The Jewish Quarter (; ) is one of the four traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem. The area lies in the southwestern sector of the walled city, and stretches from the Zion Gate in the south, along the Armenian Quarter on the west, up to the Street of the Chain in the north and extends to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount in the east. In the early 20th century the Jewish population of the quarter reached 19,000.
During the 1948 war, the Jewish Quarter fought the Arab Legion as part of the battle for Jerusalem, and the Hurva synagogue was blown up by Arab legionnaires. In May 1948, the Jewish Quarter surrendered; some Jews were taken captive, and the rest were evacuated. A crowd then systematically pillaged and razed the quarter.
After Israel captured East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War, the quarter was earmarked for rehabilitation as a tourist destination and a residential neighborhood, and in the years that followed, a large-scale reconstruction and conservation project was undertaken. This project included archeological excavations, which uncovered many remains from the First and Second Temple periods, including the Israelite Tower, the Broad Wall, the Burnt House and the Herodian Quarter, along with remains from later periods, such as the Byzantine Cardo and the Nea Church.Geva, H. (2006). The Settlement on the Southwestern Hill of Jerusalem at the End of the Iron Age: A Reconstruction Based on the Archaeological Evidence. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (1953-), (H. 2), 140-150.Avigad, N. (1970). Excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, 1970 (Second Preliminary Report). Israel Exploration Journal, 129-140.Raphael, K. (2015). Jerusalem, The Jewish Quarter. Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel/חדשות ארכיאולוגיות: חפירות וסקרים בישראל.
As of 2013, the quarter is inhabited by around 3,000 residents and 1,500 students, and is home to numerous yeshivas and synagogues, most notably the Hurva Synagogue, destroyed numerous times and rededicated in 2010. The quarter is also the site of two historical mosques – the Sidna Omar Mosque and the Al Dissi Mosque – both of which have been closed since the Six-Day War.
Boundaries In late medieval times, the southwest part of what is today known as the Jewish Quarter was known as Haret el-Yahud (where Yahud is Arabic for Jews). The convention of the modern boundaries of the Jewish Quarter may have originated in its current form in the 1841 British Royal Engineers map of Jerusalem, or at least Reverend George Williams' subsequent labelling of it. The city had previously been divided into many more harat (: "quarters", "neighborhoods", "districts" or "areas", see wikt:حارة). From the mid-19th century onwards, the population of Jews in Jerusalem grew considerably, into the eastern part of the Armenian Quarter and the southern part of the Moslem Quarter; as Adar Arnon writes: "neither the traditional term 'Haret el-Yahud' nor its modern counterpart 'Jewish Quarter' could cope with the expansion of the area inhabited by Jews in the south of the Old City in the late nineteenth century".
The table below shows the evolution of the Jewish Quarter and the overlapping Armenian Quarter, from 1495 up until the modern system:
Local divisionsWestern divisions Date 1495 1500s 1800s 1900 1840s onwards Source Mujir al-Din Ottoman Census Traditional system Ottoman Census Modern maps Quarters Bani Harith Bani Harith Jawa'na Sharaf Armenian Quarter West Dawiyya North Arman ("Armenian")Sihyun Arman SouthYahud ("Jewish") Yahud East Risha Silsila Jewish Quarter South Maslakh Saltin Khawaldi Sharaf Sharaf (Alam) 'Alam North Magharba ("Moroccan / Maghrebi") Magharba Magharba East
History Second Temple period Jerusalem stood on two heights during the late Second Temple period, the western hill being the one which was called the "Upper Market," or simply the "Upper City" by Josephus ().Josephus, Jewish War, Book V, 4:1, William Whiston edition (London, 1737) via penelope.uchicago.edu, accessed 9 September 2020.For the use of this term in the Mishnah, see Mishnah Shekalim 8:1 (Herbert Danby's edition, p. 161 (note 3)., s.v. The Jewish Quarter The Phasael tower (now called the Tower of David) was also situated in the Upper City, a place used as a stronghold for Simon Bar Giora during the First Jewish–Roman War.Josephus, The Jewish War 5.4.3 (5.156); 7.2.1, the latter of which denotes the following: "This Simon, during the siege of Jerusalem, was in the Upper City, but when the Roman army were gotten within the walls, and were laying the city waste, he then took the most faithful of his friends with him...and then let himself and them all down into a certain subterraneous cavern that was not visible above ground."
Late Roman period
In CE 135, when the Roman Emperor Hadrian built the city of Aelia Capitolina on the ruins of ancient Jerusalem, the Tenth Legion set up their camp on the land that is now the Jewish Quarter.The Christian Heritage in the Holy Land edited by Anthony O'Mahony with Goran Gunner and Hintlian. . Pages 15 and 18. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, "Pre-Constantinian Christian Jerusalem". At this time Hadrian expelled all Jews from the territory. New structures, such as a Roman bathhouse, were built over the Jewish ruins."The Mughrabi Gate Access - the Real Story", Israel Antiquities Authority
Ottoman period
The Jewish quarter was initially located near the Gate of the Moors and Coponius Gate, in the southwestern part of the Western Wall. Most of the housing property consisted of Muslim religious endowments, and was rented out to Jews.
