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81-734: The conference was chaired by Leon Pinsker and attended by 32 people, of which 22 were from Russia. It was the first public meeting of Zionists, preceding the First Zionist Congress by 13 years. The Hovevei Zion movement began in Russia and Romania and slowly spread out to the rest of the Jewish world. Important early members were: Chaim Weizmann , Ahad Ha’am , Menachem Ussishkin , Israel Zangwill , and Leo Motzkin . The Hovevei Zion organizations were usually small and independent. In 1882, Leon (Yehuda Leib) Pinsker, influenced by

162-581: A mihrab for Muslim prayer. Following a 1929 British memorandum, in 1949 the UN ruled that the Status Quo — an arrangement approved by the 1878 Treaty of Berlin concerning rights, privileges and practices in certain Holy Places—applies to the site. According to the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine , the tomb was to be part of the internationally administered zone of Jerusalem, but

243-458: A Hebrew language writer, scholar and teacher. Leon attended his father's private school in Odessa and was one of the first Jews to attend Odessa University , where he studied law. Later he realized that, being a Jew, he had no chance of becoming a lawyer due to strict quotas on Jewish professionals and chose the career of a physician. Pinsker believed that the Jewish problem could be resolved if

324-453: A "Saracen mosque" in 1421, and John Poloner describes a "Saracen building" in 1422. A guide published in 1467 credits Shahin al-Dhahiri (1410-1470) with the building of a cupola, cistern and drinking fountain at the site. The Muslim rebuilding of the "dome on four columns" was also mentioned by Francesco Suriano in 1485. Felix Fabri (1480–83) described it as being "a lofty pyramid, built of square and polished white stone"; He also noted

405-579: A 1615 firman granted by the Pasha of Jerusalem which gave them exclusive use of the site and that the building, which had fallen into decay, was entirely restored by Moses Montefiore in 1845; the keys were obtained by the Jews from the last Muslim guardian at this time. The Muslims claimed the site was a place of Muslim prayer and an integral part of the Muslim cemetery within which it was situated. They stated that

486-474: A drinking water trough at its side and reported that "this place is venerated alike by Muslims, Jews, and Christians". Bernhard von Breidenbach of Mainz (1483) described women praying at the tomb and collecting stones to take home, believing that they would ease their labour. Pietro Casola (1494) described it as being "beautiful and much honoured by the Moors ". Obadiah of Bertinoro (1488) writes that "There

567-470: A large dome, open on all four sides, with ten stones "ten fingers long" topped by one "sixteen fingers long" (diagram left). Nicolas of Poggibonsi (1346–50) describes the grave, including the "twelve stones", as 7 feet high and enclosed by a rounded tomb with three gates. In the 15th century, if not earlier, the tomb was "appropriated by the Muslims" and rebuilt. The Russian deacon Zosimus describes

648-664: A large piece of land for our poor brothers; a piece of land which shall remain our property, from which no foreign master can expel us. Thither we shall take with us the most sacred possessions which we have saved from the shipwreck of our former father-land, the God-idea and the Bible. It is only these which have made our old father-land the Holy Land, and not Jerusalem or the Jordan. Perhaps the Holy Land will again become ours. If so, all

729-518: A meeting of Rabin’s cabinet and security forces , the Israeli position was changed to demand that an Israeli force provide security at the tomb and control the access road to it. When this demand was put to Yasser Arafat during the negotiations, he is said to have responded: I cannot agree to this! Next to Rachel’s Tomb there is a Muslim cemetery and the holy place is located in Area A and I myself am

810-437: A mihrab for Muslim prayer, to ease Muslim fears. Professor Glenn Bowman notes that some writers have described this as a “purchase” of the tomb by Montefiore, asserting that this was not the case. In 1843, Ridley Haim Herschell described the building as an ordinary Muslim tomb. He reported that Jews, including Montefiore, were obliged to remain outside the tomb, and prayed at a hole in the wall, so that their voices enter into

