Tiferet Yisrael was a magnificent Jewish center that towered over the entire Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall. It enjoyed a spectacular bird’s eye view onto the Temple Mount. The center served as a prominent symbol of the Jewish community; as a communal center and as a central Synagogue. It was a common legacy shared by world leaders and a Hassidic Master!
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.”