[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.] So a very special speaker today is Professor David David, David, Bhavik,
who is our newly inaugurated postdoctoral fellow in Israel studies with the School of Area Studies.
Uh, the it is. DPhil or PhD dissertation dealt with the construction of religion and nationality during the first decade of Israeli statehood,
specifically with the Ministry of uh Religious Affairs uh, in which he tackled issues of nationalism,
colonialism, ethnicity, and of course, religion and political theology.
Uh, his postdoctoral fellowship has, uh, as a focus, at least for this formative stage, the, uh,
matter of the sacred in politics and specifically issues of sacred spaces or spaces and sanctity.
And the title of his talk today is to ensure the Jewish character of the town through the establishment of a central synagogues,
synagogues in Israeli urban internal frontiers as symbols of sovereignty.
David, thank you so much. Uh, okay.
Thank you, everyone, for being here. Um, I will not begin with a synagogue.
Uh, begin with someone that excluded himself entirely from the synagogue.
A very famous guy.
In 1970, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, was invited to participate in the American Reform Rabbis Conference in Jerusalem.
Ben-Gurion replied that he would be happy to participate, but not as a lecturer.
He explained his decision by writing.
Obviously I'm a Jew. However, I am neither an Orthodox nor a reform.
In Israel I do not attend synagogues. Only once did I step inside a synagogue.
When independence was declared, at the request of Rabbi Berlin of the Mizrachi party.
When I'm abroad, however, I enjoy attending synagogues on Saturdays.
In fact, in fact, and for the sake of historical accuracy, this self testimony is an inaccurate.
As Ben-Gurion attended the prayer of gratitude at the Assurance Synagogue of Jerusalem following
the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly and not following the Declaration of Independence.
This comment might seem anecdotal, but it hides a profound understanding of the change in Jewish self-determination
following the emergence of Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel.
To use William Kavanagh's terms and following Yaakov. If the modern state changes the identity of the individual from one associated with the
Christian Holy Communion to one associated with the National with the National Collective,
the Jewish sovereign states shift the identity of the individual Jew from the local synagogue community to the sovereign national collective.
Ben-Gurion ignorance of the synagogue and the political insights that derive from it are indeed thought provoking.
However, it ignores the increasing number and popularity of synagogues in the sovereign state of Israel since its establishment and until today.
I want. In what follows,
I wish to highlight one aspect of the synagogue's relationship with the sovereign states through an outline of one of its institutions,
the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Once.
Yeah. Established shortly after the Declaration of Independence.
This state institution symbolises the ambivalence of the self perceived secular state and the community institution that it sought to replace.
The ministry was responsible for providing state religious services for Jews and non-Jews alike.
However, ministry officials,
most of whom religious Zionists sought to harness their authority to form a proper and national religion that would suit the Zionist agenda.
In this regard, synagogues were no different from other religious institutions.
The ministry was responsible for establishing, organising and managing synagogues throughout the country.
With this responsibility, its officials wished to develop national synagogues, prayer text and prayer melodies.
These synagogues hosted national services and ceremonies which shifted the synagogue institution from a communal to a national sphere.
Another significant aspect of this Recontextualized synagogue was their role as symbols of sovereignty.
I argue that this role provides insights into some significant geopolitical shifts in Judaism following the emergence of Zionism and the state.
To establish my argument, I will first distinguish between two main functions.
Synagogue played in Jewish history in a very rough way,
as a place of worship and and gravity for the destroyed temple, and as a symbol of redemption and sovereignty.
Later I will describe how this very contextualisation has had a significant impact on synagogue architecture and location in Israel.
Finally, I will demonstrate this phenomenon through close analysis of archival documents in several
urban frontiers in Israel and point out the implication of this shift in various contexts.
Before we start, I want to say something about methodology.
By using special history, bureaucratic history and laymen as they live for understanding thier political issues.
They would like to argue that severe theological and political questions should also be viewed from this perspective.
Rather than merely from the standpoint of scholars, intellectuals and first class politicians.
Considering these materials, which may seem banal and not intellectually challenging, provides, from my point of view,
provides insights into the implementation of their politics as well as the conflict between the different agents in the field.
