3000 Years of Jerusalem History

Jerusalem underwent a period of improvement as the Ottomon's rebuilt the city's walls, reinstated the markets, and refurbished the mosques. At some point, however, the Ottomon empire lost interest in Jerusalem, and then anarchy, poverty, disease and crime overtook the city.

Partly due to the city's deteriorating conditions, Jerusalem residents began to build homes outside the walls of the city in the mid-19th century. Also at this time, for the first time in 1,800 years, Jew became the dominant group in their ancient capital, making up more than half of the city's 18,000 residents.

The growth of the Jewish population and their migration outside the city's walls was supported by Jewish philanthropists from abroad, such as Sir Moses Montefiore. Montefiore, a highly successful British merchant, rebuilt the Hurvah syngagoue, established a printing press, a soup kitchen, housing for the poor, a girl's school, the city's first Jewish hospital, and the first Jewish neighborhood outside the city's walls called Mishkenot Sha'ananim (the Tranquil Abode).

Building outside the city's walls continued at feverish pace. The Germans, Russians, French and British built churches, hospitals, consulates, orphanages, schools, hotels, and more. In less than a hundred years (1860-1948), the population of Jerusalem grew almost tenfold, from 18,000 to over 160,000 (including 100,000 Jews).

Once the Turks left Palestine at the end of World War I, the British took over. The burgeonling Arab and Jewish nationalist movements challenged the British rule, which consequently only lasted for thirty years.

Information from The Sources of Jerusalem, Chaim Feder and Laura Janner-Klausner, Education Matters Ltd., Jerusalem.

Next page > [Capital of the Jewish State] > Page Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

~ Lisa Katz

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