PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE WESTERN WALL

1: Turkish Rule (1516-1918)

Throughout the long centuries of Ottoman rule in Eretz Yisrael, the Jews suffered countless indignities at the hands of the Moslem authorities. Though the rights of the Jews to pray at the Kotel had been guaranteed by early Turkish rulers, they were not allowed to build a synagogue there, nor bring any furniture such as benches or a partition to separate the men from the women in accordance with Jewish tradition, nor even to sound the shofar there on the High Holy days. The prayer area consisted of a narrow ally into which the worshippers crowded, either standing, or sitting on the ground. They were constantly harassed and molested by the Arab residents of the adjacent Magreb Quarter.