891-633: A neighborhood in Rishon LeZion , is named after him, as well as a street in Tel Aviv and several other locales in Israel. Rachel%27s Tomb Rachel's Tomb ( Biblical Hebrew : קְבֻרַת רָחֵל Qǝbūrat Rāḥēl ; Modern Hebrew : קבר רחל Qever Raḥel; Arabic : قبر راحيل Qabr Rāḥīl ) is a site revered as the burial place of the Biblical matriarch Rachel . The site is also referred to as

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972-474: A resolution reaffirming a 2010 statement that Rachel's Tomb was "an integral part of Palestine." On 22 October 2015, the tomb was separated from Bethlehem with a series of concrete barriers. Biblical scholarship identifies two different traditions in the Hebrew Bible concerning the site of Rachel's burial, respectively a northern version, locating it north of Jerusalem near Ramah , modern Al-Ram , and

1053-424: A site of Jewish pilgrimage since at least the eleventh century—possibly since ancient times —and remains a holy pilgrimage site for modern Jews. Meron Benvenisti described it as "one of the cornerstones of Jewish-Israeli identity". British Jewish financier Sir Moses Montefiore significantly expanded the building in 1841, obtaining the keys for the Jewish community while building an antechamber , including

1134-565: A small dome: it enjoys the privileges of a mosque , for the Turks as well as the Arabs, honour the families of the patriarchs. [..] it is evidently a Turkish edifice, erected in memory of a santon. An 1824 report described "a stone building, evidently of Turkish construction, which terminates at the top in a dome. Within this edifice is the tomb. It is a pile of stones covered with white plaster, about 10 feet long and nearly as high. The inner wall of

1215-544: A southern narrative locating it close to Bethlehem. In rabbinical tradition the duality is resolved by using two different terms in Hebrew to designate these different localities. In the Hebrew version given in Genesis , Rachel and Jacob journey from Shechem to Hebron , a short distance from Ephrath , which is glossed as Bethlehem (35:16–21, 48:7). She dies on the way giving birth to Benjamin : "And Rachel died, and

1296-469: A stone either, with the 11th stone representing Jacob: "The monument is of 12 (!) stones. Each stone is as wide as the grave and half as long, so that five layers of two stones each make ten. A final stone rests on top, which is as wide and as long as the grave." Already in the 11th century Tobiah ben Eliezer had written, "Each son contributed one of the 11 stones." Petachiah says the stones were "marble" (others describe them as "hewn") and that "Jacob's stone

1377-459: A string of pogroms in his town of Odessa , anonymously published “ Auto-Emanzipation. Ein Mahnruf an seine Stammesgenossen. Von einem russischen Juden ” ( Self-Emancipation. A Warning Addressed to His Brethren. By a Russian Jew ) Pinsker outlined his belief that the root cause of anti-Semitism was that the Jews were a people without a nation of their own. He called on Jews to organize themselves for

1458-460: A tomb in the ordinary Muhammedan form; the whole plastered over with mortar. It is neglected and falling to decay; though pilgrimages are still made to it by the Jews. The naked walls are covered with names in several languages; many of them Hebrew." In 1841, Montefiore renovated the site and obtained for the Jews the key of the tomb. He renovated the entire structure, reconstructing and re-plastering its white dome, and added an antechamber, including

1539-518: A walled courtyard, and Jewish ritual observance: The tomb of Rachel the Righteous is at a distance of 1½ miles from Jerusalem, in the middle of the field, not far from Bethlehem, as it says in the Torah. On Passover and Lag B'Omer many people—men and women, young and old—go out to Rachel's Tomb on foot and on horseback. There they pray, make petitions, dance around the tomb, and eat and drink. Over

1620-516: A well. Although Rachel's Tomb was only an hour and a half walk from the Old City of Jerusalem, many pilgrims found themselves very thirsty and unable to obtain fresh water. Every Rosh Chodesh (beginning of the Jewish month), the Maiden of Ludmir would lead her followers to Rachel's tomb and lead a prayer service with various rituals, which included spreading out requests of the past four weeks over

