Identity, Ethnicity, and Nationalism

The Rabban Yochanan Ben-Zakai Synagogue and the Sephardi Community of Jerusalem, 1900–1948

in Israel Studies Review
Author:
Reuven Gafni Department of Land of Israel Studies, Kinneret College, Israel gafni.reuven@gmail.com

Search for other papers by Reuven Gafni in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/isr.2022.370307
Keywords:
British Mandate; Eretz Israel; Jerusalem; Jewish Quarter; nationalism; Ottomanism; Palestine; Sephardi; synagogue
Restricted access
USD  $22.00
Click here to view the full Terms and Conditions

All currencies in US Dollar

PayPal Logo

Abstract

This article focuses on the changing cultural, social, and ideological characteristics of the central Sephardi Rabban Yochanan Ben-Zakai synagogue in Jerusalem, as a lens reflecting social and ideological processes of the local Sephardi community during the first half of the twentieth century. These included the community's attempts to consolidate its cultural uniqueness and civic identity vis-à-vis the surrounding and evolving spirits—within the Jewish community and outside it; its struggles with the local Ashkenazi community over historical and legal hegemony; its changing and evolving attitude toward the Ottoman and British Empires; and its gradual yet distinct adoption of the Jewish national framework. The article is based on an in-depth study of the archives of the Sephardi Commission (Va'ad Ha'eda HaSepharadit) in Jerusalem, as well as literary and scholarly sources and the local Jewish press of the time.

Contributor Notes

REUVEN GAFNI is the Head of the Department of Land of Israel Studies at Kinneret College. A Historian and Historical-Geographer, his main areas of research include the development of Jerusalem in modern times; the design and development of the Jewish settlement map in modern Eretz Israel/Palestine; and connections between Judaism, nationalism, and statehood in Eretz Israel/Palestine and early Israel. His book Synagogues and Jewish Nationalism in the Yishuv during the British Madate was published by Ben-Gurion University Press (2017), and his book A Jewish Community in an Arab Town: Beit She'an 1890–1936, was published by Magness Press (2018). E-mail: gafni.reuven@gmail.com

  • Collapse
  • Expand
Cover Israel Studies Review
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
24
Keywords:
British Mandate; Eretz Israel; Jerusalem; Jewish Quarter; nationalism; Ottomanism; Palestine; Sephardi; synagogue
Print Publication Date:
01 Dec 2022
Online Publication Date:
01 Dec 2022
Copyright:
© Association for Israel Studies 2022

  • Alboher, Shlomo. 2002. Identification, Adaptation and Reservation: The Sephardi Jews in Eretz Israel and the Zionist Movement during the “Bayit Leumi” (National Home), 1918–1948. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Hassifriya Hazionit.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Antebi, Elizabeth. 1996. L`home du Serail. Paris: NiL editions.

  • Ben-Arieh, Yehoshua. 1984. Jerusalem in the 19th Century. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi.

  • Ben-Arieh, Yehoshua. 2015. The Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Late Mandate Period, to the War of Independence (1939–1947), and Its Fall: Population, Houses, People. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ben Bassat, Yuval. 2009. “Rethinking the Concept of Ottomanization: The Yishuv in the Aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.” Middle Eastern Studies 45 (3): 461–475.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ben Bassat, Yuval. 2014. “A Zionist Torn between Two Worlds: Aharon Eisenberg's Correspondence after the Young Turk Revolution.” Journal of Israeli History 33 (1): 25–39

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ben-Naeh, Yron. 2011. “The Zionist Struggle as Reflected in the Jewish Press in Istanbul in the Aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution (1908–1918).” In Late Ottoman Palestine: The Period of Young Turk Rule, ed. Yuval Ben-Bassat and Eyal Ginio, 241–258. London: Tauris.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bezalel, Itzhak. 2007. You Were Born Zionists: The Sephardim in Eretz Israel in Zionism and the Hebrew Revival during the Ottoman period. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Campos, Michelle Ursula. 2005. “Between ‘Beloved Ottomania’ and ‘the Land of Israel’: the Struggle over Ottomanism and Zionism among Palestine's Sephardi Jews, 1908–13.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 37 (4): 461–483.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Campos, Michelle Ursula. 2011. Ottoman Brothers: Moslems, Christians and Jews in Early Twentieth Century Palestine. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cassuto, David. 1974. “The Four Sephardic Synagogues in the Old City of Jerusalem.” Emmanuel; A Journal of Religious Thought and Research in Israel 4: 109–114.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cassuto, David. 1982. “An 18th–Century Italian-Jewish Traveler on the Structure of the Sepharadic Synagogues in Old Jerusalem.” [In Hebrew.] Cathedra 24: 41–50.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cohen, Hillel. 2015. 1929: Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press.

