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Avraham Avinu Synagogue, Hebron

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Background: While much can be said about the biblical history of Hebron, the town has possessed an astonishing Jewish history from the years of Roman occupation until the present. Following the Bar Kochba revolt, it is estimated that Hebron’s famous Mamre/Botnah, a marketplace established by Herod the Great, was utilized by the Romans to both house and sell Jewish slaves to Rome and beyond [1]. Following Byzantine jurisdiction over Hebron, the city would become part of Palestina Prima, a Byzantine jurisdictional province. This action would be solidified when the Byzantines not only banned Jews from the city but subsequently established a church over the infamous Cave of Patriarchs. Before the expulsion of Jews from Hebron, the remains of a Byzantine-era synagogue were actually uncovered in Hebron [2]. 

In 638, Hebron would fall to the Rashidun Caliphate, the first caliphate to succeed the Prophet Muhammad. The Caliph, Omar Ibn al-Khattab, permitted Jews to once again return to Hebron. The first (new) synagogue would be established from Jewish return to Hebron under the Rashiduns, specifically in Hebron’s Herodian precinct [3]. Overtime, more Jews, specifically mercantile classes of Jews, would migrate to Hebron during the Ummayyad Caliphate to capitalize on the city’s strategic utilization as a middle road for many valuable Mediterranean/Arabian goods and industries [4]. According to the Cairo Geniza, the Jewish community (unlike their Arab Muslim counterparts who rarely even refrenced Hebron in their early literature) greatly valued the city as the home for the “graves of the patriarchs” and thus created a synagogue near the tombs of such patriarchs for both the local community and for Jewish pilgrims. With the reign of the Crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries, Jews were once again expelled from Hebron; furthermore, according to various legends, the Christian Crusaders unraveled the tombs of the patriarchs and discovered their bodies [5]. Maimonides himself wrote of going to visit and kiss the tombs of his ancestors during this period [6]. Jews would ally with the Kurdish Muslim leader Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, to reconquer the Levant and thus Jews could once again settle in Hebron and were even allowed to build a synagogue [7]. 

Following the Mamluk invasion of the Levant, the situation again worsened for Hebronite Jewry. Despite many famous rabbis like Nachmanides visiting Mamluk-controlled Hebron, it is noted that discrimination against Jews was common. Edicts of prevention from entering holy sites (Cave of Patriarchs) as well as orders of expulsion were enacted during Mamluk rule, causing all but a few families to remain in Hebron [8]. Obadiah Bartenura, an Italki rabbi who moved to Hebron in 1489, wrote of the town possessing twenty Jewish families who were all relatively content at this time and lived on one alleyway [9]. When Ottomans were waging war against the Mamluks, it is noted that one of the worst pogroms, the 1517 Hebron attacks, were carried out by Ottoman forces against local Jews (likely due to economic resentment) causing most Jews to flee to Beirut (with many of whom only returning in the mid 1530s) [10]. For larger future segments of Ottoman dominance of Hebron, Jews actually lived relatively better lives than their brethren in the Diaspora. The Jewish community would grow, specifically attracting those interested in Kabbalah studies, hence becoming a well known epicenter for Kabbalah [11]. Jews would slowly develop their own quarter, the Quarter of the Silk Merchant, in Hebron [12]. 

Starting in the mid 19th century, an influx of Ashkenazi Jews would join their Sephardi brethren in the Jewish quarter of Hebron; however the two communities were relatively separate with their prefered language, schools, and separate synagogues [13]. During the beginning of WW1, with increasing Muslim tensions against Hebronite Jews (largely due to a decreasing economic situation), French forces came to place Jews under their jurdistiction and protection [14]. The community would experience expulsions, murders, and hardship following Arab revolts in 1929 and 1936. In 1936, the British, who were now occupying the territory under the British Mandate, moved out all Jews from the town except a single Jewish family, the Ezra family, who were from a long line of Old Yishuv Sephardi Hebronite Jews [15]. In 1947, that family would likewise be forced to relocate to Israel proper following partition [16].

