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The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives, including the Silwan necropolis, is the most ancient and most important Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem. Burial on the Mount of Olives started some 3,000 years ago in the First Temple Period, and continues to this day. The cemetery contains anywhere between 70,000 and 300,000 tombs from various periods, including the tombs of famous figures in Jewish history.
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בית הקברות היהודי בהר הזיתים הוא בית קברות יהודי המתפרש במדרונותיו של הר הזיתים, ממרגלותיו שבנחל קדרון ועד פסגתו הצופה על העיר העתיקה והר הבית. זהו אחד מבתי הקברות היהודיים הקדומים ביותר, המכיל קברים מתקופות שונות, בהם קברים רבים של אישים ידועים בהיסטוריה היהודית. קבורה יהודית על הר הזיתים החלה עוד בתקופות הבית הראשון והשני, במערות קבורה ברחבי ההר ובהפסקות מסוימות, נמשכת עד היום. חשיבותו של בית הקברות עלתה עם השנים, וקבורים בו אף אנשים רבים שלא ישבו כלל בארץ ישראל, אלא עלו בזקנתם, או שארונם הובל לאחר מיתתם לקבורה בהר. הרצון להיקבר דווקא בהר הזיתים נבע בין היתר מיתרונות מיסטיים שיוחסו לקבורה בו, על פי מקורות שונים. על פי המדרש, באחרית הימים תתרחש ראשית תחיית המתים על הר הזיתים, והיהודים שקבורים בו יהיו הראשונים שיקומו מן הקבר ויזכו לחיי נצח. כמאמר חז"ל: "עתידין צדיקים שמבצבצים ועולים בירושלים, שנאמר ויציצו מעיר כעשב השדה – ואין עיר אלא ירושלים".
Notable graves (Geni profiles only)
Many famous names are buried in the cemetery such as Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, known as the Ohr ha-Chaim, and Rabbi Yehuda Alcalay who were among the heralds of Zionism; Hasidic rebbes of various dynasties and Rabbis of "Yishuv haYashan" (the old – pre-Zionist - Jewish settlement) together with Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, and his circle; Henrietta Szold, the founder of the Hadassah organization; the poet Else Lasker-Schüler, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the father of Modern Hebrew, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, the Nobel Laureate for Literature, and Boris Schatz, the founder of the Bezalel School of Art; Israel's sixth Prime Minister Menachem Begin; the victims of the 1929 Arab riots and 1936–39 Arab revolt, the fallen from the 1948 War of Independence, together with Jews of many generations in their diversity.
Rabbis and religious scholars - רבנים ותלמידי חכמים
- עובדיה מברטנורא Obadiah ben Abraham, the Bartenura (c.1445-1516), Jewish rabbi and a commentator on the Mishnah
- חיים (בן משה) בן עטר - Ḥayyim ben Moshe ibn Attar (1696-1743), the Ohr ha-Ḥayyim. Talmudist and kabbalist; one of the most prominent rabbis in Morocco.
- "חכם יוסף חיים - "הבן איש חי Yosef Hayyim, "Ben Ish Hai" (1834-1909) Baghdad-born rabbi and posek. Buried in Baghdad, but there is a grave attributed to him on the Mount of Olives cemetery (disputed).
- שר שלום שרעבי - Shalom Sharabi (1720-1777), the Rashash. Yemenite Rabbi, Halachist, Chazzan and Kabbalist. In later life, he became Rosh Yeshiva of Bet El Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem.
- יעקב חיים סופר ״כף החיים״ Yaakov Chaim Sofer, the ״Kaf Hachaim" (1870-1939), Sephardi rabbi, Kabbalist, Talmudist and posek.
