Tiferet Israel Synagogue
31 47 '28 "N 35 12' 36" E / 31.79098, 35.2101
Synagogue Tiferet Israel ( Hebrew : ), named in honor of Rabbi Israel Friedman Ruzhin , was one of the synagogues, the most remarkable Old City of Jerusalem. It was destroyed with other places of worship by Jews Jordanians during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948-1949.
The synagogue is also known under the name Shoul Nissan Bek (in Yiddish and Hebrew: ) named after its founder Rabbi Nissan Beck Origins Although early Hasidim have arrived in Jerusalem about 1747 , it was not until 1839 that Rabbi Beck Nissan decided to build a synagogue of Hasidic ritual. Until then, they met and prayed in personal homes, as the home of Rabbi Israel Beck. In the 1830s , Rabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhin learned that the Tsar Nicolas I intend to build a church in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Friedman, who is very involved in the development of the Yishuv (Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel), then asked Rabbi Nissan Beck trying to thwart the project. Beck tries then by all means, including financial, to block the purchase by the Russians on the ground where they intend to build their church. In 1843 , the Russians are forced to give up and buy land in another part of Jerusalem, now known as the Russian compound. Out of spite, Czar of Russia expels Friedman. When the latter died in 1851 , his son, Rabbi Abraham Jacob Friedman of Sadigura continues the project of his father and raises funds for the building of the synagogue . Construction began in 1857. Having encountered a first refusal by the Ottoman , it is further delayed by the discovery of a tomb Muslim and after the digging of foundations, with a second refusal of the official authorities in Turkey. Rabbi Beck, nationality Austrian , gets the intercession of the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Mindful of the interests of his subjects in the Holy Land , it comes with the Turkish authorities, and in 1858 a firman (decree) was obtained. For ten years, funds are collected, while the building taking shape . In November 1869 , Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria on his way to the inauguration of the Suez Canal , went to Jerusalem where, despite a busy schedule, he visits the Jewish institutions of the city. The synagogue, which was under construction, is submitted without the dome. Rabbi Beck explains that because of the recent trials of the Jews of Austria and Hungary , he could not ask for funds to complete the building. He then added: "But now, thanks to the honor given by visiting this holy place by your majesty, we hope to complete the roof quickly." Some witnesses reported that Rabbi Beck would have allowed the emperor, pointing out that "even the synagogue has removed his hat in your honor! . Following his visit, Francois-Joseph, concerned for his benevolent policies towards his Jewish subjects living in Jerusalem, donated 1000 francs for the construction of the dome . The three levels of the synagogue completed in 1871 and it was inaugurated on August 19 1872 , 29 years after the land purchase. During the next 75 years, the synagogue Tiferes Israel as a center for Hasidic community in Jerusalem. During the Arab-Israeli war of 1948-1949 , Moshe Rusnak, commander of the Haganah in the Old City, makes Tiferet Israel Synagogue a bastion of defense of the Old Town against the troops of the Legion Arab Jordanian , commissioned in this area by Fawzi el Kutub. Exasperated by the Jewish resistance, it finally ordered eight of his men to rush to open ground and placing an explosive charge at the base of the synagogue. All are either killed or wounded. Nobody is doing so voluntarily and Kutub himself rushed to the synagogue to lead his men, but only a Tunisian will follow with an explosive charge of about twenty-five kilos, which will not cause a breach. Three more attempts are needed to make a hole in the wall through which a portion of the legionnaires rush inside the synagogue. Sure that the Haganah-cons will attack and that his own snipers, entering the synagogue, deliver quickly to pillage, Kutub decides to destroy it with a load of over a hundred pounds. A terrific explosion shakes the whole neighborhood and blew up the heart of the building. When the smoke dispersed and we can then see the extent of the devastation caused by the bomb, we heard a cry of dismay from other Jewish positions, quickly replaced by a scream of joy. A small group of the Haganah, led by Judith Jaharan is being cons-attack and regain the Arabs the smoking ruins of the synagogue. Kutub as had been assumed, the guerrillas have spent their time looting the synagogue. Haganah then discovered the bodies of the Arab soldiers, killed during their attack-cons, with the altar cloths wrapped around their waists, chandeliers and other silver coins in their pockets . On the night of 20 to 21 May 1948 , an hour after midnight, the Tiferet Israel Synagogue is a heap of ruins. A few hours later, the last Jewish fighters should abandon the ruins. The synagogue is the first fortified the Old City to fall into the hands of the Arab Legion. After the Six Day War and the reconquest by the Israelis in the Old City, the decision is made not to rebuild the synagogue and leave the remains in the state. Only the western wall is still standing. In 1953 , Rabbi Mordecai Solomon Friedman, Chief Boyan Hasidim in New York , from the branch of Hasidim Ruzhin, laying the foundations for a new Hasidic center in the new city of Jerusalem. In the 1960s , a new synagogue was built, like the old Tiferet Israel Synagogue in the Old City. This building situated at the western end of the street Malchei Yisrael, near the central bus station in Jerusalem, has since been renovated. 
Construction
Destruction
Mesivta Tiferet Israel of Ruzhin
References
Jewish Quarter Muslim Quarter Christian Quarter Armenian Quarter Temple Mount Doors
(Designated by numbers on map)
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