1701-606: Is Bethlehem" was added to distinguish it from a similar toponym Ephrathah in the Bethlehem region. Some consider as certain, however, that Rachel's tomb lay to the north, in Benjamite , not in Judean territory, and that the Bethlehem gloss represents a Judean appropriation of the grave, originally in the north, to enhance Judah 's prestige. At 1 Samuel 10:2 , Rachel's tomb is located in the 'territory of Benjamin at Zelzah.' In

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1782-544: Is a corpse, to the native a foreigner, to the homesteader a vagrant, to the proprietary a beggar, to the poor an exploiter and a millionaire, to the patriot a man without a country, for all a hated rival. His visit to Western Europe led to his famous pamphlet Auto-Emancipation , subtitled Mahnruf a seine Stammgenossen, von einem russischen Juden ( Warning to His Fellow People, from a Russian Jew ), which he published anonymously in German on 1 January 1882, and in which he urged

1863-777: Is a round dome built upon it but it does not look old to me." Mujir al-Din al-'Ulaymi (1495), the Jerusalemite qadi and Arab historian, writes under the heading of Qoubbeh Râhîl ("Dome of Rachel") that Rachel's tomb lies under this dome on the road between Bethlehem and Bayt Jala and that the edifice is turned towards the Sakhrah (the rock inside the Dome of the Rock ) and widely visited by pilgrims. Noe Bianco (1527) describes "three beautiful domes, each with four columns". According to legend, Mehmet Pasha of Jerusalem repaired

1944-414: Is covered by twelve stones, and above it is a dome vaulted." Pseudo-Beda (12th century) similarly writes "Over her tomb Jacob piled up twelve great stones for a memorial of his twelve sons. Her tomb, together with these stones, remains to this day." Benjamin of Tudela (1169–71) and Jacob ben Netanel haKohen  [ he ] ( c.  1170 ) were the first Jewish pilgrims to describe visits to

2025-461: Is very large, the burden of many men. The local priests tried several times to take it for use in a church, but each time they awoke to find it had returned to its place. It is engraved with 'Jacob'". In 1327, Antony of Cremona referred to the cenotaph as "the most wonderful tomb that I shall ever see. I do not think that with 20 pairs of oxen it would be possible to extract or move one of its stones." A Jewish pilgrimage guide (before 1341) describes

2106-645: The Bilal bin Rabah mosque ( Arabic : مسجد بلال بن رباح ). The tomb is held in esteem by Jews , Christians , and Muslims . The tomb, located at the northern entrance to the West Bank city of Bethlehem , next to the Rachel's Tomb checkpoint , is built in the style of a traditional maqam , Arabic for shrine. The burial place of the matriarch Rachel had a matzevah erected at the site according to Genesis 35:20 ;

2187-505: The Kingdom of Prussia ). As a professional physician, Pinsker preferred the medical term " Judeophobia " to the recently introduced " antisemitism ". Pinsker knew that a combination of mutually exclusive assertions is a characteristic of a psychological disorder and was convinced that pathological, irrational phobia may explain this millennia-old hatred, wherein: ... to the living, the Jew

2268-676: The Odessa Committee . Disagreements between various Jewish religious and secular factions, an internal movement crisis and the ban by the Ottoman Empire on Jewish immigration in the 1890s caused Pinsker to doubt whether Eretz Israel would ever become the solution. Pinsker died in Odessa in 1891. His remains were brought to Jerusalem in 1934 and reburied in Nicanor's Cave next to Mount Scopus . Moshav Nahalat Yehuda , now

2349-505: The Ottoman period, and is situated in a Christian and Muslim cemetery dating from at least the Mamluk period. The first historically recorded pilgrimages to the site were by early Christians . Throughout history, the site was rarely considered a shrine exclusive to one religion and is described as being "held in esteem equally by Jews, Muslims, and Christians". Rachel's Tomb has been

2430-691: The monarchic period down to the Babylonian captivity , it would follow, Rachel's tomb was thought to lie in Ramah. The indications for this are based on 1 Sam 10:2 and Jer. 31:15 , which give an alternative location north of Jerusalem, in the vicinity of ar-Ram , biblical Ramah , five miles south of Bethel . One conjecture is that before David's conquest of Jerusalem, the ridge road from Bethel might have been called "the Ephrath road" ( derek ’eprātāh . Genesis 35:19 ; derek’eprāt, Genesis 48:7 ), hence

