Education and Culture of Jerusalem

Jerusalem is one of Israel’s centers of learning. The Hebrew University on Mount Scopus was founded in 1925.

Mount Scopus, also the site of Hadassah Hospital, remained a Jewish enclave after Jerusalem was divided in 1949.

Since Jews were allowed only limited access to the area, they relocated the facilities at Givāt Ram in West Jerusalem.

After the eastern sector of the city was captured in 1967, the Mount Scopus campus was rededicated and became the site of newly designed extensions of the existing hospital and university.

Another notable institute of learning is the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (founded in 1906).

Jerusalem contains an enormous number of points of historical and aesthetic interest. Most of these places reflect the connection between religion and political control that has shaped Jerusalem’s history.

Located in the Old City, the centerpiece of this history is the Temple Mount, which Muslims call Haram esh-Sharif, or the Venerable Sanctuary.

It was here that King Solomon established the site of the First Temple of Israel in the 10th century bc. The temple was built on a platform surrounding the hilltop where tradition holds that Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, as recounted in the Bible.

The holiest existing Jewish monument, the Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall, is the retaining wall built by Herod the Great to support the Temple Mount.

Jews traditionally visit the wall to lament the destruction of the First and Second Temples and to offer prayers, written on pieces of paper placed in chinks in the wall.

The name “Wailing Wall” refers to the prayers offered at the site in lamentation for the destruction of the temples and the persecution of Jews.

With the advent of Islam, the area became holy to Muslims as well, because Muhammad was reported to have come to the Temple Mount and ascended to heaven from a rock on the site.

The Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, both located on the Temple Mount, constitute Islam’s third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is also located in the Old City. It stands on the site where many Christians believe Jesus Christ was buried (some Protestants hold that the burial site was in the Garden Tomb, located outside the walls of the city).

Christians have traditionally held the site to be the hill of Golgotha, or Calvary, where the crucifixion of Jesus Christ occurred; however, most scholars believe that Golgotha lies outside the city.

Representatives of many Christian denominations hold services in the church, and it is the site of significant Christian pilgrimage.

From the east, this church is approached by the Via Dolorosa, the route traditionally believed to be the one taken by Jesus Christ on the way to his crucifixion.

Outside the Old City, beyond the eastern wall, is the Garden of Gethsemane, where the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot is believed to have taken place.

Gethsemane is situated at the foot of the Mount of Olives, from which Jesus ascended to heaven after his resurrection, according to Christian tradition.

There are many other artifacts in the city, tied to various periods of history; those of Canaanite, Israelite, Greek, Roman, Arab, Crusader, and Ottoman origin are among the more prominent.

Modern attractions include the Israel Museum (completed in 1965), which houses the Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are exhibited; the Rockefeller Museum (opened in 1938), which contains archaeological finds; the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum; the Museum of Biblical Archaeology; the Museum of Islamic Art (opened in 1974); and the Biblical Zoo, which contains animals referred to in the Bible.