Back to the synagogues in general terms, and in very rough.
Explanation. Since antiquity and up until the rise of the centralised state in Europe.
Synagogues served as a communal sphere that combined rituals such as praying and reading the Torah, rituals that we would say call them religious,
with communal practices that we would call secular community gathering, charity hospitality, conflict resolution sanctioning, and so on.
These practices were meant to form the Jewish collective as a minority among a non-Jewish majority.
Furthermore, synagogues represented an attitude toward the destroyed temple since its destruction in 1780.
In one sense, synagogues serve served as a little sanctuary or as a communal temple that replaced the temple during exile on another.
However, completing level synagogues presented the absence of the temple and the Jewish the political situation of exile.
This dual attitude was evident since antiquity in the synagogues architecture and visual elements, as well as in the ritual itself.
A significant watershed in the synagogues role in Jewish society is the emergence of a centralised state in Western and Central Europe.
The emancipation and the cancellation of the anonymous Jewish community raised the question of whether the Jews from a religion or a nation.
This debate was one of the main sites where this definition between these two categories was articulated.
The definition of the Jews as a religious, apolitical, international community enabled their integration in the European nationalism.
However, defining them as a national collective negated their fidelity to the European nation
and therefore invalidated their participation in the modern national collective.
Indeed, the main Jewish discourse since the 19th century focussed on various attempts to adapt Judaism to the new definitions of religion,
nationalism and culture. This historical moment marks a double transformation in the synagogues rule.
On the one hand, its sensuality as a communal space was emphasised.
On the other hand, this role was reduced to merrily what we can call today.
Religious practices. One of the most significant transformations in Western and Central European Synagogue was their architectural design.
In that sense, synagogue architecture were tools for negotiating political,
social and cultural identities of the communities with the surrounding world.
Up until the middle of the 19th century,
dozens of monumental and cathedral like synagogues were designed and constructed in central and Western Europe, as well as in North America.
May seem paradoxical,
but these monumental synagogues were part of European architecture trend of monumental cathedrals built as symbols of sovereignty in the 19th century.
Or, if we want to put it, other, other ways,
synagogue's architecture embodied the desire of European Jews to integrate into the centralised state and culture of Europe.
Now, if the Jewish negotiation with the surrounding through the location and architecture of
synagogues was essential when Jews formed a minority in the centralised European state,
it becomes critical when Jews form their own sovereign collective in their own sovereign state.
With the emergence of the only settlements some synagogues in Palestine have taken have taken a new character.
Several national religious congregations wished to adapt the synagogue to Zionist narrative,
to make synagogues a centre of national culture, and claims.
These synagogues hosted national ceremonies, demonstrations and rallies, and various political movements supported their funding.
This change included the design of synagogues that express the Zionist political
narrative and the inclusion of national symbols in their decorative plan,
as opposed to community communal synagogues.
These national synagogues were not intended to serve a particular community, but rather intended to serve the nation as a whole.
As such, they signify the change in the synagogue's character from one of assimilation into European
culture and state to representation of Jewish Zionist culture and self-determination.
As a result of the establishment of the state in 1948,
national religious initiatives were no longer carried only by local agents or Zionist institutions,
but by Israeli bureaucratic management, most notably the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
The synagogues department of the ministry was responsible for supporting new and existing congregations.
This activity was held in conjunction with other Israeli managements such as the Ministry of Labour, the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund.
In addition, the ministry and the ministry cooperated and negotiated with two Israeli institutions,
Israeli institutions that were responsible for the real estate left behind the Palestinian refugees,
the Custodian of Absentee Property and the Development Authority.
Special attention was given to synagogues established in the internal frontier.
And when I say internal frontier, I mean what we commonly call in Israel a or vote or mixed cities.
Following the establishment of the state, its sovereignty had to be demonstrated both along its borders and within its internal frontier regions.
Within the states States boundaries in which Jewish expansion and expansion was sought.
Like other settler societies,
the Israeli Jewish Hegemony Collective wished to replace the indigenous groups within its boundaries and thus related to them as a threat.
Therefore, the Israeli administration was seeking to increase its dominance and control over peripheral regions where the Palestinian survivors,
and I'll explain later, were called the survivors, or constituting or constituting a significant minority.
