Every year Jews from the Old Jewish Quarter, today’s “Muslim Quarter” along with government officials light Chanukah candles by the Kotel HaKatan, the Small Western Wall, which lies far inside the “Muslim Quarter.”
This year the custom continued with dancing and Chanukah lighting.
The Small Western Wall has been a critical location that connects historical Jerusalem of the pre-State era to the post 1967 reality. Over the decades since Israel liberated the entirety of Jerusalem, more and more Jews have moved throughout the Old City, including the “Christian and Muslim Quarters.”
More than 1,000 Jews live beyond today’s Jewish Quarter. Prior to the creation of the State of Israel, there were a series of Arab led pogroms in the 1920s and 1930s that successfully pushed out Jewish residents from their homes. By 1948 the Jewish population in Jerusalem’s Old City retreated to what is today’s Jewish Quarter.
Activities at the Small Western Wall and beyond are designed to encourage more and more Jews to move and venture beyond the current Jewish Quarter.
