Love of the Land

Sephardic Synagogues of Old Jerusalem

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Love of the Land
Selections from classical Torah sources
which express the special relationship between
the People of Israel and Eretz Yisrael

SEPHARDIC SYNAGOGUES OF OLD JERUSALEM

The few interconnecting Sephardic synagogues on Mishmerot Hakehuna street right next to the Jewish Quarter parking lot certainly comprise one of the Holy City's most famous landmarks. They were built below street level because the Moslems who controlled the city at the time had an injunction against Jewish or Christian buildings being higher than Moslem ones in the area. The oldest of these synagogues -- the Eliyahu Hanavi and Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai synagogues -- go back over 400 years to the time when the Jewish community, evicted from its previous home which became a mosque, established these places of worship.



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Written by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, Dean, Ohr Somayach Institutions
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