Memorial Room Commemorating the Victims of the Jewish Quarter

Memorial Room Commemorating the Victims of the Jewish Quarter. . On November 29, 1947, the War of Independence broke out and the battle for the Old City of Jerusalem lasted 180 days. The early stages of the war were characterized by localized Arab attacks in full view of the unresponsive British Army. When the British withdrew from the Jewish Quarter on May 13, 1948, Haganah Commander Moshe Rusnak launched Operation Python, and his forces captured the abandoned British security posts in just two days. , On May 14, 1948, (Prime Minister) David Ben-Gurion announced the establishment of the State of Israel. Two days later, all the security posts in the Jewish Quarter were attacked simultaneously. The Jewish forces in the quarter consisted of approximately 80 Haganah soldiers, 25 fighters from the Irgun (Etzel) and Lehi groups and about 50 other volunteers including nurses and one doctor. , During two days of fierce fighting, the Arabs took control of a third of the district, including the Zion Gate, cutting off supplies from the 'new city' outside the walls. Miraculously, the Jewish fighters managed to prevent the Arabs from reaching and killing the remaining Jewish population, although they paid a heavy toll, of 11 killed and 30 wounded. , On the night of May 18, some 300 soldiers of the Sixth Battalion of the Jordanian Legion stormed the Old City, backed by another 300 legionnaires stationed on the Mount of Olives, who opened heavy fire on the Jewish Quarter. Within a short time, they seized control of the Zion and Jaffa Gates, leaving the Old City totally besieged. For the next ten days, the Jordanian Arab Legion advanced from house to house to take captives. The local Jewish population ran to the southern end of the quarter and took refuge in the Sephardic Synagogues, until they were eventually forced to surrender. , The memorial rooms in front of you commemorates the 69 fighters and civilians that were killed in the six-month battle, 57 of them fell in the last two weeks of the siege. The Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter inaugurated this memorial room in 1985, on Lohamei Harova 1948 Street, 'The Street of the Fighters for the Jewish Quarter'. You are invited to visit the exhibition and view the film. , (Hebrew text not transcribed)