Written and living evidence of the history of the Old City of Jerusalem proves that the compound known as the "Petra Hotel" near the Jaffa Gate, was until 1931 in Jewish hands.
Ateret Cohanim recently entered the compound after purchasing it from the Greek Patriarchate about 20 years ago.
Although the purchase and entry deal for the complex has received all the legal approvals, Palestinian and ecclesiastical officials have been conducting an international pressure campaign in recent days, in order to prevent the Jewish presence at the site.
However, historical research, including living witnesses, shows that the hotel was owned by two Jewish families throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
During the British Mandate, the hotel was a magnet for both Jewish and British leaders.
Among other things, the cornerstone for the Hebrew University was laid in 1918, and weddings and distinguished visits were held there, including the first High Representative Herbert Samuel, the First Chief Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook and more.
According to historical research, the riots of 1929 caused the hotel owner at the time, Yerachmiel Amdursky, to leave him. Amdursky's granddaughter, Zippora Ansbacher, born in 1931 and living in Jerusalem, confirmed this last week in an interview with Israel Today.
"My mother was born in one of the hotel rooms."
Tzipora Ansbacher, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Ansbacher, whose husband Mordechai (Max) was a witness at the Eichmann trial and the first director of Yad Vashem, was interviewed last week at her home.
She presented us with many objects kept in her family from the Amdurski Hotel, such as plates with the hotel logo, its advertisement in the newspapers and more.
"Mother was born in the Old City Hotel, in room 13, she took me to see. I know the hotel. It operated until 1929. There was terrorism everywhere and also in Hebron, then he (Yerachmiel Amdursky) decided to leave the hotel ... My grandfather did a kiddush. "The guests are sitting, round tables. Suddenly they hear from below, 'Alayhum, Alayhum', and a great noise. And people approached with sticks, batons."
The decision to leave
"Grandpa was scared, but asked the people to stay and told them 'I'm coming down' ... When they saw him, he told them in Arabic, 'You're going up on my dead body.' "That night. He came back, singing Shabbat hymns with the people, but in his heart he said, 'On Sunday-Monday I am leaving,'" she said.
It seems that the hotel's move out of the old town was made about two years later.
In an interview, Ansbacher quoted testimony given by her mother, Rebecca Boxbaum, to the "Pillar of Fire" series, about the first attack that took place as early as 1920.
Ansbacher's testimony is supported by a series of findings from the period and studies on it.
Pictures from the beginning of the 20th century clearly show the name "AMDURSKY'S HOTEL RESTURANT", as well as a postcard from 1906 describing the place as "a central hotel in front of the Tower of David".
In addition, a long line of newspaper publications and books from the period confirm the existence of the hotel as being run and operated by Jews.
The historian Ruth Kark, professor emeritus of the Hebrew University who researched the history of the region, showed that the original hotel was built in the first half of the 19th century by the Amzaleg family, who immigrated to Israel from the Gibraltar Peninsula.
There is evidence that the family owned the property until 1895, when in 1903 the Amdurski Hotel was opened.
The Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Fleur Hassan Nahum, who immigrated from Gibraltar, launched a campaign in the international media in light of the attempt to prevent the transfer of the place to Ateret Cohanim.
"The contribution of Gibraltar Jewry to the establishment of the Jewish presence in the Old City is significant, and the construction of the building that now houses the Petra Hotel is a special revelation for me. Israel today".
According to her, "the lie led by ecclesiastical elements regarding the change in the character of the Jaffa Gate from a so-called Christian to a Jew, agitates and harms the delicate fabric of relations in the city, and anyone who wants to live in peace and good neighborliness throughout Jerusalem."
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