Hasidic Rebbes - רבנים מחצרות חסידים
- שמחה בונים אלתר - Simcha Bunim Alter (1898-1992), 5th Gerrer rebbe
- ישראל אלתר - Yisrael Alter (1895-1997), 4th Gerrer rebbe
- רבי משה מרדכי בידרמן, האדמו״ר מלעלוב Admor Moshe Mordechai Biderman (1903-1987), Lelover rebbe
- מרדכי שלמה פרידמן, האדמו״ר מבויאן ניו יורק Admor Mordechai Shlomo Friedman (1891-1971), Boyaner rebbe of New York City
- לוי יצחק הורוויץ, האדמו״ר השני מבוסטון Levi Yitzchak Horowitz (1921-2009), second Bostoner rebbe
- הבתולה מלודמיר Maiden of Ludmir (1805-1888), the only independent female Rebbe in the history of the Hasidic movement.
- רבי מרדכי יהודע רבינוביץ, האדמו״ר מביאלה-ירושלים Grand Rabbi Yechiel Yehoshua Rabinowicz (1900-1982), Admor of Biala-Jerusalem
- איתמר רוזנבאום Issamar Rosenbaum (1886-1973), Nadvorna rebbe of Yau Eliyahu.
- שאול ידידיה אלעזר טאוב Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub (1886-Oct. 29,1947), Second Modzitzer rebbe in NY. He was the last person to be buried on Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery until it was liberated in 1967
Chief Rabbis - רבנים ראשיים
- שלמה אליעזר אלפנדרי - סבא קדישא Solomon Eliezer Alfandari, (c. 1826 – 1930), distinguished rabbi, kabbalist and rosh yeshiva in Constantinople, and later Chief Rabbi of Damascus, Syria Vilayet, and Safed, Beirut Vilayet.
- רבי מאיר אוורבוך Rabbi Meir Auerbach (1815-1878), first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem
- הרב חיים ברלין Rabbi Chaim Berlin (1832-1916), Chief Rabbi of Moscow
- הרב שאר ישוב כהן Rabbi She'ar Yashuv Cohen (1927-2016), Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Haifa
- רבי חיים משה דוואק Rabbi Haim Moshe Douek (1905-1974), Last Chief Rabbi of Egypt
- יעקב שאול אלישר Jacob Saul Elyashar (1817-1906), also known as Yisa Berakhah, was a 19th-century Sephardi rabbi in Ottoman Syria. He became Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Ottoman Palestine - Rishon leZion, in 1893-1906.
- שלמה גורן - Shlomo Goren (1917-1994), Orthodox Religious Zionist rabbi in Israel; founded and served as the first head of the Military Rabbinate of the Israel Defense Forces and subsequently as the third Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1973 to 1983.
- לורד עמנואל יעקובוביץ׳ - Lord Immanuel Jakobovits (1921-1997), Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, London
- אברהם יצחק הכהו קוק Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), First Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar.
- רבי יעקב מאיר Rabbi Jacob Meir (1856-1939), Sephardic Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine
- Meyer Rosenbaum (1910-), Chief Rabbi of Cuba
- רבי שמואל בן צבי סלנט Shmuel Salant (1818-1909), Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem
- יוסף חיים זוננפלד Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (1848-1932), Chief Rabbi and co-founder of the Edah HaChareidis, Haredi Jewish community in Jerusalem, during the years of the British Mandate of Palestine.
- איסר יהודה אונטרמן - Isser Yehuda Unterman (1886-1976), Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
Cultural figures - מאושיות התרבות
- ש״י עגנון - Shai (Shmuel Yosef) Agnon (1888-1970), Israeli writer, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1966
- ניסים בכר - Nissim Behar (1848-1931), pioneer of modern Hebrew education
- Shmuel Ben David, (1884–1927), illustrator, painter, typographer, and designer
- אליעזר בן יהודה Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922), father of modern Hebrew
- ישראל דב פרומקין Israel Dov Frumkin (1850-1914), a pioneering Hebrew journalist, Editor and owner of Habazeleth, a Hebrew-language newspaper published in Jerusalem in 1863 & 1870-1911.