An important thing of this settler activity. Was the urban sphere.
Several Palestinian cities, including Jaffa, Haifa, Akko, Lod and Ramla,
became mixed cities or urban internal frontiers, with a vast Jewish majority and a tiny Arab minority.
Jewish immigrants were in abandoned houses, while the remaining Palestinians were forced to move into smaller enclaves in the urban sphere.
These urban internal frontiers served as sites where Israeli sovereignty had to be demonstrated,
both in front of the Palestinian who remained in the in the city and in front of the memory of the Palestinian past.
Among the administrative initiative used by the authorities to demonstrate sovereignty in the internal frontier were the construction of synagogues.
This aspiration was reflected in both the architectural design of the synagogues and their location within the urban space.
In 1955, the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Published a collection of essays titled The Synagogue Papers and Masses.
In his contribution to the collection may have been Ori, an architectural consultant to the Ministry of Religious Affairs in its early years.
Proposed that the synagogue definition should be amended in light of the establishment of the state, and he writes the following.
We should make every effort to build a synagogue by strict design in order to deepen them in the state,
in regions that emphasise our affinity for the authenticity of the land and of the sanctity of the Jewish people.
Synagogues in the State of Israel require architects to renew architectural elements in light of
the significant changes occurring in the traditional synagogues after the horrific Holocaust.
The establishment of the state's sovereign symbols, earthly roles and historical incitements,
and the beginning of the redemption and the longing of the generation.
One of these architectural elements was the menorah. That is described in the Bible as having been used in the tabernacle and later in the temple.
Regarding the roof design of the synagogues, the newly requested that the menorah would be placed on the roof along with the national flag.
In addition, when it will be requested that synagogues build before the establishment of the state,
will and encoding renew their existing symbols and include at least the state's emblem, the menorah and of quote.
A similar tone was reflected in the piece of the ministry's general manager, smaller than Will Kahana,
who declared that the menorah represents the spirit of the era and serves as the emblem of the state.
Vice ministers of plastic, also noted that a unique style is taking shape in the synagogues.
One of its symbol is the menorah, for a mitzvah is a candle into light illumination.
Naomi survived the wall. This symbol became the emblem of the state.
The temple minority. Recurring theme in Jewish visual culture that appears in many contexts throughout Jewish history, including in synagogues.
However, the manoeuvre proposed by an Oak Island building has been transformed.
The menorah on the state emblem is a visual reference to the Ark of Peoples in Rome, and differs from the menorah on formal Jewish visual elements.
This menorah does not remind temple rituals, but rather the temple as a symbol of Jewish sovereignty lost with its destruction.
Thus, as Ron itself argues, the menorah was transformed from a symbolic representation of of an acrylic longing for
the temple service into a symbol of renewing the ancient sovereign past in the present.
In this manner, the Minerva is shifted from its select dimensions and placed within Jewish sovereignty.
Therefore, placing the Recontextualized menorah on synagogue's roof, an institution that embodies.
Symbolises the longing for the temple as a place of worship, as well as applying them as an emblem of the state,
clearly represents not only the detachment of the menorah from its ritual context,
but also that of the synagogue itself, shape shifting it from a symbol of longing to one of sovereignty.
The 70 contextualisation of the menorah. Not only differs from its ritual context, it also suspended.
In the piece cited above. Below, he compares the newly constructed Israeli synagogue to the ancient synagogues of Miron Alma in causing.
Which I am quoting, demonstrated the strong Jewish affinity to the Temple in Jerusalem.
And of, quote, clearly the newly aims to conjoin the State of Israel with the historical Jewish presence in Israel first time.
However, unlike the ancient synagogues, when he does not refer to the synagogues direction back to its location within the region.
To put it another way, the shift offered by the newly highlights the change in synagogues orientation.
It is no longer the destructed temple that serves as the organising factor, but rather the sovereign state, both physically and metaphorically.
Synagogues turn to the state rather than to the temple.
Contextualising the synagogue at a sovereign symbol like the 19th century European
cathedrals and unlike the European monumental synagogue of this century,
expressed again what Yaakov Younger argues to be the Zionist contextualisation of
the sovereign state of the fulfilment of Jewish traditional longing in exile.
