Five years ago, a civilian Jewish presence returned to the biblical boundaries of the ancient city of Jericho as Mevo’ot Yericho – Jewish Jericho – was established with permission from the administration of then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The community remained small, with only two couples and a few singles for the first few years, but it has grown from five to 20 families in the last ten months.
Jericho is one of the most ancient cities in the world, and is also the site of the oldest synagogue in the world, known as the Shalom Al Yisrael (‘Peace unto Israel’) Synagogue. A yeshiva (Talmudic academy) was set up at the ancient synagogue in following the 1993 ‘Gaza and Jericho First’ phase of the Oslo Accords. The Accords guaranteed Jewish access to holy sites, including the Jericho synagogue and Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem.
After the Arab destruction of Joseph’s Tomb, the yeshiva was the next casualty of the ‘Temple Mount War.’ On Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, 2000 the ancient synagogue was burned down and Jews were banned from setting foot in the ancient holy site. Though the Oslo Accords included an explicit statement that Jews should be allowed continued access to Jewish holy sites in Jericho under Palestinian Authority rule, and even though the IDF recently re-entered Jericho to round up wanted terrorists – no Jews have been granted access to the synagogue since the Rosh HaShana riots.
With the destruction of the Jewish presence inside the downtown area of Jericho, Mevo’ot Yericho (literally the ‘Gates of Jericho’) became the vanguard for Jews who wished to have continued access to the holy sites of Jericho. David and Rebecca HaLevi were the fifth family to join Mevo’ot Yericho. David HaLevi spoke with INN’s Ezra HaLevi (no relation), describing what life was like in ‘Jewish Jericho.’ “Mevo’ot Yericho encompasses thousands of acres of land,” said HaLevi, “all legally belonging to the Yishuv. What’s more important is that the yishuv has deliberately grown in the direction of the Al Na’aran Shul [the Shalom Al Yisrael Synagogue] – one of the oldest synagogues in the entire world. We hope that as we grow and establish our presence here more permanently that we will be able to increase ‘safe’ access for the entire Jewish People to this holy site. Though there are only 20 families living here, we are always hosting people who want to visit the first city conquered by the Jewish People as we entered the Land of Israel under Joshua.”
Asked what makes Mevo’ot Yericho unique, HaLevi – founder of K'Cholmim – said, “the yishuv [settlement] is made up of an exceptional mix of people – there are olim [immigrants] from a dozen different countries, and a cross-section of Israelis from Keshet in the Golan to Dimona in the Negev. It is located in the Plains of Jericho, where the border between the Jewish tribes of Efraim and Binyamin was, and in the shadow of the Mountains of Moab, across the Jordan, where the tribes of Gad, Reuven, and Menashe lived. This is the place where God said to Joshua at the end of the fourth chapter of the Book of Joshua: “You should remove your shoes for the land upon which you stand is holy.” This is Jewish history in the raw, and it is important to us that it remains part of our present and future as well.”
Asked if there were any downsides to life in a somewhat isolated community, HaLevi replied: “There is a general perception in Israel that communities must be ideologically and religiously homogenous. As a result, the local council, which currently makes decisions for the yishuv, has rejected six families whom the actual residents of Mevo’ot Yericho would have been glad to welcome as part of the community.”
Asked why the families were rejected, HaLevi said: “All different reasons. This one was too ‘black hat’, this one was too secular, another is too into Rabbi Kahane – basically if you don’t fit the mold of the folks in charge of absorption into a community, that is that. Walls have been built between Jews that need to be knocked down as though they were the walls of ancient Jericho [Jericho was conquered by the Jewish people under Joshua by encircling the city seven times and blowing rams' horns after which the walls crumbled to the ground].
HaLevi feels that a new approach must be taken in order to expand the communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza whose future depends largely on their size. “One of the greatest things that the new wave of North American Aliyah (immigration to Israel) can bring to Israel is the paradigm of a civil society – that just because someone is religious or secular, Chabad-Lubavitch or Hareidi-religious, Sephardic, Ashkenazi, any shape or color, there is no reason they can’t live side by side. We came to Mevo’ot Yericho as the only olim (immigrants) from North American and were amazed at the excitement with which our new neighbors embraced this truth. And so even though the bureaucratic machine hasn’t yet understand our point, we hope that as we grow stronger the necessary changes will be made from within.”
