05 July , 2006
The city of Jerusalem has announced plans to rebuild two synagogues in the Old City. The Israeli newspaper "Yediot Achronot" reported that a US$ 13 million project was under way to reconstruct the Tiferet Yisrael and Horva synagogues in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. “I believe that rebuilding these synagogues will restore the Old City’s unique appearance,” Jerusalem's mayor Uri Lupolianski was quoted as saying. Founded in the early 18th century as a major Ashkenazi synagogue, Horva was destroyed by the Ottomans and later rebuilt, only to be razed again by the Jordanians. Tiferet Yisrael was built in the 19th century with money from Austrian Jews, but was demolished by Jordanian forces following Israel’s War of Independence in 1948. The Old City is divided into Muslim, Christian and Jewish quarters.
