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Moussaieff Synagogue Complex, Jerusalem

Description

Background: The Bukharan Quarter, also called HaBukharim Quarter, is a neighborhood in central Jerusalem. As the name implies, the neighborhood was first established by Buhkaran Jews beginning in the late 1860s but gradually grew to become a pan-Persian Jewish area, hosting Jewish communities from Iran and Afghanistan alongside Bukharan Jews[1][2]. The creation of the neighborhood was part of a larger process of Jewish areas being established in Jerusalem outside the confines of the Old City[3]. The history of Bukharian desires to migrate to Eretz Israel actually hails from developments almost a century prior when Yosef Maman, a Sephardic rabbi initially from Morocco (but had resettled in Safed to teach at a yeshiva), was traveling to various Jewish communities to collect funds for yeshivot in Eretz Israel. After reaching Buhkara, Mamon would relent that the established Jewish community of Bukhara was sorely lacking proper study/understanding of Torah/halacha. Maman would go on to become the spiritual leader of the Bukharan Jewish community, providing them with Sephardic religious rites that replaced their old Persian rites. Their utilization of such rites was a result of isolation from surrounding Jewish populations, specifically from the Buhkara Emirati’s closed door policies[4]. Maman would establish many yeshivas in Bukhara; however, an integral part of his teachings was a support for Bukharan Jews to visit and return to Eretz Israel[5]. 

As early as 1827 and until 1860, many Bukharan Jews were making multi-month long visits to Eretz Israel but not settling in the land and opting to return to Bukhara[6]. These trips would establish the groundwork for the first true settlement of Bukharan Jews in Jerusalem in 1868 when Bukharan Jews from Russian Turkestan would make the trek to the Holy Land for their new home[7]. Like many of their Russian Ashkenazi counterparts, seven members of the Bukharan community would form a Hovevei Zion Association for the Bukharan communities of Nuhkara, Samarkand, and Tashkent. This association specifically bought around 40 houses northwest of Mea She’arim, an area that would become the Bukharan quarter, which they would name Rehovot[8]. The group’s charter specified a desire to build the quarter in parallel to the style of Europe’s largest cities, specifically following neo-Gothic and Italian architectural styles alongside traditional Jewish building styles including Moorish arches alongside a heavy utilization of Magen Davids and Hebrew inscriptions in the inside of the buildings. These homes were atypically large, possessing usually two stories and a courtyard (alongside streets triple the average width for such an era)[9]. The quarter as a whole was initially particularly affluent, being filled with Bukharan Jews who amassed wealth from mercantile, cotton, and tea trades in Central Asia. 

The original population began to dissipate in the early part of the 20th century and gradually grew to become a Sephardi-Haredi dominated area, with most of the houses/synagogues being utilized by such a population as well[10]. 

Shlomo Moussaieff: The specific individual who would establish the Moussaieff Synagogue Complex was rabbi Shlomo Moussaieff of Bukhara, a figure who, alongside Yosef Kohjinoff, could be regarded as the individuals responsible for buying most of the land for the Bukharan quarter[11]. He was born in 1852 and he made aliyah in 1888 to Rehovot[12]. He created a prayer book called Hukat Olam, where he would detail his personal desire to make aliyah[13].

Alongside the Moussaieff Synagogue, which was originally a complex of four synagogues, Shlomo Moussaieff would fund the creation of over 20 housing complexes in Jerusalem for low income families[14]. Moussaieff would play an integral role in promoting and directing Bukharan Jews to migrate to the quarter, arguably being a primary leader of the quarter’s early infrastructure. He was also a big proponent of sponsoring/supporting less affluent writers, specifically in the area of Kabbalah, to promote their respective works[15]. He also was an avid collector of prized literature from the Sephardi world, possessing a library of ancient texts including manuscripts from Maimonides. Currently, such manuscripts are held in the Bar Ilan University library[16]. Moussaieff, alongside being a rabbi, made a decent fortune as a gemstone trader/merchant and utilizing such wealth for his respective projects in Rehovot[17].

Moussaieff’s father would likewise make aliyah alongside his son and pass on in Jerusalem in 1892, while his mother, Sarah, would die in Bukhara in 1889. Moussaieff would die in 1922 and would be buried at the Mount of Olives. His wife, Ester Goanoff, was a direct descendant of Yosef Maman. Shlomo’s had seven children in total and his child Rehavia was the first individual born in the newly established Bukharan quarter; however, per his will, only those that remained in Eretz Israel would be privy to his fortune; furthermore, only the direct male descendants who live in Israel continue to profit from the renting of complexes established by Moussaieff which are commonly rented out by travelers[18]. 

The Moussaieff Synagogue Complex: Unlike other communities, Bukharan Jews did not establish a single central synagogue for the community but instead utilized multiple close/private structures for their respective places of worship. This respective complex of individual synagogues would come to be known as the Shtiebel of HaBuhkarim. Initially, Shlomo Moussaieff followed this pattern and created four intertwined synagogues which would come to be called the Moussaieff Synagogue complex[19]. In 1894, Beit Shlomo Moussaieff on Rechov Adoniyahu Hakohen One was the first home built in the neighborhood and would hence become part of the complex of Moussaieff synagogues.

The family home's courtyard possessed multiple stairways leading up to the dwellings of extended family and the courtyard included synagogues for family prayers. The arched entrances distinguish the openings to the synagogues, with the original synagogue possessing an alef over its arch[20]. The external view of the synagogues reflects other buildings in the area, following the grand styles by the visionaries of the quarter; however, on the inside of the four sanctuaries, there existed an elaborate array of cultural concepts including a mikvah, Turkish hammam, and even a small museum dedicated primarily to Sephardi-Mizrahi religious concepts/structures/literature[21]. It is claimed that some of the stones in the complex derive from the Beis Hamikdash, with experts claiming the stone is similar to that found near the Temple Mount from the Hasmonean period[22]. The synagogue was also a place of study and literature as Shlomo Moussaieff specifically used the synagogue to employ poor Jewish scholars to write on religious subjects, specifically Kabbalah[23]. There were also many chambers dedicated as sleeping quarters initially as, especially with later Bukharan migrations to Eretz Israel, continually less affluent populations making aliyah. Today, the synagogue complex mainly follows Jerusalem-Sephardi rites and is still heavily in use. The congregants of the Moussaieff synagogue are also overwhelmingly Haredim, hence a departure from the original Bukharan-Sephardi rites and practices that once took place within such respective synagogues.

Today, the complex is one of only two synagogues to still follow the Sephardi Bakashot tradition alongside the Ades synagogue[24]. The complex expanded from an original four sanctuaries to eight. More rooms were likewise added to the existing complex, and many of them are contemporarily utilized for daily shiurim. Much of the Moussaieff synagogue complex is considered a “hekdesh,” also known as a religious endowment, in which the sites are legally not allowed to be sold for non-religious activities[25].

Jerusalem, Israel

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