How did those world leaders get involved with a Synagogue?

It all started in a desperate attempt to keep the precious property in Jewish hands back in the 1830’s.

Word got out that Tsar Nicolas I wanted to purchase a strategic property in the eastern section of the Jewish Quarter, to build a massive church. This was the same property that Rabbi Yisrael Bek was planning to purchase.

Here’s the back story….

Rabbi Yisrael Bek was one of the leading Jewish figures in the Old City, in times of great poverty and hardship. He helped many Jews who wished to move to Jerusalem in those difficult times. He opened his home, but there was no space large enough for communal gatherings. The community needed a center to socialize, welcome visitors, host communal activities, prayers and a place to share and celebrate life with friends and family.

Beck had his eye on the property and had been raising funds for its purchase, when suddenly he learned of the Tsar’s plans to bid on the same lot! Such a sale would prevent the building of a Jewish center and it would create a barrier between the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall!

Rabbi Bek was anxious to purchase the property on behalf of the community. He sent his son Nissan on a global mission to Austro-Hungary, to consult with their Grand Rabbi (Rebbe) of Rozhin, Rabbi Yisrael Friedman. Rabbi Friedman had recently escaped from Tsarist Russia and fled to Sadigora in the Ukraine.

An Urgent Proposition

Nissan Bek traveled to Europe where he presented the case to Rabbi Friedman, including the fact that the Tsar was interested in the property. Rabbi Friedman urged him to purchase the property at any price and gave him a large sum of his own money to help him do so.

Nissan returned to Jerusalem, and purchased the land

The 19th Century Building Fund Campaign

The effort to establish the Synagogue brought unprecedented unity to the Jewish community. Rabbi Yisrael of Sadigora, Rabbi Yitzchak of Boyan (the renowned “Pachad Yitzchak”), the Chief Rabbi of the land of Israel, Rabbi Refael Meir Panizil, the Bek family and many volunteers all worked in harmony to raise funds for the Synagogue.

The process to purchase the property and prepare building plans started in 1843, but it was only completed 28 years later in 1871!!!

While Nissan Bek and his father Israel were busy with the campaign, people moved to the Old City in anticipation of the Synagogue’s construction. The new community was Ashkenazi with different customs from the veteran residents. The new community gathered daily for prayers in the Bek home, which soon filled to capacity. Elizabeth Finn, the renowned wife of the British Consul in Jerusalem James Finn, also recognized the changing culture of the city and noted ”a marked increase in Ashkenazi Jews living in the city” in her diary in 1846.

Yisrael Bek had sharp political insight. He involved the Austrian Foreign Office in his effort, as he knew that the Ottomans wanted to gain favor in the eyes of the Austrians. Bek recruited Baron Rothschild to the cause. The Austrian Vice Consul Josef Pizzanano was soon in cahoots with Rothschild and Nissan Bek and promised to do his best to influence Emperor Franz Josef to put pressure on the Ottoman Sultan for permission.

The Glory of Israel comes to Fruition

The longed-for permission was finally granted.

The actual building of the magnificent structure took place over five years beginning in 1864. In 1869, Emperor Franz Josef traveled to the region for the inauguration of the Suez Canal.

On November 10, he visited Jerusalem. It was hard to tell who was more excited over his visit, the Ottoman Sultan or the Austro-Hungarian Jews. Franz Josef visited the site of the building which was then in progress and was accorded a welcome fit for an Emperor!

“I will never forget the unprecedented honor I was accorded here by the Jews. I will never forget it as long as I live. I hope the Jews will remember me.”

Franz Josef turned to Nissan Bek, the chairman of the project and asked, “Why is there no dome at the top of your Synagogue”? Bek quickly replied, “The Synagogue has doffed its hat in your honor, Sir!”

The story has it that the emperor smiled and announced his personal donation of 1,000 francs to fund the building of the dome. However, some say that while this funding was significant, the money for the dome was raised by the Rabbi of Sadigor, Rabbi Avraham Yakov Friedman. The magnificent facility was inaugurated on the August 16, 1872, amidst much fanfare and joy with representatives of all the Jewish communities in the country and many European consuls.

To the Heights

The building was named “Tiferet Yisrael” meaning ‘the glory of Israel.’ It bore Rabbi Friedman’s name (Yisrael) although it was commonly known to one and all as Nissan’s Shul.

People flocked to see the highest, majestic structure in the Old City. Nearly 80 feet high with another almost 34 feet circumference around the dome, one could see practically the entire Western Wall and Temple Mount from the top of Tiferet Yisrael.

