Introduction to Jerusalem
No one will ever be able to pinpoint what makes Jerusalem so special. The mountains, the wind, the extraordinary light may be part of its appeal. Three thousand years ago, King David, the warrior-psalmist of the Bible, made Jerusalem his capital. Perhaps he saw the poetry of the place as it was then. The Gihon Spring flowed through a paradise of gardens nestled at the foot of the Kidron Valley. From there a long narrow ridge rose steeply northward, filled with stone houses perched precariously on its sides. At the top of the ridge, seemingly hanging in the heavens, was the threshing floor of Araunah, which David purchased as the site of the Temple his son, Solomon, would one day build. Overlooking everything were the vast groves of the Mount of Olives, an ocean of silver leaves shimmering in the sun and wind, the source of the city’s wealth; over the ridge of the Mount of Olives, the sun rose each day. From its crest, the view opened onto the desert, stretching over barren mountains and down steep wadis eastward to the Dead Sea. Into this wilderness, with great ceremony, the scapegoat was released each year, carrying with it Jerusalem’s sins.
For more than 1,000 years after the time of King David, Jerusalem was the physical as well as the spiritual capital of the Jewish world. Jews longed for the splendid Jerusalem of King Solomon, for the Jerusalem of the great prophets, for the ruined Jerusalem of the Babylonian Captivity, for the modest Jerusalem of the early Second Temple period. Jews fought and died for the redemption of Jerusalem during the Maccabee Revolt in 167 B.C., and were rewarded with a miraculous victory over the Hellenistic Seleucids of Syria (the lights of Chanukah commemorate their victory to this day). It was in the dazzling and legendary Jerusalem built by King Herod that hundreds of thousands of Jews perished during the great revolt against Rome in A.D. 70. Defending the ruins of Herodian Jerusalem, hundreds of thousands more died during the Bar Kochba Revolt in A.D. 135. To this day, ancient Jerusalem remains the dream at the heart of Jewish civilization and well beyond. Almost half the world now knows the refrain, “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.” The sagas of this city’s endless struggles and the legends of its charismatic inhabitants lie at the heart of the consciousness of Western civilization.
Although the brief physical grandeur of Herodian Jerusalem long ago vanished in the ravages of warfare and time, the city’s mystique has expanded far beyond anything that could have been dreamed of in ancient times. The most awesome holy places of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have come to dot the Old City and its nearby hills. During the centuries of the Crusades, Jerusalem was the ethereal vision that moved the armies of Europe and Islam, but for almost 700 years after the Crusades ended, the actual city of Jerusalem existed mostly as a shadowy, forgotten backwater, slowly falling into ruin and decay. Not until the 19th century did the city again begin to come alive and reemerge from behind its walls.
During the years of the British Mandate (1918-48) the modern incarnation of Jerusalem developed as a quiet religious center, tourist attraction, and university town in a remarkably beautiful mountain setting. Nineteen years of division by war, barbed wire, and minefields (1948-67) brought Jerusalem’s gentle renaissance to a temporary halt. With the city’s reunification in 1967, however, Teddy Kollek, the city’s world-renowned (former) mayor, began a 25-year crusade to make sure Jerusalem would not merely exist or even thrive but would absolutely shine!
Located east of the Jordan River in the Judaean Hills, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in terms of both geographical area and population size. A holy city for three of the world’s major religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—Jerusalem has a long and tumultuous history, during which it has been home to people of many nationalities and faiths. Reunified since 1967, Jerusalem is really three cities in one: the historic walled Old City that is home to its holy places, the modern urban center to the west, and the Arab district to the east. In addition to being Israel’s spiritual, political, and administrative capital, Jerusalem is also a leader in education and health care, and its religious, historical, and cultural attractions make it the country’s premier tourist destination.
history of jerusalem
With a history extending over some 4,000 years, Jerusalem has been inhabited longer than almost any other city in the world and has had a long succession of rulers. Its first recorded connection with the Biblical kingdom of Israel occurs in the middle of the second millennium B. C. Around 1000 B. C. , King David (c. 1013–c. 973 B. C. ) made it the capital of a united Israel. It also became the spiritual center of the Jewish nation when David’s successor, King Solomon, built the First Temple 50 years later. Within the next thousand years, the city was conquered and destroyed by the Babylonians (586 B. C. ) and the Romans (A. D. 70), who rebuilt it yet once more under the name of Aelia Capitolina in A. D. 130.
