Losing One's House of Worship Because of Progress: Case in Point: in Jerusalem and in Portland, Oregon

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

Beit Safafa is a Palestinian town along the Green Line, with the vast majority of its territory in East Jerusalem and some northern parts in West Jerusalem. Since the 1949 agreements, the neighborhood had been divided by the Green Line.  Its name means " "House of the summer-houses or narrow benches."  Right now there is a huge problem with its Al Rahman Mosque in East Jerusalem.

While the iconic Dome of the Rock is lined with real gold, Al-Rahman Mosque in Beit Safafa has only been painted to look like the real thing.

Jerusalem now has a second golden dome, as those driving along the main road to the east of the Beit Safafa neighborhood will have noticed.  But unlike the famous Dome of the Rock in the Old City, adorned with 5,000 actual gold plates financed by the late king Hussein of Jordan, this smaller version, atop the Al-Rahman Mosque, has merely been painted to look like the real thing.  

One of four mosques in the southern Jerusalem Arab neighborhood, Al-Rahman, built before Israel’s founding in 1948, is being renovated and expanded at the pace at which donations come in from locals and Arabs living in northern Israel. However,  the city of Jerusalem plans to demolish it. This came up in the news today.  

Since the 1949 agreements, the neighborhood had been divided by the Green Line. Until 1967, the East Jerusalem part remained under Jordanian rule while the northern parts became under Israeli rule.  Beit Safafa covers an area of 1,577 dunams. In 2010, Beit Safafa had a population of 5,463.

After the 1948 war, a section of the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway remained under Jordanian control. Following the 1949 Armistice Agreements, it was agreed that Jordan would transfer control of this section of the track to Israel, in order to enable Israel Railways to restart rail service to Jerusalem. As a result, the area south of the railway line was part of the Jordanian-controlled West Bank and the railway line itself and the area to the north, was part of Israeli-controlled Jerusalem. Service on the line resumed on August 7, 1949.

During the period when the neighborhood was divided, a two-foot high barbed wire fence was erected down the middle of the main street with Arab Legionnaires and Israeli soldiers guarding on each side.

In 1961, the Jordanian census showed a population of 1,025 in Beit Safafa.                                  

    The 6 Day War over, and these IDF paratroopers see the Wall, the Kotel,  in Jerusalem,  in commemoration as they are older.  

After the Six-Day War in 1967, the whole of Beit Safafa has been a part of Israel, and the fence between the east and the west part was taken down. Residents of the Israeli side had Israeli citizenship while those on the south side were given, like East Jerusalem residents, Jerusalem ID cards and residency, while retaining Jordanian citizenship. Also following the 1967 war, Palestinian Christians with Israeli citizenship from Nazareth, Jaffa, and Jerusalem moved to Beit Safafa, expanding the small community, and several Jewish families moved in as well. Jerusalem was no longer a divided city.  It was one whole city once again. 

According to ARIJ, Israel has expropriated land from Sharafat and Beit Safafa for the construction of three Israeli towns: First, 

                        1 Dunam=0.247105 of an acre 

                        1 Dunam=10,763.9 sq feet

                        1 Dunam=3,587.9 sq yards

                        1 Dunam= 1,000 sq meters

• 1,529 dunams have been taken for Gilo,
• 166 dunams have been taken for Har Homa,
• 285 dunams have been taken for Giv’at Hamatos.

 

This shows how close everything is and how precious land is, land needed to hold homes, since Israel was "bartered" down to 10% of its original expectation of a Jewish Homeland.  

Urban planning has come to this sleepy town, itself causing a raucous.  In 2012, an urban development plan, approved by the Jerusalem Municipality,  announced a project to build four new roads in Beit Safafa.

In early 2013, the Jerusalem Municipality began construction of an eight-lane highway that would bisect Beit Safafa. Israeli author David Grossman wrote that the plan was adopted without public scrutiny and would harm the character of the neighborhood. The residents claimed that the plan was illegal and construction commenced without warning. After petitioning the local courts and the Israeli Supreme Court, the residents succeeded in halting the project.

