HURVA

The Hurva is all that is left of the Beit Yaacov synagogue, which was built by Jews who immigrated to Jerusalem from Eastern Europe in the 1800s. Eastern European Jews are called Ashkenazic Jews.

The first synagogue on this site was actually built in the 1700s by Rabbi Yehuda from Poland, who brought 1000 followers with him. Yehuda believed the end of the world was coming and he wanted his followers to be in Jerusalem when the Messiah came. When Yehuda’s synagogue couldn’t pay its taxes, the Ottoman rulers burned his synagogue down and chased Yehuda’s people out of town.

The Ottomans allowed the Ashkenazic Jews to dedicate their new synagogue after a 100 year period when the Jews had been exiled from the city. The Hurva became the largest synagogue in the city.

During the Israeli War of Independence, the Jordanians blew up the synagogue.  After 1967, the Israelis decided not to rebuild the synagogue except for a single arch, to commemorate the holy site and its destruction in the war. It is called Hurva today because “hurva” means “ruins.”

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