On Wednesday, the government approved a controversial proposal to assign the management of the iconic Tiferet Yirael Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem to the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.
The vote has sparked tensions within the coalition, pitting Haredi and national religious members against one another as they lock horns over the character of the revived religious site. The approved plan has been described by some, including Old City residents, as an effective ultra-Orthodox takeover of the site.
Tiferet Yirael was destroyed by the Jordanian army during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948. For decades, its ruins stood untouched in the heart of the Jewish Quarter until its restoration was announced in 2012. The works are expected to be completed in the upcoming months, possibly ahead of the Jewish festival of Sukkot in October.
The management plan was proposed by Jerusalem and Heritage Minister Meir Porush of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party. A statement by Porush described the joint management by the company and the foundation as “the right model” for the site.
The company serves as an executive arm of the government, handling properties within the Jewish Quarter. The Foundation, a government-affiliated Haredi nonprofit organization, manages the Western Wall.
The government had been scheduled to approve the proposal in May, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed the vote in light of disagreements between Porush and ministers from the nationalist parties Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit, who oppose ultra-Orthodox control over the site.
Tensions around the project have been simmering for years.
The two bodies are already in charge of another historic synagogue in the Old City, the Hurva Synagogue, which was also destroyed in 1948 and rededicated in 2010.
Both the Hurva and the Tiferet Yisrael synagogues were intended to be restored for the benefit of the general public.
As reported on Ynet, in October 2016, the Jewish Quarter Development Company issued a public call for proposals to rebuild the Tiferet Yirael Synagogue. Similar to what was envisioned for Hurva, the call stated that the synagogue would primarily serve as a tourist center, a hospitality venue for IDF soldiers and students, and a national, state-affiliated synagogue.
In the case of Hurva, however, the synagogue is currently led by Rabbi Eliyahu Zilberman, head of the ultra-Orthodox Aderet Eliyahu Yeshiva and community. The site is open to the public with an NIS 22 ($6.5) entrance ticket, but does not function as a community center and does not allow activities for soldiers.
Many — including numerous non-Haredi residents of the Jewish Quarter — fear that Tiferet Yisrael will suffer a similar fate.
“I grew up in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, among the ruins of the historic Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue; words cannot describe the emotion I felt when I entered the restored synagogue building for the first time,” Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf (Otzma Yehudit) wrote on X on May 10.
“Now, there are those who want to transfer the management of the synagogue to entities that may cancel the prayer for the welfare of the state and the prayer for the welfare of IDF soldiers,” he further wrote. “I will not allow that to happen. The chairman of my party, Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, will not allow it either, nor will any member of the Otzma Yehudit faction.”
Ultra-Orthodox communities, even when they are not aggressively anti-Zionist, do not attribute religious significance to the modern State of Israel, and therefore do not include those prayers in their services, contrary to Religious Zionist or Modern Orthodox synagogues in Israel and often in the rest of the world.
According to Ynet, Wednesday’s vote followed a heated debate, with Itamar Ben Gvir, Orit Strock (Religious Zionism Party), and Ze’ev Elkin (New Hope) voicing strong opposition to the plan. However, their objections were overruled by Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yariv Levin.
Porush said in a statement that his ministry had recently allocated an additional NIS 17 million ($5m) to the project (a figure for the total investment was not provided).
“The restoration of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue is a project of historic significance and moves the heart of anyone who carries Jerusalem within them,” Porush noted.
He also described the approval of his plan as “another milestone in our work at the Jerusalem and Jewish Heritage Ministry toward completing the restoration of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue and opening it to the general public.”