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.