Hurva Synagogue
| Hurva Synagogue | |
|---|---|
The Hurva Synagogue, 2010
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| Basic information | |
| Location | 89 ha-Yehudim Street Old City of Jerusalem |
| Geographic coordinates | 31°46′30″N 35°13′53″E / 31.77510°N 35.23135°ECoordinates: 31°46′30″N 35°13′53″E / 31.77510°N 35.23135°E |
| Affiliation | Orthodox Judaism |
| Rite | Nusach Ashkenaz |
| Architectural description | |
| Architectural type | Synagogue |
| Architectural style | Neo-Byzantine |
| Completed | 1856 (rebuilt 2010) |
| Construction cost | 1m piasters (1864) $7.3m (NIS 28m) (2009) |
| Specifications | |
| Capacity | 450 (1864) 250 (2009) |
| Height (max) | 24 m (79 ft) |
The Hurva Synagogue, (Hebrew: בית הכנסת החורבה, translit: Beit ha-Knesset ha-Hurva, lit. "The Ruin Synagogue"), also known as Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid ("Ruin of Rabbi Judah the Pious"), is a historic synagogue located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The synagogue was founded in the early 18th century by followers of Judah heHasid, but it was destroyed by Muslims a few years later in 1721. The plot lay in ruins for over 140 years and became known as the Ruin, or Hurva. In 1864, the Perushim rebuilt the synagogue, and although officially named the Beis Yaakov Synagogue, it retained its name as the Hurva. It became Jerusalem's main Ashkenazic synagogue, until it too was deliberately destroyed by the Arab Legion after the withdrawal of Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
After Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, a number of plans were submitted for the design of a new building. After years of deliberation and indecision, a commemorative arch was erected instead at the site in 1977, itself becoming a prominent landmark of the Jewish Quarter. The plan to rebuild the synagogue in its 19th-century style received approval by the Israeli Government in 2000, and the newly rebuilt synagogue was dedicated on March 15, 2010.
The Hurva Synagogue today stands off a plaza in the centre of Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter. Excavations carried out at the site in July and August 2003 revealed evidence from four main settlement periods: First Temple (800–600 BCE), Second Temple (100 CE), Byzantine and Ottoman. Three bedrock-hewn mikvehs (ritual baths) were uncovered there dating from the 1st century. The earliest tradition regarding the site is of a synagogue existing there at the time of the second-century sage Judah the Prince. By the 13th century, the area had become a courtyard, known as Der Ashkenaz (the Ashkenazic Compound), for the Ashkenazic community of Jerusalem. In 1488, Obadiah ben Abraham Bartenura described a large courtyard containing many houses for exclusive use of the Ashkenazim, adjacent to a "synagogue built on pillars," referring to the Ramban Synagogue. The Ramban Synagogue had been used jointly by both Ashkenazim and Sephardim until 1586, when the Ottoman authorities confiscated the building. Thereafter, the Ashkenazim established a synagogue within their own, adjacent courtyard.
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