ANCIENT PORTAL TO THE KOTEL: MAGNANIMOUS FRUM JEW NEEDED

The Jerusalem Post ran a headline, Magnanimous Zionists Should Save the New Imperial Hotel and Jaffa Gate! JPost

BUT WHAT WE NEED IS A MAGNANIMOUS JEW TO BUY THE IMPERIAL HOTEL AND TURN IT INTO A YESHIVA FOR MORE FRUM JEWS TO STUDY THE TORAH IN OUR ANCIENT PORTAL TO THE KOTEL AND . . . .

Dear Ateret Cohanim leaders, Israeli politicians with power in this matter and fellow Zionists,

Beware.

Jerusalem’s history is under attack. Venerable, family-run institutions are threatened. Our holy city’s charming yet delicate urban and spiritual ecosystem risks being disrupted. Ateret Cohanim should drop its battle to destroy the New Imperial Hotel. Israeli leaders and Jerusalem municipal officials should step in if they can, while the rest of us should stand up, because we must.

Jerusalem is a patchwork of layers, corners, stories, villages, families. We’re all responsible for its historical preservation. We need stronger city leadership to protect key sites and neighborhoods representing every phase of Jerusalem’s storied past.

In an old-new city that’s forever growing – and excavating – it gets confusing. But we resented Islam’s tradition of imposing mosques on Jewish and Christian holy sites. We mourned Jordan’s violent attempts to eliminate the Jewish presence, when it illegally occupied east Jerusalem starting in 1949. Israel has chosen the opposite path of mutual respect and creative preservation to nurture Jerusalem as an international ecumenical treasure.

It must continue.

I want a strong Jewish presence in the Old City, without squeezing others out. With Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Armenian Quarters, Jerusalem exemplifies the City of Peace, which Israel safeguards gloriously.

One Jerusalem gem dominates the Jaffa Gate area. When the Grand New Hotel was built in 1884, excavations uncovered traces of the Roman conquest, of Herod’s “second wall,” of a cistern which locals declared the pool Batsheva bathed in when she caught King David’s eye.

This Grand New Hotel hosted notable pilgrims, including Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1898, and Gen. Edmund Allenby in 1918. Mohammad Dajani began running the hotel in 1949, renting what he renamed the Citadel Hotel from its owner, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.

Now the New Imperial Hotel, it still throbs with history. A Dajani grandson recently restored the lovely stone walls: historic bric-a-brac leaps off them in the hotel’s expansive halls and sitting areas. Dajani’s office, occupied by his son Abu el-Walid Dajani, is majestically cluttered with historic photos.

“Dajani” is a legendary Jerusalem family, keepers of the keys to King David’s Tomb for 800 years. In 2014, Walid’s nephew Dr. Mohammed S. Dajani, an activist for Muslim moderation – Wasatia – accompanied 27 Palestinian students to Auschwitz. Furious, the university union he never belonged to fired him. Hooligans burned his car.

The family hotel and the neighboring Petra Hotel are Palestinian landmarks, Jerusalem landmarks – making them precious to me as a Jerusalemite, an Israeli, a Zionist. The same Ateret Cohanim real estate grab threatens both hotels.