From A Locked Gate to a Synagogue at the Temple Mount

Yesterday's events are reverberating.

After a Muslim pray-in at the Golden Gate along the eastern wall of the Temple Mount compound, towards the north, last Thursday, the police locked the entrance gate at the top of the stairs.

Credit

Yesterday, Muslims tried to break in and there was pushing and shoving.  Here's extract from Wafa's account:

Israeli police broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City this afternoon after closing all gates leading to it and arrested individuals inside the compound after people removed chains and gates the police had earlier placed at the Golden Gate building in the compound.to prevent its use, according to witnesses.

They said a number of Palestinians removed the metal gates and chains the police had on Sunday placed at the stairs leading to the building adjacent to the closed Golden Gate, also known as Bab al-Rahmeh, considered a property of Al-Aqsa Mosque, following calls for holding the Muslim prayers at the building in defiance of the Israeli police decision.

Immediately after this, police closed all gates leading to the Muslim holy compound as its forces carried out arrests among those present inside it while forcing the Muslim worshippers to leave it.

There's a video clip here.

Here's the reaction of Mahmoud Abbas

The Palestinian presidency strongly condemned the Israeli closure of the Golden Gate (Bab al-Rahmeh) with locks and chains, warning against Israeli plans aimed at imposing the temporal and spatial division of the mosque.

He is demanding that Israel preserve "the mosque’s status quo of 1967".

Jordan:

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the Israeli police closure of al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem and the assaults on worshipers.

The ministry's official spokesman, Sufian al-Qudah, demanded that Israel, as the occupying power, "act in accordance with international law and immediately reopen the gates, respect the sanctity of the holy place, not hamper the entry of worshipers, withdraw security forces at the holy compound and respect the feelings of Muslims," according to Jordan news agency, Petra.

The spokesperson slammed the Israeli measures at al-Aqsa as "a flagrant violation of the historical and legal status quo and Israel's obligations under the international law and the international humanitarian law, as the occupying power, and held it fully responsible for the safety of the mosque."

(UPDATE: On the Jordan/PA coordination now)

Here is the Golden Gate or Mercy Gate (Sha'ar HaRachamim) in green

Another Wafa report raises a suspicion:

Officials have expressed concern that Israel may allow Jews to hold prayers in the Golden Gate area and possibly build a Jewish temple there after separating it from the rest of Al-Aqsa compound.

It would be a wonderful site for a synagogue.  In fact, it is a two-halled structure that would easily divide, and equally so, for a men's and women's section each. It is also located way below the level of most of the Temple Mount esplanade as can be seen in the first picture above.

The blue area I marked in the photo above is where this structure is:

Seems to be a storeroom. Not a religious building.

That would fine for a temporary synagogue. It's quite near the Children of Israel Gate, off on the side, would not interfere with Muslims.

Five years ago, I suggested a site right next to the Hallel Gate (formerly Mughrabi Gate).

The Waqf has added at least two new mosques since 1967 (and are working on a third) so actually, there is no status quo regarding buildings and construction.  A small synagogue, quite unobtrusive, is feasible and would fulfill the terms of the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty's Article 9:

Each party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance...The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

For My House is a house of prayer for all peoples (Isaiah 56:7).

And that should include Jews.


P.S.  For a Hebrew-language background, see here.

________________

UPDATE: Israel seems to have capitulated.  

Gate removed altogether.

Report.

Another report.


^ 

My Location for the Temple Mount Synagogue

Several Rabbis have written to Prime Minister Netanyahu to permit the construction of a synagogue on the Temple Mount.

A copy:

“The Temple Mount is a unique place for prayer,” the letter said. “As Prime Minister, we ask you to do what is necessary to establish a place of prayer for Jews on the Temple Mount, in a respectable and peaceful manner, that will honor the holy place we all long for.”

I've got the spot.  I can be approached without going necessarily through any of the existing gates and can be actually relatively out-of-view.

To explain, here is a view from the east:

The arrow is pointing to the colonnaded walkway just north (to the left) of the Mugrahbi Gate entrance.  It is actually, in part, after the exposed Western Wall disappears behind the Makhkama Building, the eastern section of that building which houses the special Border Guard units.

In other words, entry can be facilitated by opening up a doorway there.

The colonnaded area   

could be closed off using heavy clear plastic that can be affixed with a one-way view, outward.  That way, outraged Muslims cannot even see the Jews inside.