  • Davidson, Eyal. 2012. “The Sephardi Talmud Torah in Jerusalem 1840–1860: A New Assessment Based on Analysis of Dedicatory Inscriptions.” [In Hebrew.] Cathedra 143: 111–132.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Davidson, Eyal. 2017. Pathways in the Jewish Quarter. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi.

  • De Geramb, Marie Joseph. 1840. A Pilgrimage to Palestine, Egypt and Syria. London: H. Colburn.

  • Elyashar, Eliyahu. 1973. “The Rabbi Yohanan Ben-Zakkai Synagogues.” [In Hebrew.] In Chapters in the History of the Jewish Community in Jerusalem, ed. Yehuda Ben-Porat, Ben-Zion Yehoshua, and Aharon Kedar, 61–79. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Evri, Yuval. 2020. The Return to Al-Andalus: Disputes over Sephardic Culture and Identity between Arabic and Hebrew. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Magness.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Freiman, Aharon Mordechai. 1907. The Rishon Letzion Jubilee. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem.

  • Gafni, Reuven. 2010. “‘The Hurva is Ours Alone’: The Hurva Synagogue in Hebrew Literature.” In The Hurva Synagogue: Six Centuries of Jewish Settlement in Jerusalem, ed. Reuven Gafni, Arie Morgenstern, and David Cassuto, 171–189. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gafni, Reuven. 2017. Synagogues and Nationalism in the Yishuv during the British Mandate. [In Hebrew.] Sede Boker: Ben-Gurion University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gaon, Moshe David. 1950. “The Annals of the Kahal Kadosh Gadol RYBZ Synagogue in Jerusalem.” [In Hebrew.] Luach Yerushalaim 10: 171–179.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Goldin, Simcha. 1995. “The Synagogue in Medieval Jewish Community as an Integral Institution.” Journal of Ritual Studies 9 (1): 15–39.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Grayevsky, Pinchas. 1992. Zikaron Lahovevim Harishonim [A memory to the early pioneers]. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Grayevsky Family Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Haim, Avraham. 2000. Particularity and Integration: The Sepharadi Leadership in Jerusalem under British Rule (1917–1948). [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Carmel.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Heilman, Samuel. 1998. Synagogue Life: a Study in Symbolic Interaction, 2nd edn. Piscataway, NJ: Transactions Publishers.

  • Hutterer, Boaz. 2015. “Elizabeth Finn and the Keys of Jerusalem: More about the History of the Eruv in Jerusalem in the Late Ottoman Period.” [In Hebrew.] Cathedra 155: 73–100.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jacobson, Abigail. 2011. From Empire to Empire: Jerusalem between Ottoman and British Rule. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

  • Jacobson, Abigail, and Moshe Naor. 2016. Oriental Neighbors: Middle Eastern Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kark, Ruth, and Nadav Solomonovich. 2011. “The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 as Reflected in the Media of the Jewish Community in Palestine.” In Late Ottoman Palestine: The Period of Young Turk Rule, ed. Yuval Ben-Bassat and Eyal Ginio, 183–209. London: Tauris.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Katz, Jacob. 1993. Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society in the End of the Middle Ages. New York: Schoken Books.