This framework emphasises the relationship between sovereignty, territory and Jewish identity in such Israeli synagogues,
or at least some of them serve as religious spheres that express the secularisation of Jewish
longing in their recontextualized nation as political and sovereign national motivations.
Okay. This transformation, of course, is significant in every Israeli Zionist synagogue, not only in those of the urban intensive frontier.
However, in these cases that try to argue, its sovereign role is essential.
Now, I'm proceeding to illustrate some examples of this phenomenon through four synagogues in Haifa, Ramla, and Jaffa.
Haifa, which hosts two of my synagogues,
is one of the most significant examples of urban internal frontiers in Israel
from the 19th century until the 1948 war in the ethnic cleansing that followed.
Haifa had a coexisting character. There was close proximity between Palestinians and North African Jews, mostly during the Ottoman period,
where established associations established their neighbourhoods on Mount Carmel.
Which was segregated from the Palestinian area on the day, especially during the mandate period.
The North African Jews had two neighbourhoods called HEARtrillionATE and Altitude, and they were part of Palestine, Haifa or Haifa.
That what we call today the lower town of Haifa, almost until 1936, or something like that, when they were evacuated to them, to the government.
Even so, even with the segregation of the Zionist associations and neighbourhoods.
Haifa was indeed a mixed urban community on a social, commercial and municipal level.
During the fight over Haifa in April 1948. Palestinian residents flee, flee out of the city.
Most of the Palestinian residents were evacuated to the port and from there to Echo and Lebanon.
Others were expelled to Nazareth and Jenin after the 1948 war.
Only 3005 hundred Palestinians were living in Haifa, out of a population of over 70,000,
though those who remained were confined to the snap neighbourhood, which was placed under military control.
One of the finest neighbourhoods in the Carmen was Del Carmen.
You can see here. Established in 1922 on the edge of the mountain, del Carmen separated the Jewish Carmen from the bay and Palestinian Haifa.
Judy, the new Haifa. Later known as the Lower City.
The central synagogue of Adela Carmen.
Was first designed in the 1920s by Alexander Belmont, who was responsible for another significant 30s building in the home in the Technion.
Even though this plan never materialised, the synagogue is still attributed to Melville,
the first Zionist architect who imprinted his his signature style on the city.
Hence, even before it was built, the synagogue was associated with the creation of the Zionist landscape on the Carmel.
The synagogue was inaugurated in 1938. However, financial difficulties stopped the construction and only in the mid 1950s it was completed.
The synagogue was erected on the side of the mountain between the reversal connecting street, which is interesting itself and its facade.
Facing half a street, is 23m tall and covered with stone, and the synagogue has a great dome on its roof.
The synagogue role as a symbol of sovereignty is well-articulated.
In a report written by Pan Castelli in The Companion that we discussed earlier.
Following an extensive description of the synagogue's construction, he concluded as follows.
As long as the golden dome of a particular church dominates the city and overshadows the central synagogue.
And as long as Haifa lacks a magnificent synagogue whose roof rises above the buildings of the city, the city is still lacking its genuine crown.
It's important to note during its planning and construction,
I couldn't find any mentioning of juxtaposition between the synagogue and other religious buildings in the city.
It seems like it emerged only after the establishment of the state, and the need to demonstrate sovereignty in the urban internal frontier.
An explicit statement of the role of the synagogue can be found in the actual declaration.
Its monumental dimensions were complemented by a unique relief sculpted on its giant facade.
At the end of 1956, the Municipality of Haifa announced the competition for the design of stone relief
to be sculpted on the facade of the synagogue according to the call of proposals.
The roof should express. The relief.
Sorry. The relief should express the changes in the Jewish people in our generation.
The generation of the War of Independence, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the gathering of the exiles.
The winning proposals was submitted by fellow Rubinstein.
The secular sculptor, painter and mosaic artist from the artist colony of Inwood.
According to Rubinstein, the work of art named occurred at the beginning of redemption illustrates.
Elijah on Mount Carmel, the precursor of redemption,
is illustrated on a carriage bearing the symbols of the tribes as they are found in many synagogues.
