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42
FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1991
I --
The Museum That Testifies
To A Woman's Love Of Jerusalem
DIANE SCHAEFER
Special to The Jewish News
J
ERUSALEM — If one
walks through Jaffa
Gate and the Armenian
Quarter of the Old City on his
way to the Jewish Quarter,
the first Jewish building he
reaches is the Old Yishuv
Court Museum on Or Ha-
Chaim Street. The museum is
home to the Weingarten fami-
ly, one of the oldest
Ashkenazi families in
Jerusalem. It reflects the life
of the Jews of the Old City
from the middle of the 19th
century until the fall of the
Jewish Quarter in 1948. And
it stands as testimony to one
woman's love of the Jewish
Quarter that was and to a
once-again united city.
This Sunday, according to
the Jewish calendar, is
Jerusalem Day, when 24
years ago the city was
reunited. It is said that even
the most hardened soldier
donned a yarmulke when, on
June 7, 1967, Israel's forces
spread through the Old City
to reach the Kotel for the first
time in 19 years.
Two days later, Rivca We-
ingaiten, founder and direc-
tor of the Old Yishuv Court
Museum and the sixth
generation of Weingartens
born in the same house in the
Old City, was the first civilian
allowed to enter the Jewish
Quarter with the Israeli
army.
"We knew every person who
lived in the Jewish Quarter,"
she recalls of her years grow-
ing up there. "There wasn't a
stone we didn't know where it
belonged."
Mrs. Weingarten's mother's
great-grandfather was the
first Ashkenazi Jew to arrive
in Jerusalem. Bringing his
parents, his wife and two
children, he came to live in
the same house Rivca We-
ingarten resides in today.
Mrs. Weingarten's father,
Rabbi Mordechai Weingarten,
was president of the Jewish
Quarter's council.
Today, with a few excep-
tions, Jews living in the Old
City are concentrated in the
Jewish Quarter. Yet according
to Mrs. Weingarten, early in
the century they lived in all
four quarters — Jewish,
Moslem, Christian and Arme-
nian. Then the British came,
and relations started to
change.
In 1920, the first Arab riots
broke out. Jews feared for
their lives and started leaving
the Old City. The following
Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter
year the riots recurred, and
once again Jews left. The
1929 disturbances, in which
Jews were killed in all areas
of the country, signaled an
end to Jews living in the Old
City's four quarters. In 1936,
there were more riots, and
Jewish shopkeepers on David
Street in the Arab market
were the first ones attacked
and killed. By then, 15,500
Jews remained in the Old Ci-
ty of the tens of thousands
who had once lived there.
The 1936 disturbances
caused a terrible change in
the lives of the Jews in the
Jewish Quarter, according to
Mrs. Weingarten. All gates to
the Old City, except the Jaffa
Gate, were closed to Jews that
year. Dung Gate, which leads
to the Kotel, and Zion Gate,
were opened for several hours
each day. People in the new ci-
ty stopped visiting the Kotel;
Jews didn't visit the Moslem
or Christian areas and could
only go the Armenian
Quarter. Rivca Weingarten
was 13 years old.
"Day by day we saw
another family leaving, and
whenever a prominent fami-
ly left it dragged other
families with it," she recalls.
Nobody was interested in
the Jewish Quarter in those
days, Mrs. Weingarten says.
Her father, as head of the
Jewish Council, wrote letters
to the Jewish Agency and
Jewish leaders, urging them
to help him bring Jews back
to the Old City. His letters
went unheeded.
The Jewish Council
established a free public
clinic, which treated residents
of the Old City without re-
gard to religion or race. A free
public kitchen also was set
up. About 250 people came
every day for a meal of salad
and hot soup. Every night
Rivca Weingarten's mother
prepared food baskets for the
poor; she and her sisters
would deliver them, with pro-
minent rabbis among the
recipients.
The Weingarten home was
the first Jewish house in the
Old City. The first Jewish
house in the new city was
located by the post office on
"We knew every
person who lived
in the Jewish
Quarter. There
wasn't a stone we
didn't know where
it belonged."
Rivca Weingarten
Jaffa Road. Everything in
between was enemy territory.
Rabbi Weingarten wrote 72
official letters, trying to have
a bus route established into
the Jewish Quarter. After
three years, the route was
finally granted, but the bus
cost double to ride because
the drivers were afraid to go
into the Jewish Quarter.
During the 1940s, when
Jewish defense organizations
were attacking the British,
numerous searches and ar-
rests were conducted in the
Old City. Curfews were impos-
ed. People lived in poverty in
the Old City, often without
electricity or water. Most of
the inhabitants were the