2511-730: The High Commissioner ruled that, pending appointment of the Holy Places Commission provided for under the Mandate, all repairs should be undertaken by the Government. However, so much indignation was caused in Jewish circles by this decision that the matter was dropped, the repairs not being considered urgent. In 1925 the Sephardic Jewish community requested permission to repair the tomb. The building

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2592-595: The Holy Land cannot be a 'physical center' except for very few of our Jewish brethren, it would be far better for us to divide the work of national revival into two, with Palestine as our national (spiritual) center and Argentina as our cultural (physical) center." Nevertheless, Pinsker became one of the founders and a chairman of the Hovevei Zion movement. As part of the movement, he focused on supporting settlements that already existed and helping them to achieve self-sufficiency before organizing any further migration and

2673-455: The Holy Land in 1828. The couple were childless, and Lady Montefiore was deeply moved by the tomb, which was in good condition at that time. Before the couple's next visit, in 1839, the Galilee earthquake of 1837 had heavily damaged the tomb. In 1838 the tomb was described as "merely an ordinary Muslim Wely, or tomb of a holy person; a small square building of stone with a dome, and within it

2754-417: The Jewish people to strive for independence and national consciousness. In his 1882 pamphlet Auto-Emancipation , Pinsker argued against Palestine as the destination for a Jewish commonwealth: We must not attach ourselves to the place where our political life was once violently interrupted and destroyed. The goal of our present endeavors must be not the 'Holy Land', but a land of our own. We need nothing but

2835-622: The Jews and support Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel. A decision was reached to send immediately 10,000 francs to Petaḥ Tikvah and 2,000 rubles for Yesud ha-Ma'alah . It was also decided to send a reliable emissary to Eretz Israel to investigate the standing of the colonies there. Nineteen members were elected to the central committee, including Leon Pinsker (chairman), Samuel Mohilewer (president), Kalonymus Ze'ev Wissotzky, Judah Leib ben Moses Kalischer (the son of Ẓevi Hirsch Kalischer ), Max Emmanuel Mandelstamm, Ch. Wollrauch, and others. At

2916-686: The Jews attained equal rights. In his early years, Pinsker favored the assimilation path and was one of the founders of a Russian language Jewish weekly (see also: Haskala ). The Odessa pogrom of 1871 moved Pinsker to become an active public figure. In 1881, a bigger wave of anti-Jewish hostilities, many state-sponsored, swept southern Russia and continued until 1884. Then Pinsker's views changed radically, and he no longer believed that mere humanism and Enlightenment would defeat antisemitism . In 1884, he organized an international conference of Hibbat Zion in Katowice ( Upper Silesia , then part of

2997-556: The Jews of Jerusalem to fix a wall at the tomb were to be repaid and used instead for more deserving causes. On 25 April, 1767 Giovanni Mariti  [ it ] visited, finding the site "almost ruined" but the arches "open from top to bottom". Mariti apparently penetrated the sarcophagus and writes that it is completely empty. Moses of Jerusalem wrote (Amsterdam, 1769) that "The tomb is closed. The building has three windows and to enter one must pay an Arab attendant," but this author may have relied on old reports. Eugene Hoade says that

3078-667: The Moslems for prayer; its holy character has hindered them from removing the Hebrew letters from its walls." Three months after the British occupation of Palestine the whole place was cleaned and whitewashed by the Jews without protest from the Muslims. However, in 1921 when the Chief Rabbinate applied to the Municipality of Bethlehem for permission to perform repairs at the site, local Muslims objected. In view of this,

3159-526: The Muslim cemetery within which it is situated. It also demanded a renewal of the old Muslim custom of purifying corpses in the tomb's antechamber. Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War till 1967, the site was occupied then annexed by Jordan . the site was overseen by the Islamic waqf . On December 11, 1948, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194 which called for free access to all