Naomi Tzur, deputy mayor of Jerusalem and holder of the urban planning portfolio, said that the residents were "taking advantage of the political situation to turn a local concern into an international story. When the residents of Beit Hakerem, another sleepy town,  conducted their fight over their part of Begin Highway, the international media wasn’t interested. This is simply a residents’ fight against its municipality for better compensations and better infrastructure, and it’s a perfectly justifiable fight and part of democracy."

In June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the 1-mile stretch of highway crossing Beit Safafa, would cause unacceptable damage to the residents' quality of life. Beit Safafa’s lawyers say the construction of an acoustically insulated tunnel that puts the road underground and protects the area’s geographic integrity might be an acceptable solution.  

                                           

 

  Mayor of Jerusalem since 2018  Moshe Lion/Leon, and 1st Sephardim, is an Israeli politician who is currently the Mayor of Jerusalem. He previously served as a member of the Jerusalem City Council, director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, Chairman of the Israel Railways, and head of the Jerusalem Development Authority. Lion graduated with a BA in economics and accounting from Bar-Ilan University, and interned in the office of Avigdor Yitzhaki, receiving his CPA in 1990. His brother, Dr. Nissim Lion, is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar-Ilan University.

"The Jerusalem Municipality ordered the demolition of a mosque in the Palestinian neighborhood Beit Safafa in east Jerusalem. The Al-Rahman Mosque - built before Israel’s founding in 1948 - reportedly drew criticism from several Israeli NGOs due to its striking similarity to the Dome of the Rock. According to court documents, the municipality approved the demolition based on a floor of the building that was built without a permit and that 700 square meters of the compound were built without a permit or the approval of certified engineers."

I'm asking many questions here in the states that I cannot answer without being in Israel, but right now I'm against destruction.  

                                             

     

I remember my old synagogue in SW Portland, Neveh Zedek, started in 1911 as a  conservative  synagogue and that it was also demolished because of Urban Development."

  Starting in the late 1950s with the creation of the Portland Development Commission and under the leadership of Portland businessman Ira Keller, urban renewal cleared block after block of south Portland homes, businesses, bars, churches and rooming houses. It fought suits and paid settlements. And by the mid-1970s, new construction had taken the place of most of the old structures." I was a busy teen and young adult when this happened, but they were putting in a freeway, changing it all, and it was affecting our Jewish section of the day, South Portland, where my father was born, where his parents had chosen to live after coming from Lithuania.  Our family had no more "that special" synagogue to call their own since their beginnings there."                                                                                         

I remember going in the side-door on Sunday morning for Sunday school.  It was a Conservative Shul with white-haired Rabbi Philip Kleinman as our Rabbi.  (Notice how the newspaper left out Synagogues when they listed churches?  South Portland was our Jewish neighborhood.)  We were there along with Italians.  

                                                     

My special neighborhood, South Portland, was populated starting in 1867.  Portland even had a Jewish mayor in 1860, Bernard Goldsmith.  Oregonians, including Maier Hirsch, attending the Republican Convention in Maryland, 1864. The city was officially founded in 1843 and its name was famously determined by an 1845 coin toss between business partners Asa Lovejoy (of Boston, Mass.) and Francis Pettygrove (of Portland, Maine). We had some connections, being there since the beginning, but it didn't help at all.  Progress marches onward, can't be stagnate.  OUT went a very special synagogue.  It was in the way of the city's progress.  It was my synagogue; from Kindergarten on. I taught there as an older person.  it's still a loss to me.  I could not share it with my children past May 1960 when they completed their final class there in Kindergarten and 1st grade..     

