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Cities of Peaceful coexistence
ACRE
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The history of Acre shows how the rulers imposed their preferred religion on the local population. After the crusaders dominated this ancient city, the Mamluk and Ottoman rulers clearly showed that Islam was the ruling religion by confiscating ancient churches and by turning vhurches and also the Ramchal synagogue into mosques. On the other hand Acre shows how the three major religions lived side by side for already 3 centuries!
The Al-Muallaq Mosque was built in 1758 by the Arab ruler of Acre, Zahir al-Umar. It was built in a courtyard on the site of a structure commissioned by the Crusaders and which later became the gate to the Genoaese quarter of the city. Up until 1746, the structure was used as a synagogue by Acre's Jewish residents and called it the Ramchal Synagogue. The Jews still owned the building when Zahir chose to transform it into a mosque, but he compensated them with a different building located in Acre's Jewish quarter. Leftover features of the synagogue include the niche for the Holy Ark and inscriptions in Hebrew.
GALILEE
Jewish and Christian groups in the Galilee region of Israel seems to have lived for centuries side by side. There were at somewhere around 50 synagogues. This seems to indicate that the Jewish-Christian relations in this specific periode and area were relative good. Renovation of Galilean synagogues in Late Antiquity attests to the vitality of Jewish communities but at the same time Christian churches and communities and also pilgrimage seems to have flourished.
The article examines Jewish and Christian groups in the eastern rural Galilee in relation to synagogues and churches that can be dated to Late Antiquity. Hakola first provides an overview of recent scholarly discussions about Jewish-Christian relations elsewhere in the ancient world. Building on this, he discusses Galilean synagogues and their diversity, and proposes that the building and renovation of rural Galilean synagogues in Late Antiquity attests to the vitality of village settlements in the region. The Christian churches and communities surrounding them that had connections with pilgrimage were also part of this diversity. Hakola suggests that local Jewish and Christian communities in late antique Galilee cherished their particular traditions by constructing specific spaces which set them apart from the rest of the society and reinforced their collective identity. These buildings, synagogues and pilgrim churches, share much in the details of their art and architecture, but they also epitomize the need of these communities to present themselves as different from one another. Despite these attempts at separation, Hakola claims that there were also social and cultural interactions between different local communities.
HAIFA
Haifa
HEBRON
Hebron
JAFFA
The Libyan Synagogue was most likely the first Jewish synagogue constructed in Jaffa in the Modern Era. The synagogue is first mentioned at the end of the first half of the 18th century, and it is said it was purchased or constructed by Rabbi Yaakov Ben David Zunana, for “The Committee of Israeli Officials and Lords in Istanbul” to serve as a Khan (public hostel), with a synagogue and mikveh (ritual bath) for Jewish pilgrims who arrived in Israel via Jaffa harbor, and were primarily headed to Jerusalem and the other holy cities. At the end of the 18th century, as a result of the aggravating conditions for the Jews in Jaffa and a diminution in the number of pilgrims, the Arabs appropriated the hostel from its Jewish owners and allowed pilgrims to use it only three days during the year. During the waves of conquest and destruction that visited Jaffa during the 18th and 19th century, the Jewish community in Jaffa disappeared together with the traces of the Jewish Khan. In 1948, the first Libyan immigrants arrived to settle in Old Jaffa, which was abandoned by its Arab residents. They set this place to be their synagogue after receiving the key to it from a Franciscan Priest of the nearby St. Peter Abbey, who told them that the place many years ago served as the home of a Jewish synagogue. It was discovered that the building served for many years as a soap factory, but was known among the Arabs as “the Jewish House”. This is another, indirect piece of evidence that this building is Khan Zunana.
JERUSALEM
Jerusalem
PEKI'IN
Peki'in
SAFED
The Jewish quarters were all situated west of the fortress. Each quarter was named for the place of origin of its inhabitants: Purtuqal (Portugal), Qurtubah (Cordoba), Qastiliyah (Castille), Musta'rib (Jews of local, Arabic-speaking origin), Magharibah (northwestern Africa), Araghun ma' Qatalan (Aragon and Catalonia), Majar (Hungary), Puliah (Apulia), Qalabriyah (Calabria), Sibiliyah (Seville), Taliyan (Italian) and Alaman (German).[68]
Hebrew book printed by Eliezer Ashkenazi in 1579
In the 15th and 16th centuries there were a number of well-known Sufi (Muslim mysticism) followers of Ibn Arabi living in Safed. The Sufi sage Ahmad al-Asad (1537–1601) established a zawiya (Sufi lodge) called Sadr Mosque in the city.[71] Safed became a center of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) during the 16th century. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, many prominent rabbis found their way to Safed, among them the Kabbalists I and Moshe Kordovero; Joseph Karo, the author of the Shulchan Aruch and Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, composer of the Sabbath hymn "Lecha Dodi". The influx of Sephardic Jews reaching its peak under the rule of Sultans Suleiman the Magnificent and Selim II. Safed became a global center for Jewish learning and a regional center for trade throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. Sephardi Jews and other Jewish immigrants by then outnumbered the indigenous (Musta'rib) Jews in the city. During this period, the Jews developed the textile industry in Safed. The town became an important and lucrative centre for wool production and textile manufacturing. There were more than 7,000 Jews in Safed in 1576 when Murad III issued an edict for the forced deportation of 1,000 wealthy Jewish families to Cyprus to boost the island's economy. There is no evidence that the edict, or a second one issued the following year for the removal of 500 families, was enforced. A Hebrew printing press, the first in Western Asia, was established in Safed in 1577 by Eliezer Ashkenazi and his son, Isaac of Prague. In 1584, there were 32 synagogues registered in the town.
TIBERIAS
The Greek Orthodox built the Greek Orthodox Church and monastery in 1837 the southern end of the promenade, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. According to Jewish tradition, the Greek Orthodox built the church on top of the ruins of a 16th century synagogue called the Domes of the Shalah. Shalah is an acronym for the two tablets upon which the 10 Commandments were writen. The holy Shalah who headed this synagogue is Rabbi Yeshayahu Halevi Horovitz, the Rabbi of Tiberias for 2 years. Rabbi Yeshayahu was buried in the city at the burial ground of the tomb of Maimonides (Rambam). The “Leaning Tower” which is part of the monastery, has become one of the symbols of Tiberias. Daher al-Omar erected the leaning tower on the foundations of the Crusader wall.