{"id":31759,"date":"2019-01-25T03:36:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T11:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=31759"},"modified":"2019-01-24T10:33:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T18:33:44","slug":"tiferet-yisrael-to-be-rebuilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/01\/25\/tiferet-yisrael-to-be-rebuilt\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiferet Yisrael to be rebuilt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The landmark synagogue before being\ndynamited by Jordan\u2019s Arab Legion in 1948. (photo from Wikipedia)<\/em><\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cornerstone laying ceremony was held May 29,\n2014, for the rebuilding of the Old City of Jerusalem\u2019s Tiferet Yisrael\nSynagogue, which was dedicated in 1872 and dynamited by Jordan\u2019s Arab Legion in\n1948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking nearly five years ago, then-Jerusalem\nmayor Nir Barkat declared, \u201cToday we lay the cornerstone of one of the\nimportant symbols of the Jewish community in Jerusalem. The municipality\nattaches great importance to the preservation and restoration of heritage sites\nin Jerusalem, and we will continue to maintain the heritage of Israel in this\ncity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citing Lamentations 5:21, Uri Ariel, housing\nminister at the time, added, \u201cWe have triumphed in the laying of yet another\nbuilding block in the development of Jerusalem, a symbolic point in the vision\nthat continues to come true before our eyes: \u2018Renew our days as of old.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two politicians symbolically placed a stone\nsalvaged from the ruined building, and construction was supposed to take three\nyears, according to the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the\nJewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem Ltd. (JQDC), a public company under\nthe auspices of the Ministry of Construction and Housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to Dec. 31, 2018, and the exercise\nwas repeated, this time with the participation of Jerusalem minister Zeev\nElkin, construction minister Yoav Galant, deputy health minister Yaakov Litzman\nand Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon. But, this time, according to the JQDC, much of\nthe project\u2019s NIS 50 million (approximately $18 million Cdn) budget has been\nsecured, in part thanks to anonymous overseas donors. With the Israel\nAntiquities Authority\u2019s salvage dig of the Second Temple period site headed by\nOren Gutfeld completed, work can now begin in earnest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fundraising to purchase the land for the\nTiferet Yisrael, also known as the Nisan Bak shul, was initiated in 1839 by\nRabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhyn, Ukraine, (1797-1850) and his disciple Rabbi\nNisan Bak, also spelled Beck (1815-1889). While der Heiliger Ruzhiner<\/em>\n(Holy Ruzhyner), as his Chassidim called him, purchased the hilltop in 1843,\nthe mystic didn\u2019t live to see construction begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"photo
A model of Tiferet Yisrael. (photo from Jerusalem Municipality)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

His ambitious plans in Jerusalem reflected his\ngrandiose lifestyle in Sadhora, Bukovina, in Galicia\u2019s Carpathian Mountains,\npronounced Sadag\u00f3ra in Yiddish. There, he lived in a palace with splendid\nfurnishings, rode in a silver-handled carriage drawn by four white horses and,\nwith an entourage, dressed like a nobleman, wore a golden skullcap and clothing\nwith solid gold buttons, and was attended by servants in livery. This unusual\nmanner was accepted and even praised by many of his contemporaries, who\nbelieved the Ruzhiner was elevating God\u2019s glory through himself, the tzadik<\/em>\n(righteous one), and that the splendour was intended to express the derekh\nhamalkhut<\/em> (way of kingship) in the worship of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one incident, described in David Assaf\u2019s The\nRegal Way: The Life and Times of Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin<\/em> (Stanford\nUniversity Press, 2002), the Ruzhiner\u2019s Chassidim noticed that, notwithstanding\nthat their rebbe was wearing golden boots, he was leaving bloody footprints in\nthe snow. Only then did they realize that the gold was only a show and his\nshoes had no soles. Indeed, he was walking barefoot in the snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rabbis Friedman and Bak were motivated by a\ndesire to foil Czar Nicholas I\u2019s ambitions to build a Russian Orthodox\nmonastery on the strategic site overlooking Jerusalem\u2019s Temple Mount. Bak\nconsulted with architect Martin Ivanovich Eppinger. (Eppinger also planned the\nRussian Compound, the 68,000-square-metre fortress-like complex erected by the\nImperial Russian Orthodox Palestine Society west of the Jaffa Gate and outside\nthe Old City, after the czar was outmanoeuvred by the Chassidim.