                           A Street in Jerusalem  today

Resource:

Israel AM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beit_Safafa

https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-new-second-golden-dome-graces-jerusalems-skyline/

https://www.oregonlive.com/history/2015/02/throwback_thursday_60_years_ag.html

https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/media-collections/jews-in-oregon/

https://www.travelportland.com/culture/history/#:~:text=The%20city%20was%20officially%20founded,Historical%20Society%20in%20downtown%20Portland.

Our Jerusalem of Gold

Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Gates of JerusalemThis is the oldest of the current gates in Jerusalem's Old City Walls. According to Jewish tradition, the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) used to appear through this gate, and will appear again when the Messiah comes (Ezekiel 44:1-3) and a new gate replaces the present one; that is why Jews used to pray for mercy at the former gate at this location.  Hence,  the name Sha'ar Harachamim the Gate of Mercy.

Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of bronze, I am the lute for all your songs.
Yerushalayim shel zahav, Veshel nechoshet veshel or, Halo lechol shirayich Ani kinor.
(Or in Hebrew means "Light."  Zahav means "gold.")

This is the chorus of a well known song in Israel about Jerusalem written by Naomi Shemer and sung by Shula Natan, among others.  It's what I learned in my Hebrew class back in 1980-81.  It's so true, because the stone used on buildings appears to look like a shimmering gold color and makes it so beautiful with that gorgeous blue sky above.  Also, here is Tamar Giladi singing with Rami Harel.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yh9tfc9PSo

Jerusalem again the capital of Israel since 1948, is a city where 300,00 people lived in 1972.  As of 2012,  there were  809,112 in this unified city.  Jerusalem had been the capital of the Jewish nation between 1,000 BCE and 586 BCE and again between 516 BCE and 70 CE.

It has known many foreign rulers, but only for the Jews has it been the capital of the nation living in the Land.

                                                                             

Ariel view of Temple Mount where 1st and 2nd Temple stood, now covered over
by the Mosque of Omar, or "Dome of the Rock."  He was the 2nd Calif who ruled 634-44 when he conquered Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia.  He even then expelled the Jews from N. Arabia (Medina).  He gave Jews the dhimmi status of having to pay a poll tax to remain as 2nd class citizens in Arab countries.  The Mosque sits in the middle of the Temple area and was rebuilt by Caliph Abd al-Malik in about 738 to replace Omar's temporary one.  

The Jews of Jerusalem today are the inhabitants with the longest unbroken historical association with it, dating from the time, nearly 3,000 years ago, when King David made it his capital.  Only to the Jews has Jerusalem always been the focus of national and religious aspirations.
                                                                           

Located at Gan Havradim (Rose Garden) in front of the Knesset (The Israeli parliament).
The Menorah is the work of Beno Belkan, a British sculptor.
It is made of bronze and 5 meters high and 4 meters wide.
On each of the seven branches is a relief depicting events and personages from the history of the Jewish people and culture.
It was given to the State of Israel by the British Labour Party as a token of goodwill and friendship.

It is the seat of the President of the State, the Knesset, the Government, the Supreme Court, the Chief Rabbinate, the Hebrew University and the Israel Museum.  The Knesset is Israel's single chamber parliament with 120 seats, created in 1949.  All people vote 18 years of age and over.  Candidates must be above age 25.  The permanent building was opened in 1966.

The holiest shrine of the Jews in Jerusalem is the Western Wall, dating from the time of the 2nd Temple, built because Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the 1st in 586 BCE.  Jews returned in 538 BCE and rebuilt it.  Now Obama's Administration has tried to say with Resolution 2334 that we cannot enter East Jerusalem where the Wall stands.                                                      

Western (Wailing) wall at night.  

                                                                         

It was in 1948 that we were kept from this wall and could not return till 1967.  For 19 years, between 1948 and 1967, Jerusalem was divided in two---between Israel and Jordan.  Barbed wire and concrete walls separated the 2 parts of the city and the Jordanians forbade movement of people from one part of the city to another.  After the Six-Day War of June 5th to 11th, 1967, Jerusalem was reunified.   As for all of Israel's population in 2017, it is now 8,630,000.  Just under half of the Jewish population lives in the center of the country, either Jerusalem or Tel Aviv metropolitan areas.  60% of the Arab population lives in the north.