Tiferet Yisrael was the pride and joy of the entire Jewish community worldwide. Its position facing the Temple Mount was the very expression of our people’s anticipation of redemption.

“The Synagogue has a great advantage in that around it’s peak there is a flat, fenced roof open to the winds of the sky, above the Old and New City of Jerusalem. One ascends to the roof- and behold- the entire country is spread before you. And if the Synagogue itself is the Glory of Israel – “Tiferet Yisrael,” then from its roof, one can behold the Glory of our Creator.”

People were attracted by the warmth of the modern center and the community. The Synagogue even had a heated mikvah in the basement, which was unheard of in those times! 

Travelers knew that a warm meal and a place to rest awaited them in this vibrant center of Jewish life in the Old City. Tiferet Yisrael played a large role in consolidating the status of the Jewish community in Jerusalem, at a time when a great influx began outside the walls.

Those who had a role in building Tiferet Yisrael and were fortunate to pray there and find their place in the community were united in agreement:

“This Synagogue, that faces our Temple, the place of our Holy of Holies, is the place where our prayers ascend to the heavens. This place is a ladder whose feet touch the ground, and whose head reaches the skies above, to the very gates of heaven. This house is one where the Divine Spirit rests and in its merit, we will merit the rebuilding of the Temple.”

In 1948, the Synagogue served as a stronghold for the Hagana, as they attempted to defend Jerusalem from the Arab Legion. Tiferet Yisrael was the final Jewish holdout before the Arab Legion burned and destroyed the entire building and exiled the remaining Jews from the Old City through Zion Gate.

Only since 1967, has the Jewish Quarter been back in the hands of the Jewish people. The restoration of Tiferet Yisrael symbolizes the Zionist dream of world Jewry – a glorious return to our historic land and the restoration of the meeting place and visitor center that sums up our eternal sense of hope and the realization of Jewish national dreams.

From The Jerusalem Post, Daniel K. Eisenbud Sept. 15, 2016

A routine archeological excavation of an Old City synagogue destroyed by Jordanian troops during the War of Independence turned into much more, after the burned remains of relics from the Second Temple period were revealed several meters below ground level.

Among the artifacts unearthed in 2013 in the Jewish Quarter was a rare stone weight inscribed with the name of a priestly family, covered in ashes from the fire set by Roman soldiers to burn Jerusalem to the ground. The synagogue in question, Tiferet Yisrael – which was built during the mid-19th century and served as one of the two main synagogues of the Jewish Quarter along with the Hurva synagogue -was bombed in May of 1948 by the Jordanian Arab Legion.

The rebuilding of the synagogues did not begin in earnest until 10 years ago, said Antiquities Authority archeologist Dr:-Oren Gutfeld on Thursday, noting that the Antiquities Law requires excavations before construction of any kind.

“After we cleared all the ruins from 1948, we started in the basement of the synagogue and uncovered its mikve [ritual bath]. heating system and parts of a chandelier,” said Gutfeld, who oversaw the dig with Hillel Geva, director of the Israel Exploration Society.

“And when we dug beneath the basement floor we uncovered a building from the Mamluk Period in the 13th-14th centuries, which turned out to be a Byzantine structure in secondary use, probably for public purposes.”

“During the fire and destruction, something blocked it, and it stayed frozen in time for 2,000 years,” he said.

“While I was digging in the burned layer, I found a stone weight covered with soot; only one of the 600 stone weights uncovered from the Second Temple period had a Hebrew inscription. So, I looked at it and smiled to myself, thinking, maybe it’ll have an inscription; and when I put it in a bucket of water and took it out, I started to shiver.”

Immersion in the water, Gutfeld said, revealed two lines of inscribed text.

“The lower line had the name of the family of a high priest named ‘Katros’ written in Aramaic, but we could not understand the meaning of the upper line until recently, which is why we delayed publication of the find until now,” he said.

After lengthy analysis, Gutfeld said it was recently determined that the first line also was inscribed with the family’s name, but in ancient Persian.

“It was used to measure weight on a scale – maybe even for objects in the Temple,” he explained. “So it makes sense that the family name was inscribed on the stone.”

Moreover, Gutfeld said the family is criticized in the Mishna for being corrupt and buying the title of priesthood.

“It was very popular during the Second Temple period to buy into the priesthood,” he said.

When asked how it felt to have the soot of one of Judaism’s most historic events on his flesh, Gutfeld paused thoughtfully for a moment.

“It is amazing when you think about what you are digging,” he said, noting that neighborhood residents and rabbis came to the site to take some of the debris as souvenirs.