- אורי צבי גרינברג - Uri Zvi Greenberg (1896-1981), Israeli poet and journalist
- חזן יוסף רוזנבלט - Yossele Rosenblatt (1882-1933) hazzan and composer
- אלזה לסקר-שילר - Else Lasker-Schüler (1869-1945). German-Jewish poet
- בוריס שץ - Boris Schatz (1867-1932), founder of the Bezalel School in Jerusalem
- אפרים אורבך - Ephraim Urbach (1912-1991), Israeli scholar
- זלדה - Zelda (Zelda Mishkovsky (Schneerson) (1914-1984), Israeli poet.
Political figures - דמויות פוליטיות
- רבי יהודה בן שלמה חי אלקלעי Rabbi Judah ben Shlomi Chai Alkalai (1798–1878), Sephardic rabbi in Zemun (Serbia). a precursor of modern political Zionism 50 years before Herzl.
- משה ברזאני- Moshe Barazani (1926-1947), Lehi Freedom Fighter and Martyr
- מנחם בגין - Menachem Begin (1913-1992), 6th prime minister of Israel
- אליהו בן אלישר Eliyahu Ben-Elissar (1932-2000), Israeli politician and diplomat
- ישראל אלדד-שייב - Israel Eldad (1910-1996), Revisionist Zionist philosopher and fighter
- מאיר פיינשטיין - Meir Feinstein (1927-1947), Irgun Freedon Fighterand Martyr
- יעקב ישראל דה-האןJacob Israël de Haan (1881-1924), Dutch Jewish journalist assassinated by the Haganah
- זבולון המר - Zevulun Hammer (1936-1998), Israeli politician, minister and deputy prime minister
- משה הירש Moshe Hirsch (d. 2010), leader of Ani Zionist Neturei Karta group in Jerusalem. Supporter of the PLO.
- הנרייטה סאלד Henrietta Szold (1860-1945), Translator, editor, philanthropist, educator, Zionist leader and the founder of Hadassah and Youth Aliyah and the Women's Zionist Organization of America.
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Christians - buried on Mount of Olives, but NOT in the Jewish cemetery.
- Boedil Thurgotsdatter (1065-1103), medieval Danish queen
- Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885-1969), mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, recognised as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem
The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives, including the Silwan necropolis, is the most ancient and most important Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem. Burial on the Mount of Olives started some 3,000 years ago in the First Temple Period, and continues to this day. The cemetery contains anywhere between 70,000 and 300,000 tombs from various periods, including the tombs of famous figures in Jewish history.
Notable graves
Many famous names are buried in the cemetery such as Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, known as the Ohr ha-Chaim, and Rabbi Yehuda Alcalay who were among the heralds of Zionism; Hasidic rebbes of various dynasties and Rabbis of "Yishuv haYashan" (the old – pre-Zionist - Jewish settlement) together with Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, and his circle; Henrietta Szold, the founder of the Hadassah organization; the poet Else Lasker-Schüler, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the father of Modern Hebrew, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, the Nobel Laureate for Literature, and Boris Schatz, the founder of the Bezalel School of Art; Israel's sixth Prime Minister Menachem Begin; the victims of the 1929 Arab riots and 1936–39 Arab revolt, the fallen from the 1948 War of Independence, together with Jews of many generations in their diversity.
Rabbis and religious scholars
- עובדיה מברטנורא Obadiah ben Abraham, the Bartenura (c.1445-1516), Jewish rabbi and a commentator on the Mishnah
- חיים (בן משה) בן עטר - Ḥayyim ben Moshe ibn Attar (1696-1743), the Ohr ha-Ḥayyim. Talmudist and kabbalist; one of the most prominent rabbis in Morocco.
- "חכם יוסף חיים - "הבן איש חי Yosef Hayyim, "Ben Ish Hai" (1834-1909) Baghdad-born rabbi and posek. Buried in Baghdad, but there is a grave attributed to him on the Mount of Olives cemetery (disputed).
- שר שלום שרעבי - Shalom Sharabi (1720-1777), the Rashash. Yemenