Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0029/00294.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 26KB | 495 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00294}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Israel
Jerusalem}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Embassy of Israel, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Israel, Washington DC}
$Subject{jerusalem
city
gate
jewish
built
capital
old
temple
century
holy
see
pictures
see
figures
see
tables
}
$Date{1990}
$Log{See Jerusalem at Night*0029401.scf
See Table 1.*0029401.tab
}
Title:       Israel
Book:        Jerusalem
Author:      Embassy of Israel, Washington DC
Affiliation: Embassy of Israel, Washington DC
Date:        1990

Jerusalem

     Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is located in the heart of the country,
nestled among the Judean Hills. The city's ancient stones, imbued with millennia
of history, and its numerous historical sites, shrines and places of worship
attest to its meaning for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Its modern architecture,
well-tended parks, contemporary malls, outlying industrial zones, and
ever-expanding suburbs proclaim its hopes for the future.

     Jerusalem's incandescent glow, golden in sunshine, silvery by moonlight, is
rivaled in impact only by the kaleidoscope of its people-some the descendants of
generations of Jerusalemites, others who have come from the four corners of the
earth. Mingling with people wearing the spectrum of modern fashion are
dark-suited ultra-Orthodox Jews, Arab women in brightly embroidered shifts and
Christian clergy in somber robes.

     Jerusalem - praised by the Prophets, enshrined in literature and liturgy,
and sung by poets, near and far, down through the generations.

Jerusalem the Capital of Israel

[See Jerusalem at Night: Courtesy Israeli Embassy, Washington DC.]

     With the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Jerusalem became
once more the capital of a sovereign Jewish state. Throughout the millennia of
its existence, Jerusalem has never been the capital of any other sovereign
nation.

     Jerusalem has stood at the center of the Jewish people's national and
spiritual life since King David made it the capital of his kingdom in 1003 BCE.
The city remained the capital of the Davidic dynasty for 400 years, until the
kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians. Following the return from the
Babylonian exile in 538 BCE, Jerusalem again served as the capital of the Jewish
people in its land for the next five and a half centuries.

     The Christian link with Jerusalem is essentially a religious one. Except
for the short-lived Crusader kingdom, it has not assumed political or secular
connotations. During the six centuries of Roman and Byzantine rule, Caesarea,
not Jerusalem, was the capital.

     During Muslim rule over the city, whether Arab or non-Arab, Jerusalem was
never made the political capital of a Muslim entity or even a province within
the Muslim empire. Under Muslim Arab rule (638-1099) by the Umayyad, the Abbasid
and the Fatamid caliphs, Jerusalem was ruled from Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo
respectively. In the eighth century, the city of Ramla was made the capital of
the district which embraced Jerusalem.

     During the period of Mamluk rule (1250-1516), the Land was ruled from
Damascus; in Ottoman times (1517-1917), from Constantinople.

     Under British rule (1922-1948), Jerusalem was the seat of the High
Commissioner and most administrative offices of the Mandate, as well as of the
central institutions of the growing Jewish community.

     From 1948 to 1967, Jerusalem was a city divided as a result of a war thrust
upon her. For nineteen years, concrete walls and barbed wire sealed off one part
of the city from the other. Its eastern section, including the Old City, was
annexed by Jordan, and ruled from its capital, Amman. The western sector of
Jerusalem became Israel's capital.

     Following another war in June 1967, Jerusalem was reunited. The barriers
dividing the city were demolished, the gates of the Old City were opened to
people of all faiths, and the eastern sector was reintegrated into the nation's
capital.

     In July 1980 the Knesset passed the "Basic Law - Jerusalem," which restated
Israel's rights and obligations concerning the capital. The Law affirmed that
the holy places of all religions be protected from desecration, free access to
them be guaranteed, and the Government provide for the development and the
prosperity of the city and the well-being of its inhabitants.

JERUSALEM Through the Centuries

     King David made Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom, as well as the
religious center of the Jewish people, in 1003 BCE. Some forty years later, his
son Solomon built the Temple (the religious and national center of the people of
Israel) and transformed the city into the prosperous capital of an empire
extending from the Euphrates to Egypt.

     The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 586 BCE,
destroyed the Temple, and exiled the people. Fifty years later, when Babylon was
conquered by the Persians, King Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their
homeland and granted them autonomy. They built a Second Temple on the site of
the First, and rebuilt the city and its walls.

     Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem in 332 BCE. After his death the
city was ruled by the Ptolemies of Egypt and then by the Seleucids of Syria. The
Hellenization of the city reached its peak under the Seleucid ruler Antiochus
IV; the desecration of the Temple and attempts to supress Jewish religious
identity resulted in a revolt.

     Led by Judah Maccabee, the Jews defeated the Seleucids, rededicated the
Temple (164 BCE), and re-established Jewish independence under the Hasmonean
dynasty, which lasted for more than a hundred years, until Pompey imposed Roman
rule on Jerusalem. King Herod the Idumean, who was installed as ruler of Judah
by the Romans (37 - 4 BCE), established cultural institutions in Jerusalem,
erected magnificent public buildings and refashioned the Temple into an edifice
of splendor.

     Jewish revolt against Rome broke out in 66 CE, as Roman rule after Herod's
death became increasingly oppressive. For a few years Jerusalem was free of
foreign rule, until, in 70 CE, Roman legions under Titus conquered the city and
destroyed the Temple. Jewish independence was briefly restored during the Bar
Kochba revolt (132-135), but again the Romans prevailed. Jews were forbidden to
enter the city, which was renamed Aelia Capitolina and rebuilt along the lines
of a Roman City.

     For the next century and a half, Jerusalem was a small provincial town.
This changed radically when the Byzantine Emperor Constantine transformed
Jerusalem into a Christian center. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher (335) was
the first of numerous grandiose structures built in the city.

     Muslim armies invaded the country in 634, and four years later Caliph Omar
captured Jerusalem. Only during the reign of Abdul Malik, who built the Dome of
the Rock (691), did Jerusalem briefly become the seat of a caliph. The
century-long rule of the Umayyad Dynasty from Damascus was succeeded in 750 by
the Abbasids from Baghdad, and with them Jerusalem began to decline.

     The Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099, massacred its Jewish and Muslim
inhabitants, and established the city as the capital of the Crusader Kingdom.
Under the Crusaders, synagogues were destroyed, old churches were rebuilt and
many mosques were turned into Christian shrines. Crusader rule over Jerusalem
ended in 1187, when the city fell to Saladin the Kurd.

     The Mamluks, a military feudal aristocracy from Egypt, ruled Jerusalem from
1250. They constructed numerous graceful buildings, but treated the city solely
as a Muslim theological center and ruined its economy through neglect and
crippling taxes.

     The Ottoman Turks, whose rule lasted for four centuries, conquered
Jerusalem in 1517. Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt the city walls (1537),
constructed the Sultan's Pool, and placed public fountains throughout the city.
After his death, the central authorities in Constantinople took little interest
in Jerusalem. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Jerusalem sunk to one of its
lowest ebbs.

     Jerusalem began to thrive once more in the latter half of the nineteenth
century. Growing numbers of Jews returning to their land, waning Ottoman power
and revitalized European interest in the Holy Land led to renewed development of
Jerusalem.

     The British army led by General Allenby conquered Jerusalem in 1917. From
1922 to 1948 Jerusalem was the administrative seat of the British authorities in
the Land of Israel (Palestine), which had been entrusted to Great Britain by the
League of Nations following the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire after World
War I. The city developed rapidly, growing westward into what became known as
the "New City". Upon termination of the British Mandate on May 14, 1948, and in
accordance with the UN resolution of November 29,1947, Israel proclaimed its
independence, with Jerusalem as its capital. Opposing its establishment, the
Arab countries launched an all-out assault on the new state, resulting in the
1948-49 War of Independence. The armistice lines drawn at the end of the war
divided Jerusalem into two, with Jordan occupying the Old City and areas to the
north and south, and Israel retaining the western and southern parts of the
city.

     Jerusalem was reunited in June 1967, as a result of a war in which the
Jordanians attempted to seize the western section of the city. The Jewish
Quarter of the Old City, destroyed under Jordanian rule, has been restored, and
Israeli citizens are again able to visit their holy place, which had been denied
them between 1948-1967.

JERUSALEM the Holy City

     Sanctified by religion and tradition, by history and theology, by holy
places and houses of worship, Jerusalem is a city revered by Jews, Christians,
and Muslims. It reflects the fervor and piety of the three major monotheistic
faiths, each of which is bound to Jerusalem by veneration and love.

     The Jewish bond to Jerusalem was never broken. For three millennia
Jerusalem has been the center of the Jewish faith, retaining its symbolic value
throughout the generations. The many Jews who had been exiled after the Roman
conquest and scattered throughout the world never forgot Jerusalem. Year after
year they repeated "Next year in Jerusalem." Jerusalem became the symbol of the
desire of Jews everywhere to return to their land. It was invoked by the
prophets, enshrined in daily prayer, and sung by Hebrew poets in far-flung
lands.

