Jerusalem Old Yishuv

Long before political Zionism, Jews lived in the Four Holy Cities, Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias, and Hebron, sustained by halukka charity from the Diaspora. Sephardic families trace residence to the post-1492 Ottoman era (and, in some family traditions, far earlier); Ashkenazi disciples of the Vilna Gaon and Hasidic dynasties arrived from the late 18th century.

The Old Yishuv built the courtyard neighborhoods, the Four Sephardic Synagogues, and the Hurva; it endured the 1834 Safed attacks, the 1920 and 1929 riots (Hebron's 1929 massacre of 67 Jews devastated that ancient community; a small 1931-47 remnant followed), and the 1948 siege of the Jewish Quarter. Today its descendants, both in Jerusalem's Old City and in the Haredi neighborhoods, carry liturgical and customary traditions that predate modern Israel.