The Shavei Hevron Yeshiva has started planning the reconstruction of the house of Hevron's former chief rabbi, Chaim Chizkiyahu Medini, also known as the Sdei Chemed for the Talmudic encyclopedia he compiled. The three-million-shekel project includes residential rooms, the rabbi's study, his ritual bath and a library comprising about 10 thousand valuable books which were donated to the Misgav Ledach Hospital in Jerusalem's Old City after his death in 1904.
The house was built alongside Beit Romano, which was erected in 1876, and after the Sdei Chemed's death, was purchased by Rabbi Shalom Ber of Lubavitch, and became Chabad's first and most important yeshiva in the Land of Israel. During the riots of 1929, the building served as the English police station, where the wounded survivors of the massacre gathered before they were exiled from the "City of the Forefathers".
The Shavei Hevron Yeshiva says a goal of the project is to restore the place to its former status and continue the yeshiva's trend of restoring the voice of the Torah to every corner of Hevron. Some of the rooms will be used as a heritage center for visitors to learn about the scholar in the house where he worked so diligently on his project.