The Jewish quarter
The Jewish Quarter is special because it stands on the site of the original
city from the time of the 2nd temple. No other part of Jerusalem can
make that claim.
There is proof of this in all the archaeological excavations, which have
been made since the 6 days war in 1967. Archaeologists have found
homes, walls, water cisterns and streets from those early days.
Christian churches and mosques surround the Jews of the Jewish
Quarter. Looking at Jerusalem from above ground one would think
that only Christians and Moslems lived there, yet the archaeological
discoveries have shown that Jews have always been the majority of the
population of the Old City. No matter how loudly the bells ring out or
how loudly the muezzin calls nothing can change this fact.
When Jews didn’t live in Jerusalem, nobody lived here. Believe it or
not!!! Jerusalem lay deserted for hundreds of years before Suleiman the
magnificent; Sultan of Turkey built a wall around Jerusalem, which made
Jews feel that it was safe to live here. In about 3 years after he built the
wall, from 1538 the population of the city tripled. Everyone wanted to
live here because the Jews had chosen to live here.
Most of these Jews came from Spain, after the expulsion of the Jews and
from Istanbul. This was not the first time the Jewish Quarter grew very
swiftly. It had grown very much in the 13th century when Rabbi Moshe
ben Nachman came here, also from Spain, in 1265. That was after the
Mongol invasion had destroyed the city and the Mamaluk Arabs began
to rebuild it and encouraged Jews to live here.
That was the time when the Jewish cemetery on the Mt. of Olives
was consecrated and is still used today by the Jewish community of
Jerusalem.
One could say we never left the city. The Romans killed Jews. The
Christians and the |Moslems built on top of the Jewish buildings and
tried to convince themselves and everybody else that the Jews had
never lived here, but they weren’t successful. Today everything is
revealed. The Jewish quarter of today stands on the site of Jerusalem of
2000 years ago.
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