Two families, including parents and children, moved into the new Rachel's Tomb complex yesterday - for the first time in hundreds of years. The National Union party's Knesset faction convened today at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, in commemoration of the anniversary of the death of Matriarch Rachel - but this was only part of the story. More historic was the fact that two families, including parents and children, moved into the new Rachel's Tomb complex yesterday, becoming the first Jews to take up permanent residence in Bethlehem in hundreds of years. (Benjamin of Tudela, who toured the Holy Land in the 12th century, found two Jewish families living in Bethlehem.)
The families are living in newly built apartments on property duly purchased, over the course of the last several years, from the Arab owners. Behind these efforts have been the Rachel's Children Reclamation Foundation, chaired by Evelyn Haies, Uvneh Yerushalayim and Yeshivat Beit Orot. The IDF has so far agreed not to forcibly remove the new residents - especially in light of the tens of thousands of people who are expected to arrive tonight and tomorrow for special prayers in memory of Rachel. Groups and individual worshipers from the length and breadth of the religious spectrum are expected to visit the site to mark the date, as they have in previous years. A group of yeshiva students have also lived at the site over the course of the past year, studying in the Bnei Rachel yeshiva. |