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Avraham Avinu is an Israeli settlement in the city of Hebron, Palestine. It’s included in the UNESCO World Heritage listed Old City of Hebron. We visited after walking through the Wholesale Market.
Shalhevet Pass Memorial
Just before reaching the settlement, our guide, Eliyahu, stopped in front of a memorial in what was once the Wholesale Market. On March 26, 2001, a Palestinian sniper killed 10 month old Israeli settler Shalhevet Pass. Her family was walking to their home in Avraham Avinu when the shooting occurred. Her father, Yitzchak Pass, was seriously wounded minutes later. The sniper, Mahmud Amru, was convicted to three life terms in December 2004. The playground just past the memorial is named for Shalhevet Pass.
Avraham Avinu
Next, we walked through a modern building complex housing Israeli settlers. Some homes in the settlement overlook the main road through the Casbah and the Palestinian area of the Old City just to the north.
Avraham Avinu Synagogue
The religious center of the settlement is the Avraham Avinu Synagogue, which was regarded as one of the most beautiful in Palestine. It was originally built in 1540 by Malkiel Ashkenazi, a Sephardic rabbi and leader of the Jewish community of Hebron at the time. It was restored in 1738 and enlarged in 1864. The synagogue was destroyed during the 1929 Hebron Massacre and stood empty thereafter. The ruins were turned into a goat and donkey pen under Jordanian rule after 1948.
A few years after the Six-Day War, the Israeli government approved the rebuilding of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue. Work was underway by 1976.
Ashkenazi Synagogue
From there, we visited a tiny Ashkenazi synagogue. In the first room, there were historic items on display under glass cases.
In the actual synagogue, only half of our group was able to fit at one time. We rotated in and out while Eliyahu took out the Torah scrolls. He wanted to show them to members of the group that had never seen them before.
Sukkah
Finally, as we left Avraham Avinu and walked towards al-Shuhada Street, we were invited into a Sukkah, which is a temporary hut built for use during the week of Sukkot. It’s a symbolic shelter commemorating the time God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness after they were freed from slavery in Egypt.
