A small Israeli outcropping near Bethlehem that lies in the shadow of the defenses around Rachel's Tomb – walls of concrete, guard towers, and a barbed wire fence – is home to 11 Jewish families and 70 yeshiva students. They live in one of the lesser-known but more important outposts in the Jewish settlements of Judea and Samaria.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
For years, this tiny settlement spot was a sort of open secret people whispered about. Its founders are no longer with us. Hanan Porat and Benny Elon laid the foundations, then came their students, rabbis Eliyahu Meir Elkaslassi and Yaakov Bar Chen. They brought other families affiliated with the Ateret Kohanim and Har Hamor yeshivas. Their rabbis supported them.
The right-wing political establishment was also supportive, even if it sometimes had difficulty digesting the historic precedent of the first seeds of settlement in Bethlehem in 2,000 years. They call their presence there "living near Mom" (Rachel the matriarch) and believe that one day, the walls will come down and Bethlehem, where Jews haven't lived since the days of Bar Kochba, will once again see a flourishing Jewish community.
"Bethlehem has vanished from our dreams," says Ayelet Bar Chen, who until recently lived there with her nine children, for six years.
"Suddenly, we realized that we have a city so central to Jewish history that we'd forgotten about. We delved into the chapters of the Bible that talk about the place, the stories of Rachel and Binyamin, Jesse and David, Ruth and Boaz. We made a connection to a Torah location. When we tell our friends that we live in Bethlehem or Rachel's Tomb, they'd be shocked and stop what they were doing, eager to hear. We had the privilege of being partners in a special birth. Being with Rachel the matriarch – that's walking with contractions. It's an ongoing process," she says.
The birth, to use Bar Chen's imagery, was and is difficult. The late rabbi and minister Benny Elon – after whom the yeshiva, outpost, and visitors center are named – was the person behind the establishment of the company 20 years ago that worked to "establish and strengthen the Jewish settlement around Rachel's Tomb."
It happened at the start of the millennium: 45 pieces of Arab property were included in the original boundaries of the "greater Jerusalem" area on which the government decided. Fifteen of the owners offered to sell their property to the company. The assets included a hotel, residential buildings, and plots. But Elon and his people had a limited budget. They bought the minimum, close by Rachel's Tomb. In 2002, as the Second Intifada raged, the first 4.5 dunams (1.1 acre) were purchased to the south of the tomb. The purchase included one apartment, warehouses, and nine spacious shopfronts at the street level. Next to the three-story property was an empty quarter-acre plot, owned by three Christian brothers. The plot was purchased in stages through the active involvement of the late Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu. After the transaction was complete, the three brothers moved, or fled, abroad. There was someone who met them and helped them settle into their new country.
Thus six families moved into a building that used to serve as a garage, a carpenter's workshop, a falafel stand, and at one point also an IDF post. Five more families live in buildings constructed on the adjacent plot on top of old bungalows and sheds. In the courtyard of "Bnei Rachel" there is also a playground, a modest grassed area and innocent murals full of flowers. These mitigate somewhat the grayish tone of the concrete walls. The building is also home to Yeshivat Bnei Rachel.
Mofaz and Ya'alon helped
Elon's widow, the writer Emuna Elon, who visited a few times over the years, does not hide her admiration for the families living there.
"Benny believed that the combination of a settlement and a yeshiva there was one step of a long process, that they wouldn't stay an outcropping surrounded by a wall, that the small core would grow and expand," Elon says.
"Symbolically, it's the ultimate fulfilment of Jeremiah's prophecy about Rachel … It is coming into being at the place of her burial, according to tradition, which has been made holy by the tears of generations."
Indeed, the settlement outpost at Rachel's Tomb, a mere 463 meters (1,519 feet) south of the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, hasn't had an easy time of it. In July 2003 its 4.5 dunams were registered to the owners. When the Sharon government discussed the outline of the greater Jerusalem area, the ministers heard about the purchase for the first time. They decided to include it. A year later, then-Defense Minister Shaul Mofax allowed yeshiva students into the building. The IDF Civil Administration opposed the idea, but then-IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon and GOC Central Command Moshe Kaplinsky supported it.
The group of activists, known as "Ne'emani Rachel" managed to do what people like Moses Montefiore, Rabbi Zvi Hirsh Kalisher, Nathan Strauss and even Rabbi Kook, Rachel Yanait Ben Zvi and the old Jerusalem institutions couldn't. They had all purchased small piece of land near Rachel's Tomb or worked to that end, but never completed the transactions. Arabs would move onto the land and seize it.