3240-818: The Ottoman Government had recognised it as such and that it is included among the Tombs of the Prophets for which identity signboards were issued by the Ministry of Waqfs in 1898. They also asserted that the antechamber built by Montefiore was specially built as a place of prayer for Muslims. The UN ruled that the status quo , an arrangement approved by the Ottoman Decree of 1757 concerning rights, privileges and practices in certain Holy Places, apply to

3321-671: The Tomb shall be preserved. Oslo II Accord , Israel-PLO, 28 September 1995, Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip , Annex I, Article V, Part 7 The Oslo II Accord of September 28, 1995 placed Rachel's Tomb in a Palestinian enclave (Area A) , with a special arrangement making it – together with the main Jerusalem-Bethlehem access road – subject to the security responsibility of Israel. Initially

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3402-660: The United Kingdom, and the rest from Germany. At the request of the Warsaw society, many other groups submitted proposals for organization and action. Schapira, who could not attend, sent a telegram to point out the importance of establishing financial institutions, including a general Jewish fund, whose primary task would be to redeem land in Eretz Israel . At the proposal of Pinsker the conference established an institution named Agudat Montefiore to promote farming among

3483-475: The Zionist organization Hibbat Zion in 1881. Political disagreements between religious and secular factions of the Odessa Committee , and Ottoman restriction on Jewish emigration, prevented Pinsker from resettling, and he died in Odessa in 1891. His remains were later brought to Jerusalem in 1934. Leon (Yehudah Leib) Pinsker inherited a strong sense of Jewish identity from his father, Simchah Pinsker ,

3564-510: The arches were re-walled in 1788. Nachmu ben Solomon, a Karaite from Kale , reported in 1795 "we entered the qubba and said the appropriate prayers . . . the qubba is extremely large and tall." Pococke reports that the site was highly regarded by Turks as a place of burial, and that the ground had been raised by the number of graves. According to Mariti, the early-modern outbuildings were locals' tombs. In 1806 François-René Chateaubriand described it as "a square edifice, surmounted with

3645-553: The area was ruled by Jordan , which prohibited Jews from entering the area. Following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the site's position was formalized in 1995 under the Oslo II Accord in a Palestinian enclave (Area A) , with a special arrangement making it subject to the security responsibility of Israel. In 2005, following Israeli approval on 11 September 2002, the Israeli West Bank barrier

3726-535: The arrangement was intended to be the same as that for Joseph's Tomb near Nablus ; however this was reconsidered following a significant reaction from Israel’s right-wing religious parties. With the explicit intention of creating facts on the ground , in July 1995 MK Hanan Porat established a yeshiva at the tomb, and right-wing activists began trying to acquire land around the tomb to create contiguity with Israeli-annexed areas of Jerusalem. On 17 July 1995, following

3807-575: The beginning of the movement to settle Eretz Israel in the early 1880s and the establishment of Ḥovivei Zion societies in various countries, the need to create a unifying and coordinating center for the early Zionist activities was expressed. The only country in which a central committee functioned was Romania. An attempt to found a central committee in Russia, made at a small conference in Bialystok in 1883, produced no results; other attempts also failed. In

3888-508: The better, but first of all, we must determine—and this is the crucial point—what country is accessible to us, and at the same time adapted to offer the Jews of all lands who must leave their homes a secure and unquestioned refuge, capable of being made productive. Despite being urged several times to amend his essay to say that Palestine was the only acceptable Jewish refuge, Pinkser refused, even writing in his will that he had not retracted his opinion. Before his death, he reportedly said "Since

3969-458: The building and the sides of the tomb are covered with Hebrew names, inscribed by Jews." When the structure was undergoing repairs in around 1825, excavations at the foot of the monument revealed that it was not built directly over an underground cavity. However, a small distance from the site, an unusually deep cavern was discovered. Proto-Zionist banker Sir Moses Montefiore visited Rachel's Tomb together with his wife on their first visit to

