Visitors in the Old City of Jerusalem hoping to spend time at the Western Wall—adjacent to Judaism’s most sacred site, the Temple Mount—must either descend 142 steps from the Jewish Quarter or take a substantial detour around the city walls.
A long-awaited project is underway to make the site more accessible with much-needed elevators. The construction follows seven years of archaeological excavations at the site, which unearthed millennia-old relics of Jewish history near where the ancient First and Second Temples once stood.
“This is the realization of the most important dream for me, because it is a project of kindness for people,” Herzl Ben-Ari, CEO of the Company for the Development and Renovation of the Jewish Quarter, told JNS during a tour this week.
“This project will make the Western Wall more easily accessible for all,” he added.
Construction is ongoing on a narrow sliver of undeveloped slope between two yeshivahs and near an existing stairway on the eastern edge of the Jewish Quarter.
The two elevators—each with a capacity of 30 people—will take visitors up and down the 85-foot gap between the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall, or Kotel.
When the project is complete, organizers expect thousands to use the elevators daily. Visitors will be deposited at the entryway for the Western Wall plaza, past where buses and cars pull up, and before the requisite security check.
‘A sense of mission working here’
Like all such construction projects, it was necessary to conduct an archaeological excavation to ensure that the project didn’t threaten significant cultural heritage sites.
Scientists found an ornate, first-century villa with a Second Temple ritual bath, or mikvah, which will remain on display on site. They also found ancient vessels and coins, which have been sent to the city’s archaeological museum for safekeeping.
“We see the unequivocal connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem come alive,” Ben-Ari said.
When the United Nations and others question Jewish ties to the Old City of Jerusalem, “every single find here testifies to that very connection,” he added.
The Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage is overseeing the project, which is projected to cost about $20 million and is being funded jointly by state coffers and philanthropists. It is named for the late donors Byron and Dorothy Gerson, formerly of Detroit.
Some 70% of the budget has been covered to date, according to Ben-Ari, and it is expected to be done in two years.
“There really is a sense of mission working here,” Haim Yalouz, the site manager, told JNS, as a tractor cut into the slope in the work areas and thousands of worshippers flocked to the plaza for pre-High Holiday prayers. “Every day, people are asking when it will be ready.”
