This Rosh Hashanah will mark the 50th anniversary of the excavation of the Avraham Avinu synagogue in Hebron. Built by Sephardic Jews in 1540 led by Rabbi Malkiel Ashkenazi. It served as center of prayer and community for generations until the 1929 Hebron massacre. During the Jordanian period, it was turned into an animal pen and public latrine.
In 1976 Prof. Ben-Zion Tavger began efforts to dig through the rubble, and using old maps and the memories of elderly residents, identified the remains of the synagogue.
Dr. Noam Arnon, the long-time Hebron spokesperson and author recalls those early days. “We dug through garbage and a cattle pen that had been placed over the remains of the synagogue,” he stated. “After we received permission, I was responsible for coordinating the work and the excavation, which was carried out by volunteers, both native-born Israelis and immigrants. Towards Rosh Hashanah, the remains of the synagogue were revealed and we began to pray among the ruined walls.” This marked the first time in decades that the site was used for prayer.
“The struggle did not end there,” Dr. Arnon related. “It continued for another four years, until the synagogue was restored and rebuilt. Today, the building is a place of beauty and splendor. Visiting it is exciting for me every time.”
Prof. Tavger, a noted physicist who have moved to Hebron from the Soviet Union, wrote about the dedication ceremony for the synagogue in his book My Hebron.
While I was in the synagogue, waiting for the Torah scroll to be brought in, I looked around once again at the walls of the building. The synagogue was now splendidly built, more or less approximating its original form, before it was destroyed in the 1950s. There might have been a few minimal changes here or there, and perhaps not everything had been completed and it was still necessary to fix something or other, but on the whole, the synagogue now looked beautiful, it appeared splendid. One could even say that it was impressive, though not very modern.
I let my eyes wander around the interior of the synagogue. I had time to think and recall its previous state, five or six years ago, and thought of the sequence of events that had transpired. When I first came here, the place had indeed gone by the name of “Avraham Avinu Synagogue”, but its name had seemed completely disconnected from its essence. Nothing about it had indicated that it was a synagogue. It had been used as a goat shed. On its eastern side there had been a familiar, or rather, a notorious structure – the public latrine – which had been erected for the use of those who frequented the adjacent wholesale market, and the rest of the site was used as a garbage dump.
This place, where previously there had been a goat shed, which had symbolized our disgrace and humiliation, was magnificently renovated and the ancient synagogue was at its center. We can pray in it! This is not something insignificant! It is a great thing, but it is not the conclusive thing, at least not from my point of view.
When I had begun to dig here, I had not set a goal for myself only to renovate the synagogue and not even the entire Jewish Quarter. My aim had been to change the atmosphere that had enabled the entrenchment of a state of affairs wherein on the site where a synagogue had once been standing in full glory, suddenly three “magnificent” establishments are standing: a goat-shed, a public toilet facility and a garbage dump. I felt very festive during the ceremony and was completely overcome by joy.
Rabbi Malkiel (also spelled Malchiel) Ashkenazi (מלכיאל אשכנזי) is credited with helping revive the Jewish community of Hebron, by assisting refugees from the Spanish Inquisition and building the historic Avraham Avinu synagogue. His dates of birth and passing are estimated to be 1520-1620.
Prof. Jerold Auerbach, in his book Hebron Jews: Memory and Conflict in the Land of Israel states: “…in 1540, a group of Jewish exiles from Spain, joined by Menachem ben Moshe Bavli, a respected author from Baghdad, acquired a tract of land in Hebron from the local Karaite community, a splinter sect of Jews… Rabbi Malchiel Ashkenazi, their benefactor, purchased a courtyard that became known as El Cortiyo, “the Court of the Jews.” He also subsidized the purchase of additional buildings around the newly built synagogue, where he became the first rabbi of Hebron’s restored community. Referred to as an “accomplished scholar, pietist, and saint,” he encouraged the migration of scholars of Kabbalistic mysticism from Safed, where he had studied before arriving in Hebron.” (p. 40)
The Jewish Quarter, with the Abraham Avinu Synagogue in its center, was a densely populated residential area. Its houses were built as a closed quarter surrounding an open courtyard. The houses served as an outer wall to the quarter. Narrow passages led to the quarter, which could be easily blocked to protect the community on a day of rage. Over the generations, upper levels to the buildings were constructed to a height of four stories. According to writings, there was cleanliness and order, and Torah educational institutions were there despite the difficult conditions.
