Jerusalem update #2: Stop the Construction of "Museum of Tolerance" atop ancient Muslim cemetery

"Museum of Tolerance and Center for Human Dignity" Built on Intolerance and Indignity

And Jacob erected a pillar over her grave; it is the pillar at Rachel's grave to this day." (Genesis 35:20)  The highest mitzvah in Judaism is to bring the dead to their final resting place with dignity. This is an act that the dead cannot do for themselves and for which they cannot reward us. It is an act of "chesed shel emet," true grace.

Today, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish institution dedicated to "promoting human rights and dignity" and to "promoting unity and respect among Jews and people of all faiths" is committing an act of true disgrace.

Construction has begun on a new "Museum of Tolerance and Center for Human Dignity" in Jerusalem. This construction is taking place directly on top of the historic Muslim Mamilla cemetery in the western half of the city.

Mamilla cemetery contains thousands of graves, monuments and mausoleums dating back to at least the 12th century. Thousands of Muslim officials, scholars, notables and Jerusalemite families have been buried in the cemetery over the last 1000 years. 

This cemetery is also personally significant to innumerable Palestinian families. Mamilla was an active cemetery up until the 1948 War of Independence, and hundreds of Palestinian Jerusalemites have family members buried there.

Legal efforts in Israel to oppose the desecration of these graves were exhausted last fall when the Israeli Supreme Court gave the Center the go-ahead to continue, and the Center has in fact rejected offers of alternative sites. 

Not only does the construction of this "Museum of Tolerance" violate the human rights of Palestinians and Muslims whose ancestors are buried there, it is an affront to the values which Jews have held dear for millenia: the sanctity of death and burial.

Please click here to send a message to Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Dean and Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, letting him know that you disagree with the Center's plans to build a "Museum of Tolerance" on a site that shows such intolerance.