WASHINGTON (JTA) — American rabbinical students protested plans by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to build a tolerance museum atop land formerly used as a Muslim cemetery.
Students from Jerusalem-area seminaries affiliated with U.S.-based synagogue movements were pre-eminent among the 70 people attending Thursday’s protest in downtown Jerusalem.
The Israeli Supreme Court recently allowed the project to go ahead. The Reform movement’s rabbinical association has called for a halt to the project.
The land was made into a parking lot in the mid-1960s. Groups opposed to the project say that sensitivities exist now, with Jerusalem in dispute, that did not exist then, when Israel held only the western part of the city. Additionally, they say, a symbol of Judaism would exacerbate Muslim offense more than a simple parking lot.
The Wiesenthal Center has disputed that the property was part of a nearby cemetery, but says it will take pains to treat with respect an area that has been discovered to hold bones.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