Another possible entry point would be through the underground Barclay Gate and up the stairs, 

the exterior

the interior

an area the Waqf seems to have already renovated.

In is not that large an area but could accommodate probably 100 worshippers, depending how far south or north the area closed off.

The walkway is rarely used, if at all, since it leads nowhere but ends where a library is located.

A view from above:

From a Halachic point of view, the Western side is relatively the most holy as the inner courtyard of the original Temple precinct was closest to the west but since the area to be set aside is quite narrow, about 4 meters at the most, that would pose no problems.

The one problem is that if the synagogue does receive government permission (don't worry, it won't), that would enable the government to limit religious Jews only to that area and the encircling of the Mount as done today would be terminated.

^

That Destroyed "Churva" Synagogue Is Almost Done

On the "Churva" Synagogue

A Visit at the Ohel Yitzhak Synagogue

I blogged last year about the Ohel Yizthak Synagogue which bothered some Arabs. The synagogue was built on property purchased from the Khalidi Clan in 1867, opened in 1904 and closed in 1938 due to Arab riots.

Today, I got the chance to visit it. It has been reconstructed and restored exactly the way it was before being destroyed after 1948 using pictures which are displayed on the wall.

The pictures:

The history of the synagogue

The inside, the bimah in the center

The Aron Kodesh, the Ark of the Torah Scrolls

More of the inside, direction is east-north

The Women's Section above and behind

The windows of the north side

Close-up of the Bimah

And the progress of the Beit Yaakov Synagogue, the Churvah.

A Behind-the-Scenes Look At The Riverdale Terror Plot

Back on December 7, 2008 as reported in: Open Arms at an Unexpected Haven

BACK home in the Indonesian city of Semarang, Dinar Puspita, a slight and cheerful 17-year-old, says her afternoon prayers with friends at the mosque in her school. In Riverdale in the Bronx, Dinar is now a high school exchange student in an increasingly Orthodox neighborhood where synagogues are prevalent.

Among them is the Riverdale Jewish Center, which sits conveniently across the street from Dinar’s public school on Independence Avenue at West 237th Street. Because Dinar cannot pray in the school, the Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy, her host Naomi Erickson e-mailed the synagogue’s rabbi to see if the girl could pray there instead.

“I was very pleasantly surprised at how gracious the rabbi was,” said Ms. Erickson, a retired accountant.

Dinar echoed Ms. Erickson’s feelings.

“I didn’t think that they will let me pray in here,” she said the other day, seated on a green cushioned bench in the synagogue after finishing her prayers. “I mean, it’s not my religion.”

As it turned out, the rabbi, Jonathan Rosenblatt, was happy to offer Dinar a few places within the large building in which to pray on days when after-school activities preclude her from going home to pray.

The sanctuary was one option, but sometimes it is locked, and other times it is crowded. So Dinar has taken a liking to a long, quiet hallway lined with large windows and plaques memorializing synagogue members and their loved ones.



On Wednesday, Dinar prepared for prayer by dropping her pink backpack on a bench and sitting down to untie her sneakers. She washed up in a gray-tiled restroom and then stepped into a long ivory robe that hid her black hair and framed her heart-shaped face. For about 10 minutes, she closed her eyes, mouthed prayers silently in Arabic and repeated a sequence of standing, bowing and kneeling.

Dinar began going to the synagogue last month, taking along a compass the first day to figure out which way to place her prayer rug...

The reaction from the synagogue’s congregation to Dinar has been very supportive, Rabbi Rosenblatt said...“I never understood what the big deal was,” he said. “Somebody’s child from halfway around the world needs a place to worship.”

Still, Rabbi Rosenblatt addressed the issue at a service, telling his congregation that he was not only comfortable but proud that someone felt a holiness in this place. “It’s the first time I remember applause after a sermon,” he said.

Kippah tip: VisciousBabushka via AtlasShrugs)

Khalidi Clan Member Aids Synagogue Construction

The main sociological feature of the Arabs of the former Palestine Mandate is clans:

Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is characterized by three types of clan-like familial structures: tribes, clans, and notable families... A clan, or hamula (plural: hama’il), will consist of at least several extended families (a’ila) claiming a shared ancestry, and linked through the father’s male line. Each extended family will generally include male first and second cousins, the women they marry, and the children of that union. Female children who marry outside of the hamula (and their children) then belong to the other hamula. Their nasab, or “relationship in law”, will bind them to a new hamula...