     Mount Moriah, where the Temple once stood; the Western Wall, the only
remnant of the Temple, which has been the focus of prayer and longing of Jews
for nineteen centuries; the Tomb of David on Mount Zion; and the ancient
cemetery on the Mount of Olives where Jews have been buried for centuries - all
these are indelibly etched on Jewish consciousness.

     Hundreds of synagogues identified with various trends in Judaism as well as
with ethnic and geographic groupings from Tunisia to Afghanistan and from Warsaw
to New York, serve Jerusalem's Jewish population.

     For Christians, Jerusalem is the place where Jesus lived, preached, died,
and was resurrected. While it is the heavenly rather than the earthly Jerusalem
which is emphasized by the Church, places mentioned in the New Testament as the
sites of his ministry and passion have drawn pilgrims and devoted worshippers
for centuries. Among these sites are the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the
Garden of Gethsemane, the Site of the Last Supper, and the Via Dolorosa with the
fourteen stations of the Cross.

     The rights of the various Christian churches to custody of the Christian
holy places in Jerusalem were defined in the course of the nineteenth century,
when Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire. Known as the 'status quo
arrangement for the Christian holy places in Jerusalem,' these rights remained
in force during the period of the British Mandate and are still upheld today
in Israel.

     The Christian community of Jerusalem is divided into Eastern Orthodox,
Monophysite, Roman Catholic, Uniate and Protestant denominations. Apart from
the Armenian community, most of whom are descendants of refugees who arrived
from Turkey in the 1920s, the overwhelming majority of Christians in
Jerusalem are descendants of the ancient Christian communities of the
Byzantine period.

     According to Islam, the prophet Mohammed was miraculously transported from
Mecca to Jerusalem, and it was from there that he made his ascent to heaven. The
Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aksa ("the remote") Mosque, both built in the
seventh century, made definitive the identification of Jerusalem as the "Remote
Place" that is mentioned in the Koran, and thus a holy place after Mecca and
Medina. Literature praising the virtues of Jerusalem - the fadha'il al kuds -
flourished in the Muslim world.

     Jerusalem's first encounter with Islam - in the seventh century - was also
its first encounter with the Arabs who were Islam's apostles, and who, under its
banner, acquired a vast empire. Most of the Muslims living in Jerusalem today
are Sunnis.

     Freedom of religion and the safeguarding of all holy places are anchored
in Israel's Declaration of Independence. The holy places are administered by
their respective religious communities, and free access to them is guaranteed
by law.

[See Table 1.: Population of Jerusalem]

Archeology in JERUSALEM

     Jerusalem, a city with a continuous recorded history of more than thirty
centuries and historical significance for three of the world's major religions,
has proved irresistible to archeologists. Since the middle of the 19th century,
archeological digs have been undertaken in and around the Old City, ever
increasing in scope and improving in scientific methods. Layer upon layer of
past eras has been uncovered, bearing out history, and also revealing secrets
hitherto unknown.

     In recent years many sites have been restored and opened to the public.
Among them:

     The Ophel Archeological Garden, below the southeastern corner of the Temple
Mount, reveals 2,500 years of Jerusalem's history in 25 layers of ruins from the
structures of successive rulers. The ancient staircase and the Hulda Gate,
through which worshippers entered the Second Temple compound, and the remnants
of a complex of royal palaces of the 7th century Muslim period are among the
antiquities excavated

     The City of David Archeological Park spreads over a ridge to the southeast
of the Old City. With the Gihon spring at its foot, it includes remains of
Canaanite and Israelite citadels, a 52-foot (16 meter) high structure of the
10th century BCE, possibly built by King David, and Judean dwellings of the 8th
and 7th centuries BCE.

     The Citadel, also known as the Tower of David, houses the Museum of the
History of Jerusalem. Excavations have revealed a Hasmonean wall of the second
century BCE, three towers built by King Herod and structures from the Roman,
Byzantine, Crusader, Mamluk and Turkish periods.

     The "Burnt House", actually the basement workshop of a house destroyed by
the Romans in 70 CE, bears witness to the end of ancient Jewish Jerusalem.

     The "Herodian Quarter" has revealed residences of the wealthy, including
Temple priests of the Herodian period.

     A Roman Gateway has been excavated beneath the Damascus Gate, itself built
in the 16th century by the Ottomans. Apparently the main entrance to the Roman
Emperor Hadrian's Aelia Capitolina, it consists of a gate tower with three
openings, leading to guard towers and a plaza within.

     The Cardo, the Roman and Byzantine commercial thoroughfare, has been
uncovered and restored, its vaulted recesses serving once more as shops.

     The Nea Church, built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the sixth
century, has been uncovered and restored. A monumental Greek inscription
identifies the church.

     A thumb-sized ivory pomegranate bearing an ancient Hebrew inscription, is
the only relic ever recovered from King Solomon's lost Temple treasures. The
tiny pomegranate, thought to have topped a scepter carried by a Temple priest,
bears the inscription "Belonging to the Temple of the Lord, holy to the
priests." It dates from the mid-8th century BCE, the time of Solomon's
Temple.

     Many of the treasures found in these excavations and in numerous others in
and around Jerusalem are housed in the Bronfman Biblical and Archeological
Museum and in the Rockefeller Museum, both part of Jerusalem's Israel Museum.
Among the finds were two tiny silver scrolls unearthed along with more than 1000
other artifacts, at an ancient burial site on a hill known as Ketef Hinnom,
facing the Old City walls. Patiently unrolled, the scrolls revealed ancient
Hebrew script, dating from the 7th century BCE, thus making it one of the oldest
Hebrew Biblical texts ever found. The scrolls contain the priestly benediction
(Numbers 6:24-26):

     "The Lord bless thee and keep thee: The Lord make his face to shine upon
thee and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and
give thee peace."

JERUSALEM within the Walls

     The Old City of Jerusalem is one of the oldest continuously inhabited
cities in the world; archeologists estimate its age at more than 4,500 years.
The walls surrounding the Old City encompass an area of barely a third of a
square mile (1 sq. km.). These walls were built by Sultan Suleiman the
Magnificent in the sixteenth century, roughly following the course of the
walls built by the Romans to encircle Jerusalem in the second century.

     Today, they are revealed in their full height and splendor, after rubble
accumulated over centuries was cleared away. A "Ramparts Walkway" has been
built, affording an unparalleled view of Jerusalem and its surroundings. The
"green belt" along the walls consists of flowering gardens and promenades, as
well as archeological parks.

     Eight gates are built into the city's walls. Seven are open and one
remains sealed. The four main gates-Jaffa Gate, Damascus Gate, Lion's Gate,
Zion Gate - were constructed according to the four directions of the compass
and led to the main cities of the land.

     The Jaffa Gate bears the inscription of the Sultan Suleiman, who ordered
its construction in 1538/9 (corresponding to the Muslim year 945). The Jaffa
Gate is the best known and busiest of Jerusalem's gates. It was built facing
west, in the direction of the port of Jaffa.

     The New Gate, facing north, is essentially a breach in the wall, opened
in 1887 to provide direct access into the Christian quarter.

     The Damascus Gate is the main entrance to the Muslim quarter. Its narrow
entrance and wooden bridge have been replaced by an amphitheater-shaped plaza
and a substantial stone bridge. The gate faces north in the direction of
Nablus (Shechem) and ultimately Damascus in Syria.

     Herod's Gate, also facing north, is also called the Flower Gate because
of the floral designs engraved on its facade.

     The Lions' Gate, adorned with heraldic lions on either side of the
portal, was restored, according to its inscription, by the Ottomans in 1538/9
(corresponding to the Muslim year 945). It is also known as St. Stephen's
Gate. The gate faces east, the direction of Jericho.

     The Golden Gate, also facing east, is called in Hebrew and Arabic the
"Gate of Mercy." According to Jewish tradition, this is the gate through which
the Messiah will enter Jerusalem. To prevent the Messiah's entry, the Arabs
sealed the gate several centuries ago.

     The Dung Gate, facing south, more a "back door" than a monumental gate,
is the entrance closest to the Western ("Wailing") Wall.

     The Zion Gate, or David's Gate, stands on Mount Zion. It was built for
the Sultan Suleiman in 1540, in an area where earlier walls - from the
Hasmonean and Herodian periods - have been unearthed today. This gate faces
south in the direction of Hebron.

     The Romans, who rebuilt Jerusalem after they razed the city during their
war against the Jews, constructed two main thoroughfares - northsouth and
east-west - thus forming four sections, today the Jewish, Muslim, Christian
and Armenian quarters of the Old City. These quarters, despite their names,
have never been homogeneous: always some Jews, Muslims and Christians have
lived in each of the four quarters, and the holy sites of all three faiths are
to be found throughout the Old City.

