Rabbis Urge Action Against Arab Attacks on Mount of Olives
Ancient View: The Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan (right) sits next to the Mount of Olives. Image by Nathan Jeffay
More than 100 Orthodox rabbis, mostly from the United States, are urging action against ongoing Arab attacks on the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
The rabbis signed a petition organized by Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn, president and chairman, of the Religious Zionists of America – Philadelphia Chapter, together with Rabbi Dov Fischer, Esq., spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Orange County, Calif.
The petition also was signed by the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau; as well as rabbis from France, Australia, and Canada.
“We call on the Jewish community to press for immediate action by the appropriate authorities to safeguard this holy Jewish site and preserve the integrity of undivided Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital,” the petition said.
The petition will be presented Sunday at a public meeting in Brooklyn on the issue, co-hosted by Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Menachem Lubinsky, leader of the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim, or Mount of Olives.
There are an estimated 150,000 graves on the mountain, where Jews have been buried since biblical times. Notable individuals buried there include the prophets Zechariah, Malachi and Hagai; Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin; famous modern rabbis such as Aryeh Kaplan and Ahron Soloveichik; Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah; cantor Yossele Rosenblatt; and British parliamentarian Robert Maxwell.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
