Synagogue opened near Al-Aqsa Mosque
Mohammed Mar'i | Arab News
RAMALLAH: Israel yesterday opened the reconstructed Ohel Yitzhak (Tent of
Isaac) synagogue in East Jerusalem's Muslim quarter, 80 meters from the Al-Aqsa
Mosque Compound.
Israeli Channel 7 TV said that Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, Rabbi
Shmuel Rabinovich and relatives of American billionaire Irwin Moskowitz
attended the opening ceremony.
Rabinovich said that Moskowitz, the owner of Ohel Yitzhak who has been
active in settling Jews in Muslim areas of East Jerusalem, gave the Western
Wall Heritage Foundation the right to manage the synagogue site and the
excavations.
The goal of the excavation is "to reveal the Jewish people's past," said
Rabinovich. He said the heritage foundation has the right to operate throughout
the old city, and that he is unaware of a need to ask permission from Muslim
quarter residents who live near the excavation site.
The property, located between the Cotton Merchants Gate and the Heavy
Chain Gate, was purchased by the Hungarian Jewish community in 1867. The
structure was erected in 1917 and blown up by Jordanian shelling in 1948.
The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said that the Western
Wall Heritage Foundation and the Israel Antiquities Authority constructed a
network of tunnels and excavations in Jerusalem's old city to link Ohel Yitzhak
in the Muslim quarter with the Western Wall tunnels in the Jewish quarter.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=115376&d=13&m=10&y=2008_______________________________________________
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