Jewish cemetery, Mount of Olives, overlooking Valley and the Temple Mount, courtesy, LandOfIsraelBurials.com |
For centuries, especially since the Crusader
period, the Arabs, usually from nearby Silwan, often prohibited Jewish burial
on the Mount for a variety of reasons, and Jewish gravestones were often
desecrated. By the mid-1850s, the villagers of Silwan were
paid £100 annually by the Jews in an effort to prevent the desecration of
graves. Among the most prominent people buried there might be mentioned: Rabbi Meir Poppers (d. 1662), a
prominent rabbi and kabbalist from Bohemia (today, the Czech Rep.); Yehudah Hasid who led approximately
1000 Jews from Eastern Europe to settle in Jerusalem in 1700; Chaim ibn Atar who came from Morocco
and established the Knesset Yisrael Yeshivah in 1742; Abraham Gershon of Kutow, son-in-law of the Baal Shem Tov, he was
closely associated with the Kabbalist Yeshivah Bet El in Jerusalem beginning in
1747 led by Rabbi Shalom Sharabi of
Yemen who was also buried on the Mount; Moshe
Biderman, Lelover Rebbe who, it is said, took the cloak of Napoleon
Bonaparte, brought it to Jerusalem, and from it, made a cover for the Ark of
the Covenant; Rabbi Joseph Sundel Salant
(d. 1866), devoted student of the Musar movement as well as one of the earliest
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbis of Israel (1837-1866); Rabbi Meir Auerbach (d. 1877), co-founded, along with Rabbi Shmuel Salant, later Ashkenazi
Chief Rabbi, the Vaad Clali, an umbrella organization of all kollelim in
Israel; Rabbi Yehudah Alkalai,
Sephardic rabbi from Serbia who was one of the forerunners of the Zionist
movement and inspired the founding of Petah Tikvah in 1878; the first, and so
far, only female Rebbe, known as the Maiden
of Ludomir (d. 1888); Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin (d.
1898) who served as rabbi in Brisk and
Jerusalem; Jacob Saul Elyashar (d.
1906), Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Ottoman Palestine since 1893; the Ben Ish Chai (d.
1909), prominent Haham of Baghdad; Shimon Hakham (d. 1910),
Bukharan writer and translator of Jewish holy texts and stories in Judeo-Tajik;
Israel Dov Frumkin (d.
1914), Israeli journalist who helped found one of the first Hebrew
newspapers in Israel, Havatzelet in 1865.
Of those who were buried on the Mount during
the period of the British Mandate (1917-1948): Shlomo Moussaieff (d. 1922) one of the
founders of the Bukharan Quarter in Jerusalem; Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (d.
1922) reviver of spoken Hebrew; Jacob Israël de Haan (d.
1924), journalist who came from Holland and who identified with the orthodox
Agudat Yisrael party resulting in his assassinated by the Haganah; Nosson Tzvi
Finkel (d. 1927) founder of the Slobodka Yeshivah in
Hebron; Solomon Eliezer
Alfandari (d. 1930), Chief Rabbi of Damascus (1897-1904)
and Safed (1911-1918); Nissim
Behar (d.
1931), educator and advocate for the Alliance
Israelit Universelle education system; Boris Schatz (d. 1932),
an avowed anti-secularist, founder of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in
Jerusalem; Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (d.
1932), Hareidi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem (not to be confused with the
position of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi); Yossele Rosenblatt (d.
1933), prominent Hazzan; Abraham
Isaac Kook (d. 1935) who held the office of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi in 1921,
after the position was vacant for a few years; Yaacov Meir (d. 1939), formerly Chief Rabbi of Palestine (1906-07)
until he was overthrown by his political enemies, after serving in Salonica, he
became Sephardic Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine since 1921; Henrietta Szold (d.
1945), founder of Hadassah; Meir Feinstein (d. 1947)
and Moshe Barazani (d. 1947), celebrated
freedom fighters against British imperialism; Harry Fischel (d.
1948), American businessman and philanthropist, one of the last
individuals to be buried on the Mount before the Arab occupation in 1948.
During the War of Independence in 1948, the
entire area fell to the Arab occupying forces of Jordan. All Jews who lived in
the area were ethnically cleansed and Jewish visits were prohibited. Officially
approved massive vandalism of gravesites took place and 40,000 of the 50,000
graves were desecrated. King Hussein permitted the tombstones
to be used as building materials for roads and latrines as well as partially
for the construction of the Intercontinental Hotel at
the summit of the Mount of Olives together with a road that cut through the
cemetery. Such activity had the stamp of approval of the United Nations,
Europe, and most Zionists who enthusiastically looked the other way. This was
the situation until 1967, when Israel liberated the Old City and surrounding
region in the Six Day War. After the War, restoration work of the cemetery began,
under international condemnation. It was later re-opened for burials.
The following is a partial list of the prominent personalities that are buried on the Mount of Olives since 1967: Princess Alice of Battenberg (d. 1969) mother of Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh and recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews in Greece; Shmuel Yosef Agnon (d. 1970), writer and Nobel Prize laureate; Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman (d. 1976); writer Uri Zvi Grinberg (d. 1981), Zvi Yehuda Kook (d. 1982) Rosh Yeshivah of the Mercav Harav Yeshivah and son of Abraham Isaac Kook; Robert Maxwell (d. 1991) British MP and (dishonest) philanthropist; Prime Minister Menachem Begin (d. 1992) who cruelly ethnically cleansed the Sinai of Jews; Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren (d. 1994); Revisionist freedom fighter Israel Eldad (d. 1996); British Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits (d. 1999); Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg (d. 2008) Chabad emissaries to Mumbai India killed by Pakistani terrorists; Moshe Hirsch (d. 2010) leader of Neturei Karta; Meyer Rosenbaum, Chief Rabbi of Cuba.
The following is a partial list of the prominent personalities that are buried on the Mount of Olives since 1967: Princess Alice of Battenberg (d. 1969) mother of Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh and recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews in Greece; Shmuel Yosef Agnon (d. 1970), writer and Nobel Prize laureate; Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman (d. 1976); writer Uri Zvi Grinberg (d. 1981), Zvi Yehuda Kook (d. 1982) Rosh Yeshivah of the Mercav Harav Yeshivah and son of Abraham Isaac Kook; Robert Maxwell (d. 1991) British MP and (dishonest) philanthropist; Prime Minister Menachem Begin (d. 1992) who cruelly ethnically cleansed the Sinai of Jews; Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren (d. 1994); Revisionist freedom fighter Israel Eldad (d. 1996); British Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits (d. 1999); Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg (d. 2008) Chabad emissaries to Mumbai India killed by Pakistani terrorists; Moshe Hirsch (d. 2010) leader of Neturei Karta; Meyer Rosenbaum, Chief Rabbi of Cuba.
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