After a period of Byzantine rule, Jerusalem was conquered by Muslims in the seventh century and remained part of the Islamic world for more than 1,000 years, with an interruption of about a century after it was captured by Crusaders in 1099. Four hundred years of rule by the Ottoman Empire began in 1517 and included the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (1538–1566), who oversaw major rebuilding of the city. After his reign, however, the condition of Jerusalem declined, and it gradually fell into a state of neglect. A revival of European interest in the Middle East in the late eighteenth century led to the building of consulates and other public buildings.
The Crimean War (1853–56) in the mid-nineteenth century also led to some new interest in the region and more development. This period also saw the beginning of new settlement by European Jews, beginning with the purchase of land outside the city walls in 1855 by Sir Moses Montefiore. By 1900 there were 60 Jewish settlements surrounding the old city. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War I (1914–18), Jerusalem was captured by British forces under the command of Gen. Edmund Allenby (1861–1936) and, together with the rest of Palestine, placed under British mandate by the League of Nations. During this period, Jewish immigration to the city increased, resulting in escalating tensions with Palestine’s Arab neighbors. In its 1947 partition plan for Palestine, the United Nations proposed turning
Tower of David. Jerusalem into an internationally administered city, but Arab forces rejected the plan and laid siege to the city.
The British left Palestine on May 14, 1948, and the state of Israel was proclaimed. The following year, Jerusalem was declared its capital, and it became the seat of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament). The Old City and East Jerusalem, occupied by Arab forces during the Israeli-Arab war that followed the proclamation of Israel’s independence, remained under Arab control until 1967, and East Jerusalem was declared the second capital of Jordan.
In the 1967 Six Day War, Israeli forces annexed the Old City, and all of Jerusalem was placed under Israeli rule. Since that time, extensive preservation and restoration have been carried out in the Old City while the newer part of the city has been expanded by the addition of new housing developments. This expansion has made Jerusalem Israel’s largest city. In 1980 the Israeli government confirmed the official status of Jerusalem as the nation’s capital.
people
Jerusalem is one of Israel’s most populous city, and its population continues to grow rapidly thanks to a high birth rate and the arrival of new immigrants, many of them from the former Soviet republics. Since 1986, the city’s population has grown by 28 percent, with peripheral neighborhoods, such as Manchat and Pisgat Ze’ev, recording the greatest increases. At the end of 1996, Jerusalem’s population was 602,100, and it is expected to reach 650,000 by 2000.
As of 1996, Jews accounted for 70 percent of the city’s inhabitants, with Arabs making up the rest. Of the city’s Arabs, 92 percent were Muslim and eight percent Christian. Because of Jerusalem’s large non-Jewish and Orthodox Jewish populations—both of which tend to have large families—young people account for an unusually large percentage of the city’s population: in 1996, 44 percent of the population was aged zero to 19 (including 13 percent aged zero to four) while only eight percent were senior citizens.
performing art
The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra performs regularly at the Henry Crown Theater, part of the Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts (which also includes the Jerusalem Theater and the Rebecca Crown Theater). In the summer months, the modern Sultan’s Pool Amphitheatre, near Yemin Moshe, with a view of the Old City walls is a dramatic venue for both classical and popular concerts. Classical, jazz, and folk music concerts are performed at the Gerard Bakhar Theater. Concerts are also presented at area universities and at the Israel Museum.
Jerusalem does not have a resident theater company, but audiences can attend performances by troupes from Tel Aviv (the Habimah and Carmeri Theater Companies) and by the Haifa Municipal Theater Company. The annual Israel Festival in May and June brings performances by additional groups from many parts of the world, and experimental theater can be seen regularly at the Khan Theatre. Musical theater, often in English, is featured at Tzavta. The Train Theatre is a railroad carriage that has been converted to a puppet theater. The Bat Dor and Inbal dance companies perform frequently in Jerusalem, as does the Israel Opera.
Arabic theater and dancing is presented at the Al-Masrah Centre for Palestinian Culture and Art and the Al-Kasaba Theatre.
FEASTIVALS
JANUARY-FEBRUARY
Tu B’Shvat
FEBRUARY
Jerusalem Musical Encounters
FEBRUARY-MARCH
Purim
MARCH
International Festival of Poets
International Judaica Fair
MARCH-APRIL
Pesach (Passover)
APRIL-MAY
Independence Day
Lag Ba-Omer
MAY-JUNE
Israel Festival
Jerusalem Liberation Day
Shavuot
JULY
International Film Festival
JULY-AUGUST
Tish B’Av
AUGUST
Jerusalem International Puppet Theatre Festival
SEPTEMBER
Early Music Workshop
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Succot
Simchat Torah
OCTOBER
Jerusalem Marathon
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER
Chanukah
DECEMBER
Liturgica