As you can see, following him are the Jews returning from the exile who carry the menorah carved in the Ark of Titus,
which was built in Rome after the destruction of the temple.
The Jews who were exiled to Rome as prisoners of war.
Retorno. Upright as freemen.
The menorah, a symbol of Jewish hope and faith through the generations, now returns to the land as an emblem of the renewed state.
Robinson's description seems to encompass all the decorative main themes of the synagogue, discover and agent.
This monumental relief, measuring ten by four metres,
illustrates the transition from sovereignty to exile and back to sovereignty with the establishment of the State of Israel.
Elijah, the most significant symbol of Jewish longing for redemption, leads the way for the returning Jews to their sovereign homeland,
and the menorah is explicitly the menorah of status, resembling the lost sovereignty with the destruction of the temple.
In this framework, the sovereign state is significant.
They are not the sole political entity that realises Jewish redemption.
Moreover. And as you can see on the map.
This relief is positioned on the very synagogue that faces the Palestinian neighbourhood of Virginia Smith,
thereby symbolising Israeli sovereignty over the Palestinians and other religious buildings in the area.
Now one this central synagogue for dark.
Amen. Is an official establishment. The concept of synagogues as symbols of sovereignty is reflected also in places where
a local congregation requested support for funding a synagogue for traditional or,
let's say, better say, non-national reasons.
In these cases. The local congregation's efforts were recontextualized if.
Aspiration of sovereign power. Following the war, some Palestinian neighbourhoods in Haifa, New Haifa had been destroyed,
while others had been resettled by Jewish immigrants or by the military.
The entire area, now referred to as the Lower Town, was marginalised,
neglected and therefore pledged with crime, gambling, brothels and stench, as illustrated by Adobe.
After the demolition, mosques, mosques and churches were still standing, surrounded by ruins.
By doing so. Israeli officials wished to reduce the Palestinian presence in the new Israeli city to that of religious minority,
and to negate any sense of national Palestinian identity.
Naturally, the Jewish immigrants in Haifa expected some religious services, including assistance in establishing new synagogues.
In July 1955, the Minister of Religious Affairs, Mr. Shapira, received a letter from the letter.
Congregation and charity in Hebrew. Surviving remnants.
The phrase related to Holocaust survivors,
so they ask for support to purchase a plot provided by the Development Development Authority in Haifa's Lower Town.
Additionally, the congregation requested that the ministry would stop their evacuation from the Palestinian building,
which they had been using as a temporary synagogue since 1948.
The margins of the letter. The executive committee addressed that hundreds and thousands of immigrants.
Deserve at least a plot of land for a synagogue from the state.
Why is there no synagogue in a city in Israel where most of its residents are poor?
No immigrants? In the prior letter to Haifa's mayor of Kushi.
The synagogue was described as a central synagogue in the lower town, and due to its limited space, some of the visitors must pray on the street.
According to the description of the congregation,
they were quoting Jews from the surviving remnants of the terrible exiled shadows from the European infernal fire.
About a year later, and following several more.
More letters,
the vice Ministers Authority contacted the Custodian of Absentee Property and asked him to assist the congregation in purchasing the plot.
Interestingly, although that uptick echoed the congregation's concerns,
he added that by establishing a splendid synagogue, this part of Haifa will acquire a significant Jewish identity.
In other words. While the congregation addressed their need for a place to pray,
the vice minister converted the facility into a symbol of Jewish presence and sovereignty in the urban internal frontier of Haifa.
Moreover, as if advice demonstrates, the neighbouring neighbourhoods of Valley Celeb hosted about 60 synagogues.
In this respect, the synagogue was not such a vital need for the congregation,
even though they might prefer to pray by their own Eastern European costume.
However, one might argue that in that hefty perspective, the Moroccan synagogues of Salim do not contribute to the nation of the region,
since for him due diversion must be achieved through a proper and splendour.
Synagogues. In his view, of course. It is important to note, and interesting to note that the former Palestinian neighbourhood is very slim,
with one of the most vulnerable neighbourhoods of North African immigrants in Haifa.
Shortly after the sherry. Affairs. In 1959, protests in this neighbourhood served as the platform for Iran's first organised struggle.
