Former U.S. presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee will take part in a reception at the Shepherd's Hotel in Jerusalem during his visit to Israel next week. The visit is being sponsored by the Ateret Cohanim group which recently won a legal battle to return the hotel to its Jewish owners and build 20 new apartments on the site. Huckabee, who is considered a leading contender in future presidential elections, will be joined by New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

Jews were forced out of the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood during the 1948 War of Independence, but in recent years have begun to return to the neighborhood. The area features the gravesite of Shimon HaTzaddik or Shimon the Pious, identified in the Book "Ethics of the Fathers" as among the last of the Great Assembly which provided leadership for the Jewish People between the Biblical Period and the Talmudic Period. His gravesite is a place of pilgrimage for Jews worldwide.