4050-564: The cemetery. According to Bethlehem University, "[a]ccess to Rachel's Tomb is now restricted to tourists entering from Israel." Rachel's Tomb a. Without derogating from Palestinian security responsibility in the City of Bethlehem, the two sides hereby agree on the following security arrangements regarding Rachel's Tomb which will be considered a special case during the Interim Period: b. The present situation and existing practices in

4131-480: The central committee. Leon Pinsker Leon Pinsker or Judah Leib Pinsker ( Hebrew : יהודה לייב פינסקר ; Russian : Йехуда Лейб Пинскер ; 25 December [ O.S. 13 December] 1821 – 21 December [ O.S. 9 December] 1891) was a physician and Zionist activist. Earlier in life he had originally supported the cultural assimilation of Jews in the Russian Empire . He

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4212-522: The end Leon Pinsker , Moses Leib Lilienblum , Hermann Schapira , Max Emmanuel Mandelstamm, and others took the initiative to convene a conference. Following the suggestion of David Gordon, Katowice, then in Germany, was chosen as the site for the conference. Its date was fixed for Oct. 27, 1884, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Moses Montefiore , at the suggestion of the Warsaw society. The conference

4293-630: The establishment of a Jewish homeland. Waves of pogroms in the Russian Empire from 1881-1884 and the anti-Semitic May Laws of 1882 introduced by Tsar Alexander III of Russia, deeply affected Jewish communities and prompted the Hovevei Zion movement to take action and organize the conference. The growing separation of Jewish communities due to sudden freedom and assimilation also was a cause for action, as many feared that Judaism's ancient sense of unified nationality would disappear. With

4374-679: The establishment of new settlements. Younger activists, such as Menachem Mendel Ussishkin, actively opposed this approach, urging an acceleration of the pace of settlement. In 1890, the Russian authorities approved the establishment of the Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Palestine, dedicated to the practical aspects of establishing Jewish agricultural colonies there. Pinsker headed this charity organization, known as

4455-481: The first meeting of the central committee, which took place at the time of the conference, it was decided that two committees, one in Odessa and the other in Warsaw, should temporarily manage the organization's affairs. The central committee, to be headed by Pinsker, was to reside temporarily in Odessa, and a subcommittee was to be established in Warsaw, subject to Pinsker's authority. Kalischer announced his presentation of land acquired by his father near Rachel's Tomb to

4536-437: The following years, land in the vicinity of the tomb was acquired by Nathan Straus . In October 1875, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer purchased three dunams of land near the tomb intending to establish a Jewish farming colony there. Custody of the land was transferred to the Perushim community in Jerusalem. In the 1883 volume of the PEF Survey of Palestine , Conder and Kitchener noted: "A modern Moslem building stands over

4617-411: The fourth and last time, after we had passed the tomb of Rachel, on our way to Jerusalem, Father Luigi and I met a hundred or more Jews on their weekly visit to the venerated spot." The Hebrew monthly ha-Levanon of August 19, 1869, rumored that a group of Christians had purchased land around the tomb and were in the process of demolishing Montefiore's vestibule in order to erect a church there. During

4698-431: The holy places in Israel and the remainder of the territory of the former Palestine Mandate of Great Britain. In April 1949, the Jerusalem Committee prepared a document for the UN Secretariat in order to establish the status of the different holy places in the area of the former British Mandate for Palestine. It noted that ownership of Rachel's Tomb was claimed by both Jews and Muslims. The Jews claimed possession by virtue of

4779-425: The mid-1850s, the marauding Arab et-Ta'amreh tribe forced the Jews to furnish them with an annual £30 payment to prevent them from damaging the tomb. According to Elizabeth Anne Finn , wife of the British consul, James Finn , the only time the Sephardic Jewish community left the Old City of Jerusalem was for monthly prayers at "Rachel's Sepulchre" or Hebron. In 1864, the Jews of Bombay donated money to dig

4860-426: The name Rachel". During the 10th century, Muqaddasi and other geographers fail to mention the tomb, which indicates that it may have lost importance until the Crusaders revived its veneration. Muhammad al-Idrisi (1154) writes, "Half-way down the road [between Bethlehem and Jerusalem] is the tomb of Rachel ( Rahil ), the mother of Joseph and of Benjamin , the two sons of Jacob peace upon them all! The tomb