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bak, who both designed the massive synagogue\nand served as its contractor, spent more than a decade fundraising and six\nyears building it. Inaugurated on Aug. 19, 1872, he named the three-storey\nlandmark in honour of his deceased rebbe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a perhaps apocryphal story, the\nquick-witted Bak was able to complete the ornate synagogue thanks to a donation\nfrom Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. In 1869, while visiting Jerusalem\nen route to dedicate the Suez Canal, the emperor asked his subjects who came\nfrom Sadhora in the remote Austrian province of Bukovina why their synagogue\nhad no roof. (In 1842, having spent two years in Russian prisons on charges of\ncomplicity in the murder of two Jewish informers, Rabbi Friedman fled to\nSadhora and reestablished his resplendent court.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seizing the moment, Bak replied, \u201cYour majesty,\nthe synagogue has doffed its hat in your honour.\u201d The kaiser, understanding the\nroyal fundraising pitch, responded, \u201cHow much will it cost me to have the\nsynagogue replace its hat?\u201d and donated 1,000 francs to complete Tiferet\nYisrael\u2019s dome, which was thereafter referred to by locals as \u201cFranz Joseph\u2019s\ncap.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamar Hayardeni, in \u201cThe Kaiser\u2019s Cap\u201d\n(published in Segula<\/em> magazine last year), wrote that, while the kaiser\nmade a donation, the dome was in fact completed with funds provided by Rabbi\nIsrael of Ruzhyn\u2019s son, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov of Sadhora (1820-1883).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the winter and spring of 1948, the dome\nserved as a key Haganah military position and lookout point for the Jewish\nQuarter\u2019s outgunned defenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children were recruited for the battle for\nTiferet Yisrael. Some as young as 9 built defence positions. The \u201colder\u201d ones \u2013\n12 or so \u2013 carried messages, food, weapons and ammunition. Some were killed,\nincluding Grazia (Yaffa) Haroush, 16, and Nissim Gini, 9, who was the youngest\nfallen fighter in the War of Independence. Like the others who fell in the\ndefence of the Jewish Quarter and were buried there, his remains were exhumed\nafter 1967 and reinterred on the Mount of Olives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Badly damaged by heavy shelling, the synagogue\nwas blown up by Jordanian sappers on May 21, 1948. A few days later, following\nthe neighbourhood\u2019s surrender on May 25, the nearby Hurva Synagogue \u2013 the main\nsanctuary of Jerusalem\u2019s mitnagdim<\/em> (anti-Chassidic Ashkenazi followers\nof the Vilna Gaon) \u2013 met the same fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the rebuilding of the Hurva completed by\nthe JQDC in 2010, Tiferet Yisrael became the last major Old City synagogue\ndestroyed in 1948 not rebuilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurva is a stone-clad, concrete and steel\nfacsimile of its original structure, updated to today\u2019s building code and\nequipped with an elevator. The same is planned for Tiferet Yisrael.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reconstruction of faux historic synagogues\nhas not been without critics. Writing in the Forward<\/em> in 2007 as the\nHurva was rising, historian Gavriel Rosenfeld, co-editor of Beyond Berlin:\nTwelve German Cities Confront the Nazi Past<\/em> (University of Michigan Press,\n2008), noted the manifold links between architecture, politics and memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reconstruction of the Hurva seems to\nreflect an emotional longing to undo the past. It has long been recognized that\nefforts to restore ruins reflect a desire to forget the painful memories that\nthey elicit. Calls to rebuild the World Trade Centre towers as they were before\nthe Sept. 11, 2001, attacks represent a clear (if unrealized) instance of this\nyearning. And the recently completed reconstruction of Dresden\u2019s famous\nFrauenkirche \u2013 long a heap of rubble after being flattened by Allied bombers in\nFebruary 1945 \u2013 represents a notable example of translating this impulse into reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd yet, the reconstruction project is\nproblematic, for in seeking to undo the verdict of the past, the project will\nend up denying it. Denial is inherent in the restoration of ruins, as is\nfrequently shown by the arguments used to justify such projects. In Dresden,\nfor example, many supporters of the Frauenkirche\u2019s restoration portrayed\nthemselves as the innocent inhabitants of a city that was unjustly bombed in\n1945, thereby obscuring the city\u2019s longtime support for the Nazi regime and its\nwar of aggression during the years of the Third Reich. Similarly, the physical\nappearance of the restored Frauenkirche \u2013 despite its incorporation of some of\nthe original church\u2019s visibly scorched stones \u2013 has effectively eliminated the\nsigns of the war that its ruin once vividly evoked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the case of the Hurva,\u201d writes Rosenfeld,\n\u201cthe situation is somewhat different. If many Germans in Dresden emphasized\ntheir status as victims to justify rebuilding their ruined church, the Israeli\ncampaign to reconstruct the Hurva will do precisely the opposite \u2013 namely,\nobscure traces of their victimization. As long as the Hurva stood as a hulking\nruin, after all, it served as a reminder of Israeli suffering at the hands of\nthe Jordanians. [Mayor Teddy] Kollek said as much in 1991, when he noted: \u2018It\nis difficult to impress upon the world the degree of destruction the Jordanian\nauthorities visited upon synagogues in the Old City\u2026. The Hurva remnants are\nthe clearest evidence we have today of that.\u2019 Indeed, as a ruin, the Hurva served\nthe same kind of function as sites such as Masada and Yad Vashem \u2013 which, by\nhighlighting the tragedies of the Jewish past, helped to confirm the Israeli\nstate as the chief guarantor of the Jewish people\u2019s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the same time, however, it seems the\nHurva\u2019s existence as a ruin conflicted with the state of Israel\u2019s Zionist\nmaster narrative: the idea that, ultimately, heroic achievement triumphs over\nhelplessness. In fact, in the end, it may be the project\u2019s ability to confirm\nthe national desire to control its own destiny that best explains its appeal.\nIsrael faces many intractable problems that make present-day life uncertain.\nBut, in the realm of architecture, Israelis can indulge in the illusion that\nthey can at least control and manipulate the past. In this sense, the Hurva\u2019s\nreconstruction may express deeper escapist fantasies in an unpredictable\npresent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosenfeld\u2019s theorizing about architectural\nauthenticity made little impression on the JQDC chair, Moti Rinkov. Indeed the\nJQDC, together with the Ben-Zvi Institute, recently published High Upon High<\/em>,\nin which 12 historians trace Tiferet Yisrael\u2019s history. Rinkov noted at the\nsecond cornerstone ceremony: \u201cThe renovation and restoration of the Tiferet\nYisrael Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter is one of the most important and\nexciting projects I\u2019ve taken part in. Rebuilding the synagogue is, in fact,\nraising the Israeli flag in the Jewish Quarter. It\u2019s truly a work where they\u2019re\nrestoring the crown to its former glory and restoring glory to the Jewish\npeople.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rebuilt Tiferet Yisrael, together with the\nHurva, will engage Jerusalem\u2019s skyline not as authentic landmarks but, as\nRosenfeld noted, \u201cpostmodern simulacrum.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other Tiferes Yisroel<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 1953, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Friedman, the\nBoyaner Rebbe of New York, laid foundations for a new Ruzhiner Torah centre in\nwest Jerusalem to replace the destroyed Tiferet Yisrael. Located on the western\nend of Malkhei Yisrael Street between the current Central Bus Station and\nGeula, the downtown of the Charedi city, the Ruzhiner yeshivah, Mesivta Tiferes\nYisroel, was inaugurated in 1957 with the support of all of the Chassidic\nrebbes descended from Friedman, who was the first and only Ruzhiner Rebbe.\nHowever, his six sons and grandsons founded their own dynasties, collectively\nknown as the \u201cHouse of Ruzhin.\u201d These dynasties, which follow many of the\ntraditions of the Ruzhiner Rebbe, are Bohush, Boyan, Chortkov, Husiatyn,\nSadigura and Shtefanest. The founders of the Vizhnitz, Skver and Vasloi\nChassidic dynasties were related to the Ruzhiner Rebbe through his daughters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A grand synagogue built adjacent to the new\nRuzhiner yeshivah also bears the name Tiferes Yisroel. The current Boyaner\nRebbe, Nachum Dov Brayer, leads his disciples from there. The design of the\nsynagogue includes a large white dome, reminiscent of the original Tiferet\nYisrael destroyed in 1948 and now being rebuilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gil Zohar<\/strong> is a\njournalist based in Jerusalem.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The landmark synagogue before being dynamited by Jordan\u2019s Arab Legion in 1948. (photo from Wikipedia) A cornerstone laying ceremony was held May 29, 2014, for the rebuilding of the Old City of Jerusalem\u2019s Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, which was dedicated in 1872 and dynamited by Jordan\u2019s Arab Legion in 1948. Speaking nearly five years ago, then-Jerusalem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[7335,4242,4330,216,8668],"class_list":["post-31759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-development","tag-history","tag-israel","tag-jerusalem","tag-tiferet-yisrael"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}