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The Hurva Synagogue reopened on March 15, 2010, after a $6.2M reconstruction project.
A historical marker at the Hurva Synagogue reads:
“In 1700, a large group of immigrants led by Rabbi Yehuda Hasid (Rabbi Judah the Pious) arrived in Jerusalem. They settled in the Ashkenazi Courtyard in the Old City just as a synagogue reconstruction had been completed, sinking the community into debt. In 1720, when they could not repay loans, Arab creditors burned down the synagogue and its courtyard. For over a century, the synagogue lay desolate and has poignantly been known since as the Ruin (Hurva) of Rabbi Yehuda Hasid.
In 1808 hundreds of the Vilna Gaon’s disciples immigrated to the Land of Israel. In 1836 they secured a permit to rebuild the destroyed courtyard, and in 1864 they dedicated the great Beit Yaakov Synagogue which became the most magnificent and important synagogue in Jerusalem.
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Shortly before the fall of the Jewish Quarter, during the 1948 War of Independence, soldiers of the Jordanian Legion blew up the synagogue. The synagogue stood in its state of destruction for 19 years until the liberation of Jerusalem’s Old City during the Six Day War. As part of the rebuilding efforts of the Jewish Quarter, one of the synagogue’s monumental arches was reconstructed, becoming a symbol of the renewal of the Jewish Quarter.
In 2005, construction and restoration of the synagogue began and it was gloriously dedicated on the first day of the month of Nissan, 5770 (2010).”
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