Fascinating aspect of this protest was the fact that North African immigrants climbed from
valleys to the Ashkenazi neighbourhood of calm and smashed shop windows and set cars ablaze.
Therefore, in this case, it is many others. The ethnic and the inter-ethnic are intertwined.
The existing synagogue is. What is the plot proposed for this new synagogue?
We're both located, as you can see in the map on the outskirts of the north and on the outskirts of the valley,
thus complementing the central synagogue of the Amen.
The synagogue symbolically monitored the remaining Palestinians in Haifa.
To put it another way, the lefty Greek recontextualized the synagogue as well as the community of immigrants.
Together they rounded into the Zionist colonial policy in the urban sphere,
inform them of national sovereign agents juxtaposed to the mosques and churches
of the city that were left to symbolise the Palestinian urban destruction.
As a result, both the structure and the population constitute what Wendy Pullen calls frontier urbanism,
which refers to the settlement of civilians as frontier populations and the use of urban
constructions in order to promote Israeli sovereignty and prevent Palestinian resistance.
Another example. A bit more to the south of an attempt to establish a central synagogue.
Is the one in the harmony. Before 1948.
The hamlet in its neighbouring town of a leader lord, were two of the most important commercial and administrative centres in Palestine.
During the war,
Ramadi was a national importance because the headquarters of the Palestinian guerrilla commander Hassan Salameh was located in its surroundings.
Ramla and I lead were taken by Israeli forces during operation done in July 1948.
Most of these towns residents were forcibly expelled during the fighting and after the towns were seized.
As a result of the war, only a few hundred residents remained in these towns out of an estimated 60,000.
Ramla. Like other Palestinian cities, became a mixed city, a mixed city, or an urban internal frontier.
Moreover, due to its proximity to the Jordanian border, the Garment District serves as an external border as well as an internal frontier.
In addition, Harmony is located in the centre of the country and the main road that connects or connected Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
As demonstrated by an event,
the Ramla area was a site of intense Jewish immigrant housing policy by the Israeli government in the first years of a state.
Its population increased from about 3000 to about 66,000.
Between 1948 and 1955, a growth rate of more than 2000 and 100%, 12 times that of Israel district and 25 times that of Tel Aviv area.
Most of these immigrants were resettled in Palestinian abandoned houses,
while the remaining Palestinians were restricted to the neighbourhood now called the ghetto neighbourhood.
The location of the Central Synagogue in Ramallah is consistent with this settling policy.
On June 25th, 1956,
the Religious Bulletin had the effect and the right wing party bulletin reported on the cornerstone ceremony of the Central Synagogue of Harmony.
According to the Root report, the plot was for donors in size,
and the synagogue was intended to accommodate a thousand seats for men and women, according to its official correspondence.
The cornerstone ceremony was opened by waving flag and blowing a trumpet.
Thousands of residents gathered to celebrate the construction of a synagogue along the Jerusalem Tel Aviv main road in the heart of Harmony.
End of quote.
First the deputy mayor, head of local religious council and most importantly a member of the executive committee of the Religious Zionist Party.
Menachem Franken addressed the audience. In his speech.
In his speech. In his speech, Frankel pointed out that 35 synagogues already function in Ramallah.
Nevertheless, none of them, in his view, were built specifically for the purpose of serving as a synagogue.
Furthermore, he stated that the construction of the central synagogue illustrate the residents roots in the land and their maturity as citizens.
But just ask another rabbi. It's quite Catholic affiliated.
The Central Synagogue, with what he called the Jewish Centre, normally existed 800 years ago,
stating that now Ramla has become a Jewish centre once again.
By the way, it is interesting to note and important to note that Herzog's determination is, well, exaggerated, even if Ben-Zvi,
the president who sought to find Jewish continuity through historical studies of Jewish communities in Israel Palestine,
argued that Ramla was never a Jewish centre, despite the existence of Jewish community there since the eighth century.
If you're going back to the ceremony. The of family.
Mega Mega mega.
I explained that the City Council wish to build a synagogue on the same site as the synagogue that served the Jewish community in the past.
However, since it could not be located, a central plot was allocated for the purpose.