Only in the early 2000s, for the first time since the Jews were expelled from Bethlehem by Roman Emperor Hadrian, did a permanent Jewish settlement arise in the birthplace of David. In early years, the yeshiva limped along, operating on and off under the army's auspices. In 2013 Elkaslassi managed to bring a core group of students in, which gradually grew.
At first, the IDF permitted the students to study until 5 p.m. One day, the hours were extended until 7 p.m. When the kollel developed into a yeshiva, study hours were again extended, this time until 10:30 p.m., sometimes with permission and sometimes under the table. Once, the army removed the students for two weeks, but they came back. At one stage, the IDF allowed the yeshiva to remain open on weekends, but for the first year and a half, their request to allow students to sleep there was repeatedly denied.
Only in 2014 was that taboo cracked. Rabbi Eli Sadan, Israel Prize laureate and head of the yeshiva in Eli, studied at that time with GOC Central Command Avi Mizrahi.
"We asked Rabbi Sadan to speak to the general, get him to let us sleep here," says Elkaslassi. "It took time, but 18 months later the kollel and yeshiva were established, the general arrived with a battery of legal advisors. He was met by the commanders responsible for the area. They weren't thrilled by the idea, but the general told them, there's no problem with them going in. Legally, everything was fine. It had been legally purchased by Jews. The commanders tried to convince the general he was making a mistake. He reminded him that the building was targeted from time to time by explosives, that it was a sensitive compound in terms of security. But Mizrahi cut them off, said, don't talk nonsense, Kfar HaTeimanim and the City of David are more dangerous. It's your job to handle it."
Elkaslassi says, "The commanders stammered, but after that visit still refused to allow students to sleep there. The miracle happened on Tisha Be'av that same year. Then-commander of the Jerusalem District, Nisso Shaham, came to visit and hugged me and said, 'I heard about you, just don't bring in the "hilltop youth." You can sleep here.' We were on cloud nine. As far as we were concerned, it was a huge success, like none we'd ever seen before."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
They come to gaze in wonder
The hilltop youth did not come to Rachel's Tomb. The first family to settle there was from the settlement "nobility" – the Bar Chens, with their six children (they would go on to have three more). Ayelet's parents had been evacuated from Atzmona and Morag in Gush Katif, and before that had lived in Kiryat Arba. Yaakov, originally from Haifa, a graduate of the Shavei Hevron and Har Hamor yeshivas, came from the City of David.
The families were chosen carefully, ordinary people, good representatives, law-abiding – teachers, high-tech workers, people from the education, construction, and computer sectors. All from the yeshiva circle, brimming with motivation and a sense of purpose. All live the story of Rachel.
David Swissa, a gardener and handyman, grew up in Haifa, studied at Ateret Kohanim, and from there arrived at Rachel's Tomb.
"The walls here," he says pointing to the most dominant element of the landscape, "Aren't just physical. They're also spiritual. We need to connect the people of Israel to this place. I'd be happy if the government knocked them down, but at the moment they're a necessary evil intended to protect us and the hundreds of thousands who come to Rachel's Tomb every year from the Palestinians who seek to do us harm. One day, that will change," he says.
Swissa says that the place "is a place of death, of the ending of life, but we are bringing life here, reviving the idea of Rachel, who is the mother of us all, the mother who leads Israel on her long way. This is the beginning of growth in Bethlehem, the first growth of our redemption," Swissa adds.
Swissa's wife, Devorah, originally from Moshav Zrahia and a tour guide as well as a student and teacher of archaeology and Land of Israel studies, describes the "greatness and power" experienced by the families and guests who come to "gaze in wonder – Jews in Bethlehem." She says that the excitement "rises every time anew, mostly on Shabbat, when the tomb itself is closed and everything is quiet and calm and every time your consciousness is thrilled at how close Boaz and Ruth's field is, how close Rachel is, how close King David's birthplace is. This is where the patriarchs walked and lived."
Every Shabbat, the residents gather to sing "Kol Barama Nishma" (the verses from Jeremiah) and Elkaslassi says each time, he is moved to tears. The families are once again living the stories of the Bible. Past, present, and possibly future are mixed together here. In the evenings, when the mothers call their children home, the names are from the Bible – Ruth, Naomi, David, Jesse, Porat, Boaz, and of course, Rachel. There is also Padot-Sarah and Yitzhak-Neria, "the first Jewish child born in Bethlehem in 2,000 years. 24 children in total."
