Old Yemenite Synagogue (Silwan)

The Old Yemenite Synagogue, known to its congregation as Beit Knesset Ohel Shlomo (lit. "Solomon's Tent Synagogue"), is a restored synagogue[1] from the nineteenth century[2] Yemenite Village (Harat al-Yaman in Arabic),[3] the Kfar Hashiloach (Hebrew: כפר השילוח‎) neighborhood in the Jerusalem district of Silwan.

Yemenite-Jewish village south of Silwan, housing project built by a charity in the 1880s (1891)

History

Jewish community in Silwan (1884-1938)

Between 1885-91, 45 stone houses were built for the Yemenite Jews which had arrived in Jerusalem in 1882[4] In 1936, during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, the Yemenite-Jewish community was removed from Silwan by the Welfare Bureau of the Jerusalem Community Council (Va'ad ha-Kehillah), the local counterpart of the Jewish National Council (Va'ad Leumi), into the Jewish Quarter as security conditions for Jews worsened.[5] and in 1938, the remaining Yemenite Jews in Silwan were evacuated by the Jewish Community Council on the advice of the police.[3][6]

According to documents in the custodian office and real estate and project advancement expert Edmund Levy, the buildings of the Yemenite Jews were occupied by Arab families without registering ownership.[7][8]

Jewish reclaim (2015)

In May, 2015 Ateret Cohanim, a Jewish group that had established legal ownership of the old synagogue, moved into the building.[9][10] Local residents threw rocks at the activists as they moved in.[9]

References
  1. American Friends of Ateret Cohanim/Jerusalem Chai, The Yemenite Village, from a September 2015 newsletter. Accessed August 2020.
  2. Gelber, Sylva M. (1989). No balm in Gilead: a personal retrospective of Mandate days in Palestine. Carleton University Press/McGill-Queen's Press (MQUP). pp. 87–88. ISBN 0-88629-104-6. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  3. Shragai, Nadav (January 4, 2004). "11 Jewish families move into J'lem neighborhood of Silwan". Haaretz.
  4. Homepage of the Yemenite Village Synagogue. Accessed August 2020.
  5. Gelber (1989), p. 56.
  6. Palestine Post, August 15, 1938, p. 2
  7. Documents show Arabs illegally obtained Jewish homes in Silwan, Bill Hutman, Jerusalem Post. Retrieved October 14, 2010.
  8. WHO OWNS THE LAND?, Gail Lichtman, Jerusalem Post. Retrieved October 29, 2010.
  9. Jaskow, Rahel (6 May 2015). "Jewish activists move into building in Arab Jerusalem neighborhood Structure in Silwan was once the synagogue of a village built there for Yemenite immigrants in the 1880s, NGO claims". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  10. Ben-Gedalyahu, Tzvi (7 May 2015). "Jews Move into Former Yemenite Synagogue in Silwan Valley". The Jewish Press. Retrieved 8 May 2015.

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