The population of the quarter was not homogeneously Jewish, such a rule being neither desired by the Jewish inhabitants nor enforced by the Ottoman rulers. During the Ottoman era, most of the homes in the quarter were leased from Muslim property owners. This is one of the reasons for the growth of buildings west of the city in the last years of the Ottoman Empire since land outside the city wall was freehold (mulk) and easier to acquire. Quoting Muhammad Adib al-Amiri, "Al Quds al-'Arabiyya", Amman, 1971, page 12 (85% of Jewish Quarter was waqf owned), and 'Arif al-'Arif, "Al-Nakba", vol 2, Sidon and Beirut, page 490 (90%).
While most residents of Jerusalem in the 19th century preferred to live near members of their own community, there were Muslims living in the Jewish Quarter and Jews living in the Muslim Quarter. Many Jews moved to the Muslim Quarter toward the end of the century due to intense overcrowding in the Jewish Quarter.
In 1857, an organization of Dutch and German Jews named Kollel Hod (kolel standing for "society" or "community" and Hod being an abbreviation of Holland and Deutschland) bought a plot of land on which, between 1860 and 1890, the Batei Mahse ("Shelter for the Needy" in Hebrew) housing complex was built. The most prominent building of the project, the two-storey Rothschild House, built in 1871 with money donated by Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild, stands on the west side of the Batei Mahse Square."Batei Mahseh Square"
Rashid Khalidi claimed that the quarter "originally" covered "four or five acres" (c. 16,200–20,250 m2), of which prior to 1948 the Jewish-owned property amounted to less than 20%.
British Mandate period
Between December 1917 and May 1948, the entire city of Jerusalem was part of British-administered Palestine, known after 1920 as Mandatory Palestine.
1947–48 hostilities
Background Between 1910 and 1948, the number of Jews in Jerusalem rose from 45 to 100 thousand and within these totals the Old City's Jewish population fell from 16 to 2 thousand over the same period. According to Benny Morris, quoting a British diplomat, the nearly all-Orthodox community were "on good terms with their Arab neighbours", resented the Haganah presence, and "were loath to see their homes sacrificed to Zionist heroics". Before 1948, the quarter extended over 4 or 5 acres, and according to Rashid Khalidi, Jewish-owned property amounted to less than 20% of that.
December 1947 events Following a battle on the 11 December 1947, the day after Jewish forces in the quarter had been reinforced by Irgun and Haganah units, the British set troops to positions between the Arabs and Jews and after this, the Old City remained largely quiet until the British evacuation.
After Irgun bomb attacks outside the Damascus Gate on 13 and 29 December 1947, resulting in the death of 18 Arabs and 86 injured including women and children, the Arabs set roadblocks outside the Old City cutting off the Jewish Quarter. The British approved this while ensuring supplies of food and the safety of the residents.
May 1948 cease-fire agreement On April 28, 1948 Francis Sayre, the President of the United Nations Trusteeship Council announced that both Moshe Shertok of the Jewish Agency and Jamal al-Husayni of the Higher Arab Committee had agreed to recommend to their respective communities in Palestine: (a) the immediate cessation of all military operations and acts of violence within the Old City; (b) the issue of cease-fire orders to this effect at the earliest possible moment; and (c) that the keeping of the truce should be observed by an impartial commission reporting to the Trusteeship Council. At the May 3 Trusteeship Council meeting, Sayre announced that a cease-fire order had been issued the previous day. On May 7, General Cunningham, the High Commissioner met Arab League representatives including Azzam Pasha, the Secretary-General of the League and obtained approval for a cease-fire agreement covering all of Jerusalem provided that the Jews also agreed, this being forthcoming later the same day when the Haganah issued a cease-fire order to its troops in the Jerusalem area.
British withdrawal According to a diary covering the period 12 May to July 16, 1948, of Hugh Jones, a British clergyman with Christ Church, British troops were withdrawn from their positions protecting the Jewish Quarter in the evening of May 13, 1948. Haganah forces occupied the positions vacated by the British army and the High Commissioner left Jerusalem early the next morning.Diary Morris says that there were 90 mostly Haganah defenders, joined by 100 more after the British left their positions.
Fighting In a letter sent to the United Nations in 1968, in response to Jordanian allegations, Israel noted that Colonel Abdullah el Tell, local commander of the Jordanian Arab Legion, described the destruction of the Jewish Quarter in his memoirs (Cairo, 1959):
Abdullah al-Tal justified the destruction of the Jewish quarter by claiming that had he not destroyed the homes, he would have lost half his men. He adds that "the systematic demolition inflicted merciless terror in the hearts of the Jews, killing both fighters and civilians."
Jewish surrender The defenders surrendered on May 28, 1948, and Mordechai Weingarten negotiated the surrender terms.
Expulsion of the inhabitants The Jordanian commander is reported to have told his superiors: "For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews' return here impossible."
Hurva and Tifereth Israel Synagogues In respect of the destruction of the Hurva Synagogue, originally built in 1701, according to author Simone Ricca, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian sources generally present divergent versions of the events that led to the destruction of the building. Whereas Israeli sources say that the Jordanian army purposefully demolished the synagogue after the cessation of the fighting, Jordanian and Palestinian sources present the destruction of the synagogue as a direct result of the fighting that took place in the Old City.