     Under Israeli control, no effort has been spared to keep alive the
physical and spiritual heritage of the Old City, and to preserve the tangible
reminders of its past.

     The Jewish Quarter, which was almost entirely destroyed during the
Jordanian occupation (1948-67), has been rebuilt. The Hurva synagogue, built
nearly 400 years ago, dominated the skyline of the area before 1948; today a
single commemorative arch marks its site.

     A newly constructed and attractively designed plaza, allowing thousands
of worshippers to congregate, now faces the Western Wall, the only remaining
part of the Second Temple compound.

     In the market area of the Old City's Muslim Quarter, which possesses a
special architectural beauty, facades have been cleaned and repaired;
shutters, show-windows and other fixtures replaced; unsightly roofing of the
main street of the market replaced by wood and copper; alleyways repaved; and
modern infrastructure introduced.

     A new pavement graces the Via Dolorosa, the flagstones arranged so as to
indicate the Stations of the Cross. Here and there ancient paving stones are
interspersed with newly cut Jerusalem stone, creating a moving experience for
Christian pilgrims.

     The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, damaged by fire in 1833 and by
earthquake in 1926, has recently been restored through the joint effort of the
three principal custodian churches.

     Today, the Old City of Jerusalem is a unique synthesis of old and new: not
only a historical showcase, but a home for many, and a bustling commercial
area.

Living JERUSALEM

     Jerusalem is a mosaic of cultures and nationalities, of peoples and
neighborhoods, of old and new. It is a union of contrasts with a unique
character.

     Jerusalem is the seat of the President of Israel, the Knesset (Israel's
parliament), the Supreme Court, government ministries and the Chief Rabbinate.
Here, too, are the Israel Museum, the National Library, and Yad Vashem - the
country's memorial to the martyrs of the Holocaust.

     Modern Jerusalem has grown up around Jerusalem within the walls; the
city, a bustling metropolis with a population of nearly half a million,
spreads over more than 42 square miles (100 sq. km.) of hills and valleys.

     The history of modern Jerusalem began with the building of Mishkenot
Sha'ananim (1860), the first neighborhood outside the protective but
confining city walls, which was built by people seeking relief from the
overcrowded conditions in the Jewish quarter. Fifty years later, twice as many
people lived in 17 neighborhoods outside the Old City, as lived within its
walls.

     Jerusalem of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is characterized by
the neighborhood concept which began with the four quarters of the Old City.
In the "New City," members of ethnic communities settled together to form the
first neighborhoods. Later, a common ideology brought people to live
together. Still later, various waves of immigration from specific countries or
regions were the major factor in determining the composition of a
neighborhood's population.

     The expansion of Jerusalem, today Israel's largest city, has blurred the
traditional homogeneity of its neighborhoods. However, most of them still
maintain at least some of the special characteristics which marked them at the
beginning.

     Because of the importance of the Jerusalem to the world at large, the
Jerusalem Committee was established by Mayor Teddy Kollek in 1968 to review
the city's development plans. The Committee - which consists of some 70
renowned architects, urban planners, historians and philosophers from many
countries - meets in Jerusalem every two years and serves as an international
advisory council concerned with the restoration and development of the city,
and the preservation of Jerusalem's special character and unique pluralistic
heritage.

     Jerusalem's drive for development since reunification in 1967 has
encompassed almost every sphere of urban life: several new suburbs have been
built on the city's periphery; many hotels have been erected; a number of
industrial zones have been developed; neighborhoods have been `renewed';
dozens of public parks have been planted; synagogues, churches and mosques
have been restored, and new ones have been built.

     Parallel with its physical development, Jerusalem's cultural facilities
and activities have expanded. The city has become host to international
cultural festivals and scientific conventions. The annual Israel Festival
presenting dance, theater and music performances by both local and foreign
artists and groups, the biennial Jerusalem International Book fair, and other
regular film, puppet theater and choral music festivals attract large
audiences to Israel's capital.

     Jerusalem - whose name, according to tradition, is derived from the two
Hebrew words "ir" meaning city and "shalom" meaning peace - embodies the hope
expressed in mankind's noblest aspiration: peace among all men. The freedom of
worship which is enjoyed by Jews, Muslims and Christians at their holy sites,
just a short distance from one another, and the daily contacts among the
city's various ethnic and religious groups, each of which boasts a
long-standing cultural tradition, can serve as a pattern of peace and
coexistence to be emulated throughout the region.