Beit Dolgin
Beit DolginEliran Aharon

A building belonging to Jews in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem has returned to Jewish hands this week.

The Yeshayahu Dolgin building has been the center of a two-year legal battle between the State and the Dolgin family over the site, with help from the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva.

Arutz Sheva attended a ceremony celebrating the renovation of one of the apartments of the complex on Monday, and spoke with several of the residents and supporters, as well as Rabbi Dolgin's children, about the importance of a Jewish presence in the Old City.

Dr. Irwin Moskowitz bought and dedicated the building to his dear friend, Chicago native and Torah advocate Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Dolgin.

Born in Chicago, Dolgin received rabbinical ordination at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, and then became the rabbi of the Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. He served in this position for 32 years, until he made aliyah (immigration) to Israel in 1971, urging his congregation members to follow in his footsteps.

Rabbi Dolgin then became rabbi in the budding Ramat Eshkol neighborhood in Jerusalem. Among his accomplishments: founding of the Hillel Hebrew Academy in Beverly Hills, serving as Director-General of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Jerusalem for five years, and chairing the World Mizrachi-Hapoel Hamizrachi Movement.He passed away in 2004, at age 89.