Jerusalem
From JudaismWiki
JERUSALEM. Capital of Israel, ever since David established his throne there about 1000 B.C.E.; the Holy City of Judaism, from the time David had the Ark of the Covenant borne in triumph into Jerusalem and Solomon built the Temple to house it on Mount Moriah. Jerusalem has also been called Zion, the citadel of peace and faith, since the days of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah.
The city is situated in the heart of the hills of Judea more than 2,000 feet high. It sits at the crossroads where the highway running from north to south intersects the road leading from the sea to the Jordan. A triad of hills—Zion, Moriah, and Mount of Olives—separated from other hills by the deep ravines of Hinnom and Kidron, make Jerusalem a natural stronghold.
Jerusalem’s origins are lost in the mists of antiquity. It was already a center of Canaanite civilization in Abraham’s time around 1900 B.C.E. It was twice destroyed, once by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia in 586 B.C.E. and again by Titus of Rome in 70 C.E. It was restored by Jews 70 years after the first destruction. The Hasmoneans made it their capital and rebuilt the Temple, and Herod the Great adorned and fortified it. After the second destruction Jerusalem remained in ruins for over a century, until the Emperor Hadrian in 134 C.E. turned it into a colony for Roman veterans and renamed it Aelia Capitolina. Jews were prohibited from entering the city upon penalty of death. When the Romans adopted Christianity, however, they not only restored Jerusalem’s ancient Hebrew name but made it the highest altar in the Empire. The city became the mystical center of Christendom, particularly after the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was erected by the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century.
In 637 C.E., the new religion of Islam invaded the city, adding its mosques to the skyline of the city. Jerusalem became the second holiest Muslim city after Mecca and the seat of the famous Dome of the Rock on Mount Moriah over the site of Israel’s Temple. More tolerant than their predecessors, the Arabs allowed Jews to settle in the city. In the 10th century, the Jewish community of Jerusalem centered around the Avele Zion, or Mourners of Zion, ascetics who bewailed the loss of Zion’s ancient glories and prayed for its early restoration.
Jerusalem again fell to the Christians when the Crusaders captured the city in 1099, massacring much of the Jewish and Moslem population. During most of the 12th century it was the capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, but in 1187 Jerusalem was retaken by the Muslims. Thereafter, despite the heavy burden of taxation, the Jewish community found existence tolerable, except during the cruel and destructive Mongol invasions. In 1517, Jerusalem was taken by the Turks. The present walled city, with its 24 towers and eight gates, dates from the period of Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Turkish Empire. Until the 16th century, the Jewish community of Jerusalem consisted mainly of pious pilgrims who had come to die on its holy soil. After the expulsion from Spain in 1492, many refugees settled there under the fairly tolerant rule of the first two Turkish sultans. In the 18th century, 1,000 Polish Hasidim led by Judah the Pious settled in Jerusalem.
Under the urging of Sir Moses Montefiore around 1860, the Jews of Jerusalem first ventured outside the protecting walls of the Old City. They built the Yemin Moshe quarter and a windmill for the grinding of grain. The colorful Mea Shearim quarter was established in 1875. The early “Lovers of Zion” (Hoveve Zion) of the 1870’s and 1880’s settled in Jerusalem and agricultural colonies. At this time the building of the new city with its modern residential quarters, parks, and imposing public buildings began. But along the dark lanes of the old city, the aged and the pious continued to live on the Halukkah, funds gathered from around the world for their sustenance.
The Balfour Declaration during World War I and the assumption by the British of the mandate for Palestine occasioned changes in Jerusalem. The ancient city became the home of the British administration governing the country, of the Jewish settlers’ shadow government, and of the Palestine section of the World Zionist Organization. The Hebrew University was built on Mount Scopus; structures housing the Jewish Agency and other Zionist institutions were erected in the New City. Arab riots shook the old city in 1929, a foretaste of the disturbances of 1936-39 and those following World War II.
The sponsors of the plan that partitioned Palestine into one Jewish and one Arab State originally envisioned Jerusalem as an international city with access to the Holy Places of the various religions open to all. However, during the War of Independence of 1948, the Old City was seized by Jordanian forces and annexed by the Kingdom of Jordan. Jews were not permitted access to the Western Wall or any part of the Old City; synagogues were destroyed and Jewish graves desecrated by the Arabs. The Hebrew University campus and the Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus were isolated. Jews were confined to the New City that, in 1949, became the seat of Israel’s Parliament and government. At the beginning of the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel informed King Hussein that it would not attack Jordan if the Jordanians did not enter the war on the Arab side.
When Jordanian forces began to shell the New City of Jerusalem, the Israeli army struck back and within two days had liberated the Old City. On June 29, 1967 the two sectors of Jerusalem, the Old City and the New, were officially reunified. Since the reunification of Jerusalem, the city has grown rapidly; the ruins of the Old City are being rebuilt, and many Jews have already moved into that section.
Archaeologists have been making extensive excavations in the area, particularly around the Western Wall. Currently, the population is about 670,000, of whom 480,000 are Jews.