4941-424: The passage in Genesis meant 'the road to Ephrath or Bethlehem,' on which Ramah, if that word refers to a toponym , lay. A possible location in Ramah could be the five stone monuments north of Hizma . Known as Qubur Bene Isra'in , the largest so-called tomb of the group, the function of which is obscure, has the name Qabr Umm beni Isra'in , that is, "tomb of the mother of the descendants of Israel". As to

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5022-426: The rain in winter. And every year in Elul , the prince of the Sephardim goes there with other eminences and sleeps there and learns all night, taking with him Arabs for protection." According to Richard Pococke , the arches had "lately been filled up to hinder the Jews from going into it" as of 4 April, 1738. In March 1756, the Istanbul Jewish Committee for the Jews of Palestine instructed that 500 kuruş used by

5103-424: The site was also mentioned in Muslim literature. Although the site is considered by some scholars as unlikely to be the actual site of the grave – several other sites to the north have been proposed – it is by far the most recognized candidate. The earliest extra-biblical records describing this tomb as Rachel's burial place date to the first decades of the 4th century CE. The structure in its current form dates from

5184-450: The site, and there are Jewish graves near it... The court... is used as a praying-place by Moslems... The inner chambers... are visited by Jewish men and women on Fridays." In 1912 the Ottoman Government permitted the Jews to repair the shrine itself, but not the antechamber. In 1915 the structure had four walls, each about 7 m (23 ft.) long and 6 m (20 ft.) high. The dome, rising about 3 m (10 ft.), "is used by

5265-490: The site. In theory, free access was to be granted as stipulated in the 1949 Armistice Agreements , though Israelis, unable to enter Jordan, were prevented from visiting. Non-Israeli Jews, however, continued to visit the site. During this period the Muslim cemetery was expanded. Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied of the West Bank , which included the tomb. The tomb was placed under Israeli military administration. Prime minister Levi Eshkol instructed that

5346-401: The site. From the 1940s, it came to be viewed as a symbol of the Jewish people's return to Zion, to its ancient homeland, For Jewish women, the tomb was associated with fertility and became a place of pilgrimage to pray for successful childbirth. Depictions of the Tomb of Rachel have appeared in Jewish religious books and works of art. Muslims prayed inside the mosque there and the cemetery at

5427-438: The structure in 1625 and granted exclusive access to Jews. A 1636 book says that Mehmet favored Jewish settlement in Jerusalem in 1625, and Samuel ben David, a Karaite from Crimea , reported in 1642 that "Mehmet Pasha built a beautiful qubba building over her tomb, as graceful as a dove in flight." In 1626, Franciscus Quaresmius visited the site and "heard from the elders that the tomb had sometime collapsed, but that it

5508-442: The structure outside Bethlehem being placed exactly over an ancient tomb, it was revealed during excavations in around 1825 that it was not built over a cavern; however, a deep cavern was discovered a small distance from the site. Traditions regarding the tomb at this location date back to the beginning of the 4th century AD. Eusebius ' Onomasticon (written before 324), the Bordeaux Pilgrim (333–334), and Jerome (404) mention

5589-411: The tomb as being located 4 miles from Jerusalem. The anonymous pilgrim of Piacenza ( c.  575 ) also mentions the tomb, writing that a church had recently been erected on the site. In the late 7th century Arculf reported a tomb "of crude workmanship, without any adornment, surrounded by a stone coping" marked with the name "Rachel." Bede similarly describes "an unopened tomb marked with

5670-446: The tomb be included within the new expanded municipal borders of Jerusalem, but citing security concerns, Moshe Dayan decided not to include it within the territory that was annexed to Jerusalem. Islamic crescents, inscribed into the rooms of the structure, were subsequently erased. Muslims were prevented from using the mosque, although they were allowed to use the cemetery for a while. Starting in 1993, Muslims were barred from using