David HaLevi is in the United States this summer, speaking on behalf of Mevo’ot Yericho and the ‘outposts’ of Judea, Samaria and Gaza and raising funds for a ‘mikvah’ (Jewish ritual bath) which would serve as the first mikvah in the southern Jordan Valley in modern times. HaLevi can be reach at David@kcholmim.org
Jericho is one of the most ancient cities in the world, and is also the site of the oldest synagogue in the world, known as the Shalom Al Yisrael (‘Peace unto Israel’) Synagogue. A yeshiva (Talmudic academy) was set up at the ancient synagogue in following the 1993 ‘Gaza and Jericho First’ phase of the Oslo Accords. The Accords guaranteed Jewish access to holy sites, including the Jericho synagogue and Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem.
After the Arab destruction of Joseph’s Tomb, the yeshiva was the next casualty of the ‘Temple Mount War.’ On Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, 2000 the ancient synagogue was burned down and Jews were banned from setting foot in the ancient holy site. Though the Oslo Accords included an explicit statement that Jews should be allowed continued access to Jewish holy sites in Jericho under Palestinian Authority rule, and even though the IDF recently re-entered Jericho to round up wanted terrorists – no Jews have been granted access to the synagogue since the Rosh HaShana riots.
With the destruction of the Jewish presence inside the downtown area of Jericho, Mevo’ot Yericho (literally the ‘Gates of Jericho’) became the vanguard for Jews who wished to have continued access to the holy sites of Jericho. David and Rebecca HaLevi were the fifth family to join Mevo’ot Yericho. David HaLevi spoke with INN’s Ezra HaLevi (no relation), describing what life was like in ‘Jewish Jericho.’ “Mevo’ot Yericho encompasses thousands of acres of land,” said HaLevi, “all legally belonging to the Yishuv. What’s more important is that the yishuv has deliberately grown in the direction of the Al Na’aran Shul [the Shalom Al Yisrael Synagogue] – one of the oldest synagogues in the entire world. We hope that as we grow and establish our presence here more permanently that we will be able to increase ‘safe’ access for the entire Jewish People to this holy site. Though there are only 20 families living here, we are always hosting people who want to visit the first city conquered by the Jewish People as we entered the Land of Israel under Joshua.”
Asked what makes Mevo’ot Yericho unique, HaLevi – founder of K'Cholmim – said, “the yishuv [settlement] is made up of an exceptional mix of people – there are olim [immigrants] from a dozen different countries, and a cross-section of Israelis from Keshet in the Golan to Dimona in the Negev. It is located in the Plains of Jericho, where the border between the Jewish tribes of Efraim and Binyamin was, and in the shadow of the Mountains of Moab, across the Jordan, where the tribes of Gad, Reuven, and Menashe lived. This is the place where God said to Joshua at the end of the fourth chapter of the Book of Joshua: “You should remove your shoes for the land upon which you stand is holy.” This is Jewish history in the raw, and it is important to us that it remains part of our present and future as well.”
Asked if there were any downsides to life in a somewhat isolated community, HaLevi replied: “There is a general perception in Israel that communities must be ideologically and religiously homogenous. As a result, the local council, which currently makes decisions for the yishuv, has rejected six families whom the actual residents of Mevo’ot Yericho would have been glad to welcome as part of the community.”
Asked why the families were rejected, HaLevi said: “All different reasons. This one was too ‘black hat’, this one was too secular, another is too into Rabbi Kahane – basically if you don’t fit the mold of the folks in charge of absorption into a community, that is that. Walls have been built between Jews that need to be knocked down as though they were the walls of ancient Jericho [Jericho was conquered by the Jewish people under Joshua by encircling the city seven times and blowing rams' horns after which the walls crumbled to the ground].
HaLevi feels that a new approach must be taken in order to expand the communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza whose future depends largely on their size. “One of the greatest things that the new wave of North American Aliyah (immigration to Israel) can bring to Israel is the paradigm of a civil society – that just because someone is religious or secular, Chabad-Lubavitch or Hareidi-religious, Sephardic, Ashkenazi, any shape or color, there is no reason they can’t live side by side. We came to Mevo’ot Yericho as the only olim (immigrants) from North American and were amazed at the excitement with which our new neighbors embraced this truth. And so even though the bureaucratic machine hasn’t yet understand our point, we hope that as we grow stronger the necessary changes will be made from within.”
David HaLevi is in the United States this summer, speaking on behalf of Mevo’ot Yericho and the ‘outposts’ of Judea, Samaria and Gaza and raising funds for a ‘mikvah’ (Jewish ritual bath) which would serve as the first mikvah in the southern Jordan Valley in modern times. HaLevi can be reach at David@kcholmim.org