Israel to Rebuild Destroyed Yerushalayim Shul

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The Tiferes Yisroel Shul was the last post of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Yerushalayim to fall in Israel’s War of Independence. The 144-year-old shul rose to great height and came under direct fire from the Har Habayis.

When the Jewish Quarter was lost in 1948, the Jordanians shelled the white dome of Tiferes Yisroel, along with its “twin,” the Churva Shul, and the two landmarks were turned into piles of rubble.

The Churva was rebuilt six years ago and, now, reports Yisrael Hayom, the Israeli government is now reconstructing Tiferes Yisroel.

The plan to reconstruct Tiferes Yisroel is currently being launched, and more historic justice is being done in the form of a new book, “High Upon High,” which relates the history of this shul through the work of 12 contemporary researchers on Yerushalayim and its history, who traced the shul’s history from the day it was founded until it was brought down in the last battle for the Jewish Quarter in the War of Independence.

Tiferes Yisroel is named after Rav Yisroel Friedman of Ruzhin. It took 14 years to construct and was dedicated in 1872.

The new building is planned to serve as both a shul and a tourist site. To avoid repeating the arrangement of the rebuilt Churva Synagogue, which is closed to the public for the several hours a day when it is in use for davening and learning, the district planning office in the Interior Ministry made a number of decisions. For example, the mikveh that will be reconstructed at the site will not be a working mikveh and the building will be barred for use by specific institutions or groups. The reconstruction will be overseen by a restoration architect from the IAA, and the lower levels will be open for public use and made to fit the existing context of the city.

The stunning murals of the original synagogue will be recreated to the greatest extent possible by being redrawn on fabric and then affixed to the building’s walls.

Construction will take three to four years. The government has allocated a budget of 36 million shekels ($9.5 million) to the project, but another 12 million shekels ($3.2 million) in donations is required, money the corporation is busy raising now so that the construction can be completed on schedule.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}

 


5 COMMENTS

  1. This beautiful old building was a chasidishe shul and a true restoration would involve returning it to its former kehilla (or a similar one if that’s not possible). To treat is a an historic artifact with a non-working mikva that’s open to tourists 24×7 is so sad. That the Churva is once again a bais medrash is inspiring and this shul should receive similar treatment.

  2. The Rizhner Chassidim, who actually own the place, had arranged funding to restore it to something close to the way it was but the government, especially the Tourism Ministry, didn’t want it to go the way of the Churva Shul and be used as an actual shul rather than as a pure tourist attraction and they seem to have prevailed. It’s all b’dei Shamayim and we don’t understand their cheshbonos. The Mishna Brura brings from the Eliyahu Rabba from the ColBo that a number of shuls have been destroyed because of talking during davening. Hopefully Moshiach will come before this is finished.

  3. Old timers who used to daven there say that during Yom Kippur Musaf when the Chazan said the Avodah and they saw through the window the desolate, desecrated Har Habayis there wasn’t anyone there who wasn’t crying.

    However I don’t see the point in rebuilding it now. There is no significant Chasdishe presence in the old city today so it will probably remain unused.And to rebuild it as a tourist site is an insult.

  4. The rizhin boyan sadiger etc,, should stop this all ways possible, better status quo than a mokom tumah.

  5. May Moshiach get rid of the Tourism ministery as well as of the j4j and the xians tourists. In any case, they should go to churches, there are a lot in Israel, why should a “old testament tourist attraction” be created for them? With the (mostly jewish) taxpayers’ money?

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