Further Benefactions

Further Benefactions.

In 1856 the Turkish authorities gave permission to all persons to visit the mosques; and this brought more Europeans, who commenced to build churches and hospices. The American Mission had been established in the city in 1821; the English, in 1826. In 1845 the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch had been moved from Constantinople to Jerusalem; and in 1847 the Latin Patriarchate had been renewed. In 1849 the Jerusalem Literary and Scientific Society had been formed, out of which the Palestine Exploration Fund developed. The Jews also continued to increase in numbers. In 1854 the American Judah Touro gave $60,000 for the purpose of founding hospices for them; these were built on the road to Hebron, and were called , or "Montefiore Homes," because the money was expended partly through that philanthropist and partly through the "North American Relief Society for the Indigent Jews of Jerusalem." In 1864 the Rothschilds of London established the Evelyn de Rothschild School for Girls.
(see image) Jerusalem as Viewed from the North.(From a photograph by the American Colony, Jerusalem.)

In 1865 there was an epidemic of cholera, and many Jews were victims. The poverty in the city was very great; flagrant abuses of the Halukkah system having ruined the Jewish banking business there, and the gifts of the charitable Europeans having been in the hands of the Kolel ("Ben Chananja," 1867, p. 45). In the same year the water-works were rebuilt, and water was brought to the city from 'En 'Etam and from the Pools of Solomon. In this year Montefiore made his fifth visit, and contributed £300 on condition that the water should be led into the Jewish quarter. A Jewish manual school was founded by Baron Franchetti of Turin. In 1867 Albert Cohn of Paris commenced the work later continued by the Paris Rothschilds and the Alliance Israélite Universelle, and laid the foundation for a Jewish library (ib. p. 174). A serious attempt was made to provide better dwellings for the Jews, who lived in miserable huts; this was largely due to the munificence of the brothers Hirsch in Halberstadt (ib. pp. 459, 659). In 1870 Prof. H. Grätz and M. Gottschalk Lewy of Berlin were in Jerusalem, and, seeing the sad plight of the orphans left by recent Jewish immigrants, founded the Verein zur Erziehung Jädischer Waisen in Palästina, the seat of which was in Frankfort-on-the-Main. The work was taken up by M. Herzberg. Despite the strongest possible opposition, a certain R. Kuttner having put the ban on the learning of foreign languages, a school was established in which Arabic, Hebrew, German, French, and English were taught. The Württemberg Templars (a Christian sect) founded a colony in Jerusalem in 1873 and introduced the soap-manufacturing industry. In 1878 the hospital Misgabla-Dak was founded for the Jews, without distinction of party. In 1879 the English Mission Society founded, specifically for Jews, a hospital, a pilgrim-house, and schools at an expense of £10,000 a year, but the results of these missionary efforts were inconsiderable. In the same year the colony PetaH Tikwah was founded by Jerusalem Jews, as well as an orphan asylum for the Ashkenazim, together with a school which was afterward joined to the Lämel School. In 1881 the number of Jews had grown to 13,920; in 1891, to 25,322. In 1882 the London Society for the Assistance of Persecuted Jews, founded by the Earl of Shaftesbury, bought a piece of property called "Abraham's Vineyard," in which Jews were employed. The colony of Artuf was bought by Jews in 1896. The School for Boys (Bet Sefer), founded by the Alliance, dates from 1882. The British Ophthalmic Hospital was founded and is maintained by the Knights of St. John.

Jerusalem