In addition, Melamed pointed out that Ramla is well known for its churches with their high steeples.
Therefore, it is necessary to ensure the Jewish character of the town through the establishment of a central synagogue.
A similar tone was reflected in its founder, Chief Rabbi Hockney's theme,
that stated that every new synagogue is both a religious and a security fortress.
This remarks illustrate the shift in the synagogue rule in a similar manner to Haifa's lower town.
35 synagogues were already operating in the former Palestinian town, a firmly which indicates that the Jewish community there flourished.
Therefore, the central synagogue was not intended just to serve the religious needs of their residents.
It was intended to address the shift in the town's character from Palestinian to Jewish.
Or from Palestinian to Israeli.
More specifically, the synagogue was intended to demonstrate the Jewish continuity in Ramallah, thus articulating victory fence,
the call, the Israeli sense of place and belonging vis a vis the Palestinian negated sense of belonging.
Thus, the synagogue serves both religious and security purposes.
Furthermore. In a similar way to the Great Synagogue in Haifa.
The one in Harmony functions as a symbol of sovereignty over other religious buildings and collective affinities to calmly,
thereby defining the town as solely Jewish Israeli.
About ten months after the cornerstone ceremony in April 1957.
Thank you. Requested support for the establishment of the synagogue from the Minister of Religious Affairs.
Shapiro.
In his request, Michael detailed the efforts of the municipality to locate a plot for a central synagogue and purchased it from its Palestinian owner.
And I'm quoting at a reasonable price. And even so, after regulating ownership, placing a shake and celebrating the cornerstone ceremony,
the development Authority began to heap difficulties on the construction of the synagogue.
Among the consideration mentioned by Frankel was the importance of establishing a synagogue on the main road.
This is what he writes.
There are several look through youth churches of different religions in Ramallah, located along the main road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Why should the House of God be located on a side street?
I'm sorry for the disappointment, but unfortunately the synagogue was never constructed in the proposed location.
The committee to the Development Authority authorised to handle Palestinian property.
Objected to placing the synagogue on the main road, according to the head of the Department of Properties.
The committee decided that the main street of Ramla should be converted into mixed commercial buildings.
However, according to drafting. Unofficial testimony.
This objection relates more to its location on the main road,
and the fear of clashes between the religious members of the synagogue and motorcade drivers on weekends.
To put it another way, the city officials desire to build a synagogue along the main road was the same
reason for the need for the development authority's objection to placing their.
Eventually, in October 1958, the zoning plan number 35 six, if you're really interested,
was adopted by the district committee that reserved the area for services,
centres for vehicles and trains, as well as for residential area, commercial area and industrial workshops.
And that's example for a central synagogue. Is the one in Jeff.
At the eve of the 1948 war, Jaffa was the largest Palestinian city in Palestine.
It served as a major political, social and cultural centre, as well as a major commercial and industrial hub for the entire Palestinian population.
A total of 71,000 Palestinians lived in the city, while another 40,000 lived in rural villages.
Surrounding Jaffa. Has a history dating back, of course, almost 10,000 years.
Its port is mentioned both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and throughout history it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times.
But for our discussion, it is essential to know that during the late Ottoman period, the city underwent rapid development,
especially during the period between the short Napoleonic occupation in the late 18th century and the end of the Ottoman Empire in the 19 tens.
It was during this period sorry that immigrants, including North Africa and other Jews, settled in, settled in the city permanently,
and economic growth was achieved with the assistance of both Arab and Jewish commercial initiatives.
However. Is eloquent demonstrates where the Zionist Jewish immigrants from the late 19th century
brought about tensions with Palestinian communities in the existing Jewish communities,
especially after the emergence of Zionist colonisation efforts and the separation between Jewish and Palestinian in the urban sphere.
With the establishment of Tel Aviv as a separate Jewish city in 1909,
this separation reached its peak and the separation between the Jewish town of Tel
Aviv and the Palestinian town of Jaffa formed the area as a partitioned urban zone.
On May 13th, 1948, Jaffa fell almost without resistance to the Jewish military force.
Following a period of social collapse and the migration of noble families.
The majority of the town's residents were forcibly expelled and their return was prevented after the war.
