What is the Jewish Quarter of the Old City?

Answer 1

The Old City of Jerusalem retains traces of Temple period Jerusalem even today, including the Roman roads and city plan.
Roman cities were divided into four quarters, as were Roman military camps. Quarter referring to a living area the Fren Quarter of New Orleans; quartered referring to hosing troops, quartermaster responsible for caring for the army, comes from this arrangement. It no longer means one-fourth of an area, which is important to keep in mind in the case of Jerusalem.
The administration/police was always in the west gate; the tetrapylon -four columns- were always where the east-west and north-south main rods intersected. the Decumanus led from the Western Gate, the Cardo ran north south. A roman citizen could find her or his way in any city from Londinium to Baghdad.
This city plan which the Romans considered human perfection was adopted to the terrain- though often the terrain was changed to fit the plan - mountains cut down, platforms built out, etc.

In the case of Jerusalem, one main Cardo ran from the Damascus Gate area in the north on the ridge of what Josephus Flavius calls the Western Hill, out past the area of Zion Gate today, down to the bottom of the Valley of Hinom. Another parallel north-south road ran in what Josephus calls the Tyropean Valley, and actually descends all the way to the Hinom Valley along what is called the City of David. One must ignore the nearly 500 year old Turkish walls running from today's Dung Gate to Zion Gate- the city continued further south.

The tetrapylon of Temple and Roman period Jerusalem today supports the arches over a pool hall and coffee shop. This building is known as Khan el-Umdan, the Inn of the Columns. On the wall is a picture from last century. This is where the Four Quarters meet.

However, bear in mind that this division is an artificial artifact of the ancient roads, and actually has no political or historical reality to it,until modern politics ignored history and used the names in an attempt to create realities and division. So for example, the oldest mosque - the real Mosque of Omar himself- is in the Christian Quarter. The Roman Catholic/Greek Orthodox/Franciscan Via Dolorosa begins in the Muslim Quarter and continues there for most of its length. Muslim Christians, and Jews lived throughout the Old City, at different times in history. The Syrian Jewish Quarter wiped out by Godfrey de Bouillon in the First Crusade (1099) was between Damascus Gate and Herod's Gate in the Muslim Quarter, and Jewish communities were spread through that area until the pogrom of the 1920'3 and 1930's. Thus, the names of the Quarters do not define ownership nor historical connection; with the partial exception of the Armenian Quarter which does include a self-contained area, smaller than the lines of the Roman roads, where Armenians have lived for about 1700 years.

The Jewish Quarter is the southeast quadrant of the Old City of JErusalem, about one-eight of the city now within the Turkish walls. One one block alone there are records of a continued Jewish presence for 600 years at least, maybe even 750 years, including he site of the newly rebuilt Hurva Synagogue.

Today's Jewish Quarter is home to over 500 Jewish families as well as some Arab families - one family runs a kosher Ara b bakery which closes on theJewish Sabat and holidays, especially Passover, when Jews do not eat leavened bread.

There are over 20 synagogues, old and new; about 50 institutions of learning which run the gamut of ages; nursery schools and day care, four elementary schools representing different streams and educational approaches; higher learning, including rabbinical schools, women's seminaries, and programs for nearly one thousand overseas students who come for a year or more of study after high school. There are nearly 150 stores with artisans, food, tourist items, and more, including one of the largest Judaica stores in the world, Moriah, with a scribe working on the premises.

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