I was in Israel last week and attempted to visit the rebuilt Churva shul in the old city. I was with a friend and we were told that it was closed to tourists except for tefilla time and after 7PM. We were told that it is used for torah study during the day. We finally convinced the guard (and this was no easy task) that we would like to enter in order to study as well. When he said yes it was only on the condition that we would not walk or even look around to see the remodeling. I even saw him peeking back at us to make sure we were not actually looking around. I must admit that I took my eyes off of the mishna berura for a few minutes to look around. It is beautiful! Being that is such a wonderful reconstruction it is even more of a shame that it is not open to the public on a regular basis.
I wonder who made this deal and how it is that a place that the government spent millions of dollars refurbishing is closed to the public and only open to yeshiva bochurim.
BTW – If you want to get in – I recommend black pants and a white shirt. it will make it easier for you to make your case that you can actually learn. I had a hard time with my gold shirt and khaki pants. Ladies, I am afraid you are out of luck…
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Guest Post
Hyim Shafner
Yosef Kanefsky
Rachel Kohl Finegold
Barry Gelman
It is quite annoying– but FYI, for those who are interested, you can call ahead of time and schedule a tour, regardless of what you’re wearing 🙂 Number is widely available online.
Annoying is not the word for it. Sickening. Another sellout to fundamentalists.
when are tours available?
manner of dress:
we were told that no problem at the KOTEL as long as we were NOT sleveless and knees covered.
They draped us with shmattes & did not let our daughters touch.(And those were just the women….)
Oh, but i forgot, according to the PC people @ the Rabbinat, they may NOT be Jewish (n.b. women can NEVER prove anythingO
What good is a Jewish country id Jews are not free to travel within it?
Never forget!
Never again!
It’s a shanda and the NRP people are fighting it.
Rav Barry, I also tried to get into the Hurva that week.. Would have been great to see you! Hope all is well.
JJ
I went in wearing Shorts and a tennis shirt. They key is to tell them you want to learn. It turns out that no one is really learning there but you can walk around until the officious monkey starts following you around.
“Monkey”? Like in the epithet the Muslims call Jews? Monkeys, pigs and pygmies?