A 33-square-meter 'can'
The planning authorities in Judea and Samaria are currently discussing a plan to increase the Jewish settlement next to Rachel's Tomb, which owns an additional plot purchased by Jews. But it lies beyond the security barrier and outside the boundaries, in Palestinian Bethlehem. The goal of the Bnei Rachel residents is to build a 10-floor compound that will house a yeshiva and living quarters and be the same heights as similar buildings in Bethlehem that can be seen over the walls. One set of plans calls to build a beit midrash to accommodate 310 students, a boarding school for 200 boys, and apartments for 30 families.
For now, they are squeezing in. Aviel Hadad and his wife, Aluma, and their baby daughter Ruth-Mevasseret live in a renovated tin shed, in 33 square meters (about 350 square feet). Hadad spent 100,000 shekels ($31,000) on this mini-home and says that "Our mother Rachel will return the investment … It's tough, but the closeness to Rachel makes up for everything."
Ariel Yurman and his wife, Michal, parents of three, notes that "the difficulties pale when you feel a sense of devotion."
Michal, a teacher, says that when she is asked what she does she answers, "live in Bethlehem."
"It's a living mission. Right now it's being managed as a private business, but we believe that the day will come when the state will take on this national mission," she says.
Aviel Friedman, who has been studying at the yeshiva for seven years, and his wife, Tamar – also a teacher – are parents to Rachel-Ora and also live in close quarters of some 450 or so square feet, and they say it hasn't always been quiet on the security front.
In the unquiet times, Molotov cocktails have been thrown at Rachel's Tomb, as well as bombs. Miraculously, no one was wounded. Once a bomb fell right where a group of girls had been standing moments earlier. Another time, a heavy block landed where women had just been hanging out their laundry.
But the security harassment is now history and the place is mostly quiet.
Currently, the Bar Chen family lives in Tirat Hacarmel, "on another mission," as they put it. Ayelet explains that it's a matter of making a living. It's hard for them to leave.
"One day, we'll come back," one of the children, Yehuda, promises.
"It's accepted that the children of Rachel the matriarch come back to her mostly to cry, to cry with her. To ask her to cry for them. 'Rachel's tears,' which plead with God for her children – that's a real concept. But we came here to wipe her tears away," Rabbi Bar Chen says.
Former Prime Minister Netanyahu's governments showed support for this pioneering project. Officially, the residents of Bnei Rachel do not belong to any recognized local authority. But former minister Uri Ariel did a lot to help them and the Jerusalem Municipality provides trash collection and the Gihon has hooked them up to the water supply. Part of the electricity comes from the city of Bethlehem and some from the Israel Electric Corporation. The children go to school in Jerusalem.
Teddy Kolleck, the legendary mayor of Jerusalem for 28 years, tried in vain to convince the government to annex Rachel's Tomb to the city. Current Mayor Moshe Leon also hopes that "in the future, it will be possible to connect Rachel's Tomb to the Jerusalem municipal territory and make it part of Israel in every particular."
Bnei Rachel also has supporters in the new government. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked visited the place and told Israel Hayom that she "supports settlement there and will be happy to help strengthen and expand it."
Three separate times, the government of Israel has forgotten about Rachel's Tomb: the first time, in 1967, when then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan took care to make sure it was left out of Israeli sovereignty because of its proximity to Bethlehem. The second time, when it was left out of Area C, which the Oslo Accords designate as fully under Israeli control. Only intensive lobbying by Hanan Porat and Haredi politician Menachem Porush prevented the site from slipping out of Israeli control entirely.
The third time, it was IDF commanders who wanted to draw the boundaries of greater Jerusalem and the security barrier in an area where the Arab population was sparse, and left Rachel's Tomb on the other side. Then-Defense Minister Fuad Ben-Eliezer supported their position. He suggested building a bridge that would lead to the tomb from Jerusalem and pass over the homes of Bethlehem residents. Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon opposed the idea, asking Ben-Eliezer how an old woman who had been waiting for years to visit the site manage to navigate Fuad's bridge.
"There's no question – the tomb is part of Israel. It's precious to the Jewish people and there is no change that Israelis won't have free access to it," Sharon told him.
