...The Hurva’s violent history befits its evocative name. The synagogue dates back to the year 1701, when a group of newly arrived Polish Hasidic Jews led by Rabbi Yehuda ha-Hasid began constructing a new house of worship for their small congregation. Two decades later, the building was still unfinished when the congregation ran out of money and was expelled from the city by local Arab creditors, who proceeded to tear down the incomplete structure. The ruined remnants of the building stood, untouched, for a century, giving the synagogue its name — “Hurva,” Hebrew for “ruin.” Then, in a project that began in 1836, disciples of the Vilna Gaon rebuilt the synagogue. For the next 80 years, the domed, neo-Byzantine synagogue dominated the skyline of the Jewish quarter.

But its architectural reign came to an end in 1948, when the Jordanian army destroyed the Hurva during the War of Independence as part of a larger effort to erase the Jewish presence from the Old City and prevent Jews from ever returning there. The Jordanians’ plans failed in the end, however, for with Israel’s victory over Jordan, and its re-conquest, of East Jerusalem in the Six Day War of 1967, the Hurva’s remnants once again fell into Israeli hands. With this pivotal event began what has since become a 40-year saga to decide the building’s ultimate fate...