5751-411: The tomb is a high dome . . . According to Giovanni Mariti  [ it ] , Mehmed IV "entertained a peculiar veneration for this sepulchre, and in the year 1679 sent orders for its being repaired . . . it was perhaps entirely rebuilt by Mehmed IV in 1679". Gedaliah of Siemiatycze , who lived in Jerusalem from 1700 to 1706, writes that "Wayfarers rest at the tomb to avoid the sun in summer and

5832-404: The tomb was the main Muslim cemetery in the Bethlehem area. The building was also used for Islamic funeral rituals. It is reported that Jews and Muslims respected each other and accommodated each other's rituals. During the riots of 1929 , violence hampered regular visits by Jews to the tomb. Both Jews and Muslims demanded control of the site, with the Muslims claiming it was an integral part of

5913-424: The tomb. Benjamin mentioned a monument made of 11 stones and a cupola resting on four columns "and all the Jews that pass by carve their names upon the stones of the monument." Benjamin and Jacob explain that the 11 stones represent the tribes of Israel, excluding the baby Benjamin, while Petachiah of Regensburg ( c.  1180 ) and the "student of Nachmanides" (14th century) argue that Joseph did not contribute

5994-429: The tomb. In 1844, William Henry Bartlett referred to the tomb as a "Turkish Mosque", following a visit to the area in 1842. In 1845, Montefiore made further architectural improvements at the tomb. He extended the building by constructing an adjacent vaulted ante-chamber on the east for Muslim prayer use and burial preparation, possibly as an act of conciliation. The room included a mihrab facing Mecca . In

6075-592: The tomb. On the traditional anniversary of Rachel's death, she would lead a solemn procession to the tomb where she chanted psalms in a night-long vigil. In 1868 a publication by the Catholic missionary society the Paulist Fathers noted that "[Rachel's] memory has always been held in respect by the Jews and Christians, and even now the former go there every Thursday, to pray and read the old, old history of this mother of their race. When leaving Bethlehem for

6156-486: Was born in the town of Tomaszów Lubelski in the southeastern border region of the Kingdom of Poland , and educated in Odessa , where he studied law but was unable to practice because of restrictions on occupations available to Jews. Pinsker was a supporter of equal rights under the law for Jews, but his optimism was curtailed after the Odessa Pogroms . In response to the pogroms of 1871 and 1881, Pinsker founded

6237-402: Was built around the tomb, effectively annexing it to Jerusalem; Checkpoint 300 – also known as Rachel's Tomb Checkpoint – was built adjacent to the site. A 2005 report from OHCHR Special Rapporteur John Dugard noted that: "Although Rachel's Tomb is a site holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, it has effectively been closed to Muslims and Christians." On October 21, 2015, UNESCO adopted

6318-422: Was buried on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day." — Genesis 35:19–20 Tom Selwyn notes that R. A. S. Macalister , the most authoritative voice on the topography of Rachel's tomb, advanced the view in 1912 that the identification with Bethlehem was based on a copyist's mistake. The Judean scribal gloss "(Ephrath, ) which

6399-486: Was continually restored in her memory and thus retained its dignity . . . on the front of the tomb, facing the road, is an inscription, but I could not determine the language". George Sandys wrote in 1632 that “The sepulchre of Rachel... is mounted on a square... within which another sepulchre is used for a place of prayer by the Mohometans". Moses Poryat of Prague (1650) described a high dome, one side opening to

6480-509: Was intended primarily for the Ḥibbat Zion societies in Russia, as the movement in Romania had significantly weakened. There were very few Ḥibbat Zion societies in other countries. As delegates from Russia encountered difficulties in arriving at the appointed time, the conference's opening was postponed until November 6. Twenty-two delegates came to the conference from Russia and ten from other countries. One from France, one from Romania, two from

6561-478: Was then made structurally sound and exterior repairs were effected by the Government, but permission was refused by the Jews (who had the keys) for the Government to repair the interior of the shrine. As the interior repairs were unimportant, the Government dropped the matter, in order to avoid controversy. In 1926 Max Bodenheimer blamed the Jews for letting one of their holy sites appear so neglected and uncared for. During this period, both Jews and Muslims visited

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