For now, as the synagogue is being rebuilt, Gutfeld said he is still awaiting publication of the find in a scientific journal.

“It was the second day that cannon shells from the Mount of Olives had pounded its walls. Large holes were made in the walls and ceilings. One of the holy ark’s two stone columns was destroyed by a cannon shell. Its doors were broken and the Torah scrolls were torn in many places. The antique piriform glass lamps made hundreds of ringing and wailing sounds, like an evil spirit. The defenders – tense and nerve-wracked – were huddled in blankets under the window sills, so as not to be injured by shards. Occasionally a stone would fall from the ceiling, or a sack would be blown off the roof, a stone column, or tables and benches were destroyed. The two children who served as runners for the position sought shelter.

When delivering supplies, they crawled on the floor without lifting their heads, so as not to be seen by the enemy through the windows, which had been completely shattered. In the afternoon hours, whistles and calls of hate from many Arabs were heard from afar, signaling that an attack was imminent.

Five defenders moved to the small openings in the walls. One of the runners jumped outside to announce: ‘We are under attack. Please send more people.’

The rumor that the Arabs had captured ‘Nissan’s Shul’ spread quickly, and within a short time the [strategic] position was reinforced by dozens of Jewish fighters poised for a counterattack. The forces operated under the command of Moshe Rosnak, the Jewish Quarter Commander. They attacked from the direction of Hakaraim Alley. A second force, under the command of Avraham Orenstein, Area Commander, broke through to the synagogue from the south, through a hidden security door. The force surprised the Arabs, who were busy looting the synagogue, and conducted a face-to-face, short-range battle, including bayonet fighting. Some ten Arabs were killed in the synagogue, some of them while still wrapped in the ark and Torah covers they had looted. The defenders’ victory was impressive, but came with a heavy price. Five fighters lost their lives and another ten were wounded. Among those killed was a young runner, who was only fifteen years old.

At night, the Arabs set out to avenge their earlier defeat, and under the cover of dark, they crept into the synagogue. They placed a powerful explosive charge in the synagogue and severely damaged the building’s foundations. The next day they set off another explosion, and roughly half the building was destroyed. One side of the shattered building still stood up straight to its entire height, but with its towering dome split in half.”

So, father and son, Rabbis Israel and Nisan Bek, set out to find a space that would be inclusive of the Hassidic community in Jerusalem. The city was small back then. Today’s Jewish Quarter of the Old City was the only place where Jews could live in Jerusalem.

The Beks were members of the Rozhin sect of Judaism. Their renowned Rabbi was known as the Rebbe of Sadigura. The Rebbe encouraged the Beks to purchase land for a central synagogue and community center. In 1843, they found the perfect spot overlooking the Temple Mount and its Western Wall and they purchased the property.

After many setbacks in raising funds and obtaining building permits, the synagogue was finally inaugurated on August 19, 1872.

The three-story synagogue “Tiferet Yisrael” was considered one of the most beautiful synagogues in Jerusalem. It had commanding views of the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, and beyond. Community members donated generously with outstanding silver objects for the glorious new spiritual center.

Israel Bek owned Israel’s first printing press. He moved it, together with his family to Jerusalem. In 1863 he founded a newspaper called “Havatzelet.”  Sadly, the Ottoman authorities shut it down after he published only five issues.

Rabbi Israel Bek, was a man of many talents. He immigrated to Safed from Berditchev, Ukraine in 1831.

He established a printing house and published the first Hebrew book in the Holy Land in 246 years. He continued to print many other Hebrew books including the Book of Leviticus which can be found at the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C.

His printing press was destroyed in the 1834 revolt headed by Mohammed Ali.
Around the same time, the local Arab Ottoman Governor fell ill. Among his many talents, Rabbi Bek had a good reputation for his medical cures. He successfully treated the Governor and was paid
in kind with the deed to Mount Meron!”

Rabbi Bek set up a new printing press and continued to publish in Safed. Times were really tough back then. On January 1, 1837 there was a terrible earthquake that caused a lot of damage in Israel and the following year, the Druze Revolt (in Safed) made it impossible to run the business in the town. So Rabbi Bek moved his family and his printing press to the countryside in Meron. Together with his son, Rabbi Nisan Bek, he established the first modern Jewish farm in the Holy Land.

After further pogroms, Rabbi Bek and his family moved to Jerusalem in 1841 and he set up the first printing press to publish Hebrew books in Jerusalem.

Crazy coincidence or fate?
Our Chairman Brian Sherr is a direct descendant of Rabbi Bek!