Immediately after the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, the War of Independence broke out, against the Arab armies. Jerusalem was under siege, and a heroic battle was fought within the Old City’s walls, between the Jewish fighters and the Jordanian Arab Legion. After some six months of tenacious fighting, the Jewish Quarter fell to the enemy.

The Jewish residents, representing a continual chain of Jewish residency since the destruction of the Second Temple, were expelled from the city, and their houses were destroyed. The magnificent synagogues of the Jewish Quarter were also razed to the ground, becoming mere rubble and wasteland. At the end of the battle, the Arab Legion commander Abdullah el-Tell announced that the synagogues were destroyed “so that the Jews would have nowhere to return to.” The fighting in the Old City unified the three Jewish underground military organizations – the Hagana, Etzel, and Lehi.

Due to the location and height of the Tiferet Yisrael synagogue, it was used as an important observation and strategic control point by the Jewish fighters.

The great battle that was to seal the fate of the synagogue began on the morning of May 20, 1948, with heavy shelling of the synagogue building.

The Battle for Tiferet Yisrael – The Last Jewish Stronghold

The Arab attack and the story of the battles for the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue are described by Aharon Liron, a fighter stationed at the site (based on his memoir: “The Old City of Jerusalem under Siege and in Battle.”)

“It was the second day that cannon shells from the Mount of Olives had pounded its walls. Large holes were made in the walls and ceilings. One of the holy ark’s two stone columns was destroyed by a cannon shell. Its doors were broken and the Torah scrolls were torn in many places. The antique piriform glass lamps had made hundreds of ringing and wailing sounds, like an evil spirit. The defenders – tense and nerve-wracked – were huddled in blankets under the window sills, so as not to be injured by shards, when occasionally a stone would fall from the ceiling, a sack would be blown off the roof, a stone column destroyed, or tables and benches. The two children who served as runners for the position found shelter within the wall closets, hiding in them.

When delivering orders, they crawled on the floor without lifting their heads, so as not to be seen by the enemy through the windows, which had been torn open in nearly every direction. In the afternoon hours, whistles and calls of “Alehum,” issuing from the throats of many Arabs were heard from afar, signaling that an attack was about to start.

The five defenders moved next to the small openings in the walls. One of the runners jumped outside to announce: ‘We are facing an attack and request more people.’

The rumor that the Arabs had captured ‘Nissan’s Shul’ spread quickly, and within a short time the position was reinforced by dozens of additional Jewish fighters for a counterattack. The force, under the command of Moshe Rosnak, Jewish Quarter Commander, attacked from the direction of Hakaraim Alley. A second force, under the command of Avraham Orenstein, Area Commander, broke through to the synagogue from the south, through a hidden security door. The force surprised the Arabs, who were busy looting the synagogue, and conducted a face-to-face, short-range battle, including bayonet fighting. Some ten Arabs were killed in the synagogue, some of them while still wrapped in the ark and Torah covers they had looted. The defenders’ victory was impressive, but came with a heavy price, with five fighters losing their lives and another ten being wounded. Among those killed was a young runner, only fifteen years old.

At night, the Arabs set out to avenge their earlier defeat, and under the cover of dark, they crept into the synagogue. They placed a powerful explosive charge in the synagogue and severely damaged the building’s foundations. The next day there was another explosion, and roughly half the building was destroyed. One side of the shattered building still stood up straight to its entire height, but with its towering dome split in half.”