By Amy Loewenthal, RRC Slifka Intern in Israel (with help from Alison Prager)
About 60 Diaspora Jews, many of us American Jews studying in yeshivas, came together on April 2nd to protest what the Simon Wiesenthal Center was doing across the street from where we stood.
Just across from Kikar Chatulim stands a tall wall of corrugated metal, surrounding the construction site of the future Museum of Tolerance and Center for Human Dignity. The museum is the vision of Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The 2004 ground-breaking ceremony was attended by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Israeli Cabinet members. But two years later, workers excavating the site struck human bones.
It turned out that part of the building site was over a hidden section of the Mamon Allah, or Mamilla Cemetery, once Jerusalem’s main Muslim cemetery. Some say the cemetery dates back to the 12th century and includes graves of men who fought for Saladin against the Crusaders. Construction was halted temporarily, but rather than relocate the planned Museum, the Center appealed to the Supreme Court and ultimately obtained permission to continue the building project.
Mamon Allah Cemetery
The Supreme Court based its reasoning on the legalities of land appropriation rather than religious codes of respect for the dead. In 1948, Israel had declared the cemetery to be “absentee property.” Over the next 30 years the municipality of Jerusalem acquired ownership of the land, despite objections that were filed.
As always, there are many claims and counter-claims. Most disturbing is the counter-claim by the Wiesenthal Center that it is now continuing with the construction in an aim to stop “those extreme elements whose sole objective is to reclaim the heart of Jerusalem.” How ironic that a center for religious tolerance refuses to acknowledge or respect religious motivations for protecting graves. This cynicism and disregard inspired a protest.
Rabbi Levi Kelman
Rabbi Levi Kelman of Rabbis for Human Rights, opened with a bracha for a protest: “Blessed are you, Adoshem, Determiner of the universe, Who gave us voice, gave us conscience, and merited us to engage in disagreement for the sake of the sacred.” Other speakers included Bradley Burston, a Ha’Aretz reporter, who gave a tongue-in-cheek apology for addressing the crowd in English. Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the
Israel Religious Action Center of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, told us not to apologize for being English speakers in Israel. She said that we bring ideas with us that Israel sorely needs, as exemplified by the fact that “there is no word in Hebrew for ‘pluralism.’”
Hanna Sioniora
Hanna Siniora, a Palestinian Christian who is co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, told us that a Palestinian man who had a relative buried in the cemetery had offered the
Wiesenthal Center an equivalent plot of his own land in East Jerusalem as an alternative site for the Museum. The Center rejected his offer. Mr. Siniora said he was proud to stand with young religious Jews who care about religious tolerance. At that moment, it seemed worthwhile that we had showed up to present a face of Judaism that respects Muslim religious sensibilities.
For another report on the same event at Jewschool, click here.