  • Katz, Malka. 2015. “Rabbi Jacob Meir: A Mizrachi or Aguda Follower? On the Question of the Religious-Zionism of the Sepharadi Chief Rabbi Jacob Meir.” [In Hebrew.] Peamim 142–143: 95–124.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kidron, Anat. 2017. “Constructing Boundaries of Social Consciousness under Conditions of War: The Urban Jewish Society in Eretz Israel/Palestine during World War I.” Journal of Levantine Studies 7(2): 33–56.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kidron, Anat. 2018. “Towards a Consolidation of Zionist National Consciousness in Palestine During the First World War: a Local Urban Perspective.” In The Jewish Experience of the First World War, ed. Edward Magidan & Gideon Reuveni, 111–133. London: Palgrave-Macmillan.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lemire, Vincent. 2017. Jerusalem 1900: The Holy City in the Age of Possibilities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Levine-Katz, Yael. 2000. “Occasional Prayers by Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook.” [In Hebrew.] Akdamot: A Journal of Jewish Thought 9: 35–76.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Madden, Richard Robert. 1829. Travels in Turkey, Egypt and Palestine. London: H. Colburn.

  • Mazza, Roberto. 2013. “Missing Voices in Rediscovering Late Ottoman and Early British Jerusalem.” Jerusalem Quarterly 53: 61–71.

  • Mizrachi-Zoref, Udi. 2016. “The Blilious Menorah and ‘the Main Synagogue of Jerusalem.’” [In Hebrew.] Et-mol 245: 8–10.

  • Morag-Talmon, Pnina. 1989. “The Place of Zionism in the Consciousness of the Sefardi Community in Jerusalem toward the End of the Nineteenth Century.” In Jerusalem in Zionist Vision and Realization, ed. Hagit Lavsky, 35–46. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Nachmani, Moshe. 2019. The Heart of the Nation: B.Z. Herzl in the Eyes of His Generation's Rabbis.[In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Or HaOrot.

  • Noy, Amos. 2017. Experts or Witnesses: Jewish Intelligentsia from Jerusalem and the Levant in the Beginning of the 20th century. [In Hebrew.] Tel Aviv: Resling.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Paz, Yair. 2010. “The Hurva Synagogue during the British Mandate Period: Society, Remembrance and Symbol.” In The Hurva Synagogue: Six Centuries of Jewish Settlement in Jerusalem, ed. Reuven Gafni, Arie Morgenstern, and David Cassuto, 148–168. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Phillips Cohen, Julia. 2014. Becoming Ottoman: Sepharady Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Plesser, Rivka. 1989. “The Status of the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, 1873.” [In Hebrew.] Cathedra 52: 125–130.

  • Pozailov, Giora. 2001. “The Development of the Sepharadic Community in Jerusalem towards the End of the Ottoman Rule (1870–1914)” [In Hebrew.] Ph.D. diss., Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Rappel, Joel. 2018. Between Prayer and Politics. [In Hebrew.] Modi'in: Kinneret-Zemora.

  • Sarna, Jonathan D. 2005. “Jewish Prayers for the United States Government: A Study in the Liturgy of Politics and the Politics of Liturgy.” In Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue: Studies in the History of Jewish Prayer, ed. Ruth Langer and Steven Fine, 205–224. Winona Lake, MI: Eisenbrauns.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Schwartz, Barry. 1986. “‘Hanoten Teshu'a’: The Origin of the Traditional Jewish Prayer for the Government.” Hebrew Union College Annual 57: 113–120.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Shar'abi, Rachel. 1989. The Sephardic Community in Jerusalem at the end of the Ottoman Period 1893–1914. [In Hebrew.] Tel Aviv: Misrad Habitahon.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Smilansky, Moshe. 1950. Rehovot: Sixty Years. [In Hebrew.] Rehovot: The Local Municipality.

  • Tabory, Joseph. 2005. “The Piety of Politics: Jewish Prayers for the State of Israel.” In Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue: Studies in the History of Jewish Prayer, ed. Ruth Langer and Steven Fine, 225–246. Winona Lake, MI: Eisenbrauns.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wallach, Yair. 2017. “Rethinking the Yishuv: Late-Ottoman Palestine's Jewish Communities revisited.” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 16 (2): 275–294.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Yellin, David. 1936. Shaul Abdullah Yossef as a Writer, Scholar, and Distributor of Enlightment. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: Weiss.

  • Yellin, David. 1940. The Sephardi Poetry. [In Hebrew.] Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Press.

Metrics