Approximately 3600 of the 71,000 residents of the city remain.
The survivors were considered or concentrated in the larger neighbourhood.
Why is it a serious neighbourhood? Where's the rest of the city?
Was populated by Jewish immigrants or deliberately destroyed by Israeli authorities.
The Jew division of Jaffa. Urban Palestinian space continues until her death through both official and unofficial means in some ways,
and as some of us heard from a few weeks ago.
It remains the site of Auburn clashes over heritage, performance and memory.
As I will argue in my last example. This dude ization was also achieved by wishing to build new synagogues.
In May 1955, Seymour Greenberg of the Tel Aviv Religious Council and the former general manager of the Ministry of Religious Affairs,
requested the Minister of Hefting,
Vice Minister of Health, to support the councillor's request for two blocks from the development authority in Jaffa,
a plot for a synagogue and another for public baths.
Greenberg did not give a rationale for his request,
noting that there is no need to overstate the necessity of these vital institutions in Jaffa, which is populated with thousands of residents.
Following this request, they'll have to ask his deputy mayor and more importantly, Religious-zionist party member of brother.
The Ministry of Legal Counsel is out of bed, and the head of the ministry's synagogues department been asked that a billion be given for assistance.
All of them. A program is asking members. Ministry.
Efforts to support the religious council and party members in Jaffa began even before 1955.
In a letter sent by David Ben on the gift of drafting in June 1954,
he indicated that the department was working for funding two plots in the central, in a central place in Jaffa.
In addition, he informed that he entered a negotiation with the development authority regarding
and Dunham and a half plot near the town along that the journey hospital,
which did not result any success. Additionally, the rebellion declared that.
Establishing. A central synagogue for Jaffa is one of the most important things.
There are dozens of places of prayer, most of forming abandoned houses nonetheless,
none of which is suitable to be a central synagogue in a large city like Jaffa that is populated tens of thousands of Jews.
Greenberg and Durbin, and again this time saying it is arguments deviate from the communal understanding of the synagogue.
Sorry if there have been bigger stakes. And in a similar manner to Haifa and Harmony, Jaffa is home for dozens of places of prayer.
However, they seek a central plot for a synagogue that will address the fact that tens of thousands of Jews now populate the town.
Therefore, their proposal of Central Synagogue in Jaffa serves as a symbol of the
transformation of this urban space from Palestinian city to an Israeli Jewish one.
Moreover, Jaffa doesn't stand on its own.
In February 1950, the Jaffa municipality was retroactively dissolved.
The majority of its length came under the jurisdiction of Japheth Oba, or by neighbour and rival city of Tel Aviv.
Which was referred know as Tel Aviv. Geoff until today.
Other parts were um were given to Basham and others accordingly, just fine.
If Jews were not separated from those of Tel Aviv and its Great Synagogue.
Therefore, it would appear that the need for a central synagogue in Jaffa was not any greater than that of other quarters of Tel Aviv.
It can therefore be argued that the Palestinian presence in a larger neighbourhood,
and the will to demonstrate sovereignty in the former Palestinian city,
or the driving forces behind the desire to establish a central synagogue in the city.
To conclude. It is important to say this.
Disappointing for some of us, but important to say that some of the synagogues were never built.
They remain aspirations for local and state bureaucrats,
or as points of negotiation maps between municipal and or state authorities and local congregations.
Nevertheless, and following Jacobi's call to explore to expose the discursive meaning of the of the professional sphere
is the key to understanding the special spatial dynamics of the city as well as its ideological agenda.
I try to articulate how these aspirations are crucial to understand Israeli policy in their urban internal frontier,
while demonstrating the relative weakness of ministries officials.
These ideas and aspirations can provide insight into one of the most exciting
activities that state officials undertake to demonstrate its sovereignty.
These different cases illustrate how Jewish religion was reconstructed and contextualised within the sovereign Jewish state,
and the vital role of Religious Zionist agents in this process.
Synagogues.
The most religious and communal Jewish institution throughout history, which commemorates the loss of the temple and the Jewish condition of exile,
was transformed into state institution, demonstrating the state's sovereignty over the urban eternal frontier.
Thank you so much.