Jerusalem and the Central region recorded an above average growth rate of 2.5% while Tel Aviv saw one of its lowest, at 0.8%.  Tel Aviv is Israel's densest region with 7,522 people per km²; Jerusalem has a density of 1,484 people per km² and Bnei Brak is Israel's densest city with 22,145 people per km².  Bnei Brak is an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.  By comparison, Portland, Oregon, USA's density is 1,689.2 km sq. 

                                                                           

The 19 years it was divided between East and West Jerusalem.

For Christians, the link with Jerusalem begin with Jesus of Nazareth and the traditional association of many places with the story of his life and death.  The holiest place for Christians is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
                                                                     

3rd holiest place for Moslems 

For Moslems, Jerusalem is 3rd in holiness after Mecca and Medina.  The mosque of Al Aqsa on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is one of the holiest shrines of Islam.  The Holy Places are each administered by the religious bodies to which they belong.  The Old City of Jerusalem is mainly East Jerusalem.
                                                                               

Police at the Temple Mount dealing with rock throwers

By 1973, Jerusalem was a thriving city of coexistence between Jews and Arabs, between members of the 3 great faiths, between the religious and secular ways of life.  Today we have seen much stone throwing by the Arabs hitting Jews, stabbings and ramming crowds with vehicles done by the Arabs.  They have been continually taught in their schools to hate Jews and their behavior is rewarded by their leaders, both monetarily and publicly, with parks and other places named for those that die in their killing sprees.

Jerusalem has had the highest rate of natural increase in Israel---22.7 per thousand.  Employment has been full, but the city is still burdened by social and economic problems.  12% of the families have had 7 or more children.  39% of the population are of school age.  There is a serious housing shortage.

To improve conditions, a large building program was being carried out in 1972 in all parts of the city, Arab and Jewish.  This created problems of how to preserve the traditional character of the city while developing it at an accelerated pace.  The Municipality exerted itself in the attempt to plan the future of the city so that a correct balance between ancient and modern was to be maintained.
                                                                         

Light rail, November 2011 on rainy morning
To me it looks like Portland's Max.  

One thing I missed seeing by leaving at the end of 1985 was Jerusalem's light rail.  "The first line of the Jerusalem Light Rail network was completed in 2010 with the erection of Santiago Calatrava's Chords Bridgeover Jaffa Road. The first line began operating from Pisgat Ze'ev in the northeast, throughFrench Hill and Jaffa Road to the Central Bus Station and the southwestern neighborhoods. The line was fully operational by late 2011, after several delays, with 14 trains and a maximum headway of 12 minutes.
                                                                       

Route 99 Tourist Bus in Jerusalem

"Jerusalem Central Bus Station is West Jerusalem's intercity bus station. The part of the city is served mainly by Egged buses, though as of 2009, a number of other companies are providing an increasing number of bus lines to and from the city also; as of 2009, Dan and Superbus also use the Central Bus Station. City buses in West Jerusalem are run by Egged, which runs close to 100 bus lines throughout the city and its suburbs. A map of the various lines may be accessed on MobileMe."
                                                                         

Jerusalem's history is all recorded in  the Bible.  "Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth." (Bible, Zechariah, 8, 3)   Jerusalem, which is bound firmly together.  (Bible, Psalms, 122,3)  Eternity means Jerusalem. (Talmud, Berakhot, 58);  There is no beauty like the beauty of Jerusalem.  (Avot Derabbi Nathan, Talmudic Commentary).


Resource:  http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-yerushalayimshelzahav.htm
Facts About Israel, , Division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/latest-population-statistics-for-israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Jerusalem