...The third clan-like grouping in Palestine in the urban elite notable family, a social formation typical throughout the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire. Many of the most well known and prominent Palestinian families come from this notable, or a’yan, social class: Husayni, Nashashibi, Dajani, Abd al-Hadi, Tuqan, Nabulsi, Khoury, Tamimi, Khatib, Ja’bari, Masri, Kan’an, Shaq’a, Barghouthi, Shawwa, Rayyes, and others. These are extended families that dominated Palestinian politics until the 1980s, and are still relatively prominent today...

One of those clans is the al-Khalidi. Husain Khalidi was a mayor of Jerusalem just like his forefather:

In 1899, the mayor of Jerusalem, Yusuf Dia al-Khalidi, wrote to Zadok Kahn, the chief rabbi of France, saying that the Zionist idea was in theory “natural, fine, and just. . . . Who can challenge the rights of the Jews to Palestine? Good lord, historically it is really your country.” But, like other Palestinian notables, he opposed Jewish immigration, because the land was inhabited and resistance would inevitably follow. “In the name of God, let Palestine be left in peace,” Khalidi wrote. Rabbi Kahn passed the letter on to Herzl, who blithely wrote to Khalidi to reassure him that the Zionists, with their wealth, their skills, and their education, would build an economy to benefit both Arab and Jew.

Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia Professor, has

a reported friendship between Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Khalidi's family when Khalidi taught at the University of Chicago. Articles by Aaron Klein and John Bachelor, writers respectively for World Net Daily and Human Events, were referenced by rival political campaigns and reprinted in wider-circulation media.[16][18][19][17]

Khalidi's relationship to Obama has come under increasing interest due to the U.S. Presidential race of 2008.[20] Obama made one of the presentations in praise of Khalidi at a 2003 farewell dinner on the occasion of Khalidi leaving the Chicago Area.[20] The dinner was a celebration of the Chicago area Palestinian community. Obama's remarks alluded to the numerous dinners that he had at the home of the Khalidis.[20]

16 Wallsten, Peter (April 10, 2008). "Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama". CAMPAIGN '08. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
17 Ari Berman (2008-03-14). ""The Smear Machine grinds on"", Opinion, CBS. Retrieved on 2008-03-23.
18 Aaron Klein (2008-02-27). "Obama Served On Board That Funded Pro-Palestinian Group". Opinion. Jewish Press. Retrieved on 2008-03-23.
19 Batchelor, John (February 25, 2008). "The Obama Files". Human Events. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
20 Peter Wallsten, Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama, Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2008

What has all this to do with a synagogue?

Read on here:

A group of rabbis, politicians, philanthropists and right-wing activists gathered Sunday in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City to celebrate the reopening of a synagogue located about 100 meters from the Temple Mount.

"We are here today to mark the return of a Jewish presence to this house of prayer," said Rabbi Shmuel Rabbinovitz, rabbi of the Western Wall and the holy sites. "Any claims leveled at us by Muslim leaders that we are trying to take control of the Temple Mount are downright lies. According to Jewish law, it is forbidden to go up on the Temple Mount because we are all ritually impure," he went on. "We must not allow the incidents in Acre to influence this joyous occasion. This synagogue is place of prayer and peace."

...The Ohel Yitzhak Synagogue - which was abandoned in 1938 by a group of haredi Jews calling themselves Shomrei Hachomot (Guardians of the Walls), in the wake of waves of Arab violence - is closer than any other Jewish house of prayer to the Temple Mount, according to Rabbinovitz.

...According to Ateret Kohanim, an organization that facilitates the purchasing of land in the Jerusalem area, the courtyard was purchased by the Hungarian Jewish community from the Muslim Khaladi family. Rabbi Yitzhak Ratsdorfer, a Belz Hassid and diamond merchant, financed the building of the synagogue.

...Arab violence that began in 1921 and reached a peak in 1938 resulted in the abandonment of Ohel Yitzhak. Members relocated to Mea She'arim, and the building was rented to Arabs until the 1948 War of Independence. During the 19 years of Jordanian rule that ended in 1967 with the Six Day War, the synagogue was almost totally destroyed. After Israel took control over the Old City, a book store was opened up on the ground floor of the synagogue, the only part of the building left intact.

...In addition to funding the building of the synagogue, the Moskowitz family also funded an extensive archeological dig that uncovered, among other things, a huge Second Temple-era staircase that led to the Holy of Holies.

Isn't that sweet revenge?