Founded in 1954, St. Vincent-Ein Kerem is a non-profit enterprise under leadership of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.[9]
[edit] Mary's Spring
The village fresh-water spring is the traditional location where Mary and Elizabeth met. The spring waters are considered holy by the Christian pilgrims who visit the site and fill bottles with its waters. The spring water is now contaminated by the run off water from the near by Hadassah hospital
[edit] References
- ^ G. Ernest Wright, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 71 [Oct. 1938], pp. 28f
- ^ Ein Kerem. My Holy Land. Retrieved on 2007-11-08.
- ^ Luke 1:39
- ^ W. Khalidi, All that Remains (1992) p269-270.
- ^ UN map of Jerusalem Corpus Separatum
- ^ a b B. Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (2004) p436, quoting: Entries for 10 and 11 July 1948, General Staff∖Operations Logbook, IDFA∖922∖75∖∖1176; and Mordechai Abir, ´The local Arab Factor in the War of Independence (Jerusalem Area)`18-19, IDFA 1046∖70∖185∖∖; and Yeruham, `Arab Information (from 14.7.48)´, 15 July 1948 HA 105∖127aleph.
- ^ Strange Lands and Friendly People, William O. Douglas, Harper & Brothers (New York), pp. 265-6.
- ^ Abel, Geographie II, pp. 295f
- ^ Sisters of mercy - Haaretz - Israel News
[edit] See also
- Map showing Ayn Karim in relation to Jerusalem during the 1870s
- List of villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
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