Avraham Avinu Synagogue: The Avraham Avinu Synagogue, which means “Abraham Our Father,” was established in 1540 [17]. Following the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, coupled with the expansion of the Ottomans along the Levant, many Sephardi Jews chose to migrate to the Ottoman Empire, specifically settling in recently conquered Hebron. Ottoman expansion likewise reached Jewish areas in Greece, thus allowing many Jews residing in Salonika to also reach Hebron. One of such Jews was Rabbi Malkiel Ashkenazi, a Sephardi Jew from Salonika who would establish and lead the Avraham Avinu synagogue. Malkiel Ashkenazi led the charge in acquiring the site “The Court of Jews” in Hebron and established the shul on such land [18]. According to local Old Yishuv legends, the origin of the name of the synagogue derives from days long ago when the synagogue lacked the necessary minimum number of members to engage in prayer on the eve of Yom Kippur in 1619. The legend claims that, suddenly, the Patriarch Abraham (which some iterations claim was a spirit while others say was actually Abraham) joined his descendants to meet the quorum, thus the congregants established a synagogue dedicated to the Patriarch Abraham [19]. 

Located in the heart of the Old City of Hebron, Avraham Avinu became a central element to Jewish history in the area. The synagogue was well known as the most beautiful synagogue in Palestine; furthermore, gifts/donations from the Diaspora were plentiful [20]. Domestically and across the Diaspora, the synagogue also garnered attention as a leader for Kabbalah-related studies, thus being a major pull factor for Jews to migrate to Hebron. For design/internal elements, the most noticeable feature is the grand dome defining the structure [21]. Inside, an array of pillars line the synagogue for internal support. One such pillar possesses a plaque reflecting the cover page of “Emek HaMelech” (Valley of the King), authored by Rabbi Naftali Hertz Bachrach. The work, while controversial, covers topics related to Lurianic Kabbalah. The work likewise debuted the famous story of Abraham visiting the congregants of the synagogue in 1619 to meet the prayer quorum [22]. Due to maintenance issues and oppression in the early 18th century, the Avraham Avinu Synagogue required restoration in 1738; furthermore, tougher times would befall on the synagogue following the 1773 blood libel accusations against the Jewish community for the disappearance of the son of a local sheik [23]. The Hebron Jewish community during this time mainly sustained itself via textile/silk/leather manufacturing, which was hardly enough to support the community (thus the synagogue heavily relied on donations) [24]. Despite the tough position of the community, funds would be acquired to enlarge the synagogue in 1864 [25]. 

Moving into more recent history, with the rise of the Zionist movement, tensions were brewing in Hebron. A rumor was incited that Jews were planning on taking control of the Temple Mount and were attacking local Muslims in Jerusalem, thus sparking Arabs to attack Hebronite Jews as well as the Avraham Avinu Synagogue [26]. Powerful images were captured of Palestinian Arabs ransacking the Holy Ark of the Avraham Avinu synagogue; furthermore, the British forces in the area who quelled the Arab rioters eventually evacuated all but one Jewish family from Hebron, hence focusing on the aftermath of the riot rather than the build up/attacks (of which the shul was part of) [27]. The condition of the synagogue following the 1948 War deteriorated with subsequent occupation of the site by the Hashemite Jordanians. The Jordanians would oversee making Hebron’s Jewish Quarter into a trash dump, public market, and public toilet with the Avraham Avinu Synagogue specifically being turned into an animal pen [28]. Following 1967, Israeli control officially presided over the site, with the Israeli government approving Avraham Avinu’s restoration in 1971 [29]. The restoration of the synagogue can largely be attributed to an Ashkenazi ex-Soviet Jew, Ben Zion Tavger, who would become a Hebron resident. He wrote a well known book, My Hebron, which details him seeing the disgraced current space that was the synagogue; however, he knew nonetheless that such space houses the Avraham Avinu Synagogue [30]. Services are still held in the restored synagogue by local Hebronite Jews every Friday night and visitors are welcome to learn about/explore the structure.

Hebron, Israel

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