UPDATES
11:00 am Israel time, Saturday, August 29 2015
**The daily Palestinian terror report:
“Rocks” and Molotov cocktails were thrown by Palestinian terrorists from morning to night. The worst attack of the morning occurred on Road 443 near Beit Ur Al-Tahta where a number of Israeli motorists were bombarded with “rocks”. In the evening, there were at least 4 attacks–the worst were at Karmi Tsur and Anata.
Meanwhile, yesterday saw the usual Friday violent attack of Palestinian terrorists and self-proclaimed “human rights activists” on IDF soldiers at Nabi Saleh. This staged event is such “popular” Palestinian one that it has become a favorite hangout for photographers as they seek to document the “cruelty” of our soldiers. A series of photographs made yesterday by a Reuters photographer has gone viral.
However, not all of them show what they were supposed to:
What you cannot see is that the soldier’s left arm is around the leg of a terrorist who was assaulting IDF soldiers with “rocks” (photo: Reuters).
Note the befuddlement on the soldier’s face as if he is asking himself “What will the rules of engagement permit me to do?”, the girl biting the soldier’s hand, and the two older women grabbing at the soldier.
Finally note that the soldier is not trying to use his gun.
That Israel would tolerate such a situation is unbelievable.
TODAY’S BLOG:
A week ago Friday, the primary Imam at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Mohammed Hussein, stood in his pulpit and railed against Israel’s reconstruction of the famed Tiferet Israel Synagogue.
Hussein ludicrously ranted that the rebuilding of Tiferet was intended to “destroy” Al-Aqsa by surrounding it with synagogues and wiping out “all traces of Muslim and Arab Jerusalem.” His rant was quickly seconded the same day by a spokesman for the “Al-Aqsa Institution and Endowments” who outrageously proclaimed that the land on which the synagogue sits belongs to the Islamic Wakf.
It just so happened that all of this moronic Muslim nonsense happened to coincide with a trip that your humble servant took to Jerusalem two days later on Sunday–a trip which focused on three of the great synagogues in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City: the Tiferet Synagogue, the Karaite Synagogue, and the Hurva Synagogue.
Today’s blog is the first of a three part series which describes these synagogues in detail. The focus today is on the Tiferet.
First, let’s locate it by looking at the following map of part of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City:
The Tiferet Synagogue–labled in BLUE “Tiferet” above.
Note on this map that the Tiferet is actually located in the heart of the Jewish Quarter. You can also see how close it is to the Western Wall.
Now, let’s take a short glimpse at the history of the Tiferet. First envisioned in 1839 by Hasidic Rabbi Nissan Beck (who had been born in Berdychiv in the northern Ukraine), the Tiferet was virtually completed in 1869, but in November of that year Kaiser Franz Joseph was on a tour of the area and had seen that the building had no dome. To remedy the situation, he donated 1000 francs to build what he called “the roof”.
The synagogue was finally completed on August 19, 1872. It immediately became the center of Hasidic life in Jerusalem and was adorned inside with ornate decorations and silver ritual objects from all over the world.
Now I want to show you two old pictures of the majestic Tiferet Synagogue–and how it once towered over the Jewish Quarter.
The first picture is from around the turn of the century:
This photo was made from the Temple Mount looking west into the Jewish Quarter. The Tiferet Synagogue is the large domed building to the left, the Hurva Synagogue is the building to the right.
The second photograph is from 1938:
This is one of a group of famous photos made by Hannah and Efraim Degani. Note that this photo is made from the rear of the Tiferet looking northeasterly toward the Kipat HaSela (Dome of the Rock) which is in the background–upper right.
What was especially infuriating to the Muslims then and to the Muslims now can easily be seen in the above photo–and that is simply that the Tiferet was “taller” than the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque which is out of the picture to the right.
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For almost 76 years, the Tiferet stood as a grand testament to Jewish life in Jerusalem.
Until the night of May 20, 1948.
It was on that night that the Jordanian legion attacked the synagogue, dynamited it, and blew it to pieces.
A picture of the destroyed Tiferet:
Note the Jordanian soldier in the foregroud.
Another picture of Tiferet rubble after Israeli forces took the Old City in 1967:
A sad sight.
Fast forward to today. Here is the way that the ruined synagogue looks now with the rubble cleaned up:
Notice that some of the ruined walls of the synagogue remain. Remember these walls in two more day when we discuss the Hurva Synagogue and how it was rebuilt.
Well, actually, the Tiferet compound today doesn’t exactly look like the above.
Back in November 2012, the municipality of Jerusalem finally decided to rebuild the glorious synagogue, at a cost of about $15 million dollars–which is coming from private donations.
Last Sunday, when we were there, we couldn’t see very much because the entire perimeter of the building is sealed off by metal panels. On the inside, archaeologists have have been working for the last year to certify that the building can proceed.
It is thought that at long last the Tiferet may be on the verge of rising again.
Let’s summarize the situation.
The Tiferet Synagogue was built in the heart of Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and served the Hasidic community for more than 75 years.
It was dynamited and blown to pieces by the Jordanian Legion with help from the local Arabs in 1948 when the entire Jewish Quarter was ethnically cleansed of all Jews.
In 1967, Israel retook the Jewish Quarter and the rest of the Old City. Nevertheless, the Tiferet has remained in ruins ever since, a victim of political correctness and bureaucratic ineptitude.
And now, Muslims of the Islamic Wakf–who work for the same country of Jordan that destroyed the Tiferet–are propagating the outrageous canards that Jews are rebuilding the Tiferet in order to destroy to Al-Aksa Mosque–and that the Tiferet actually sits on land belonging to the Islamic Wakf.
It is long past time for the Tiferet Synagogue to be rebuilt and for it to reassume its glorious place as the king of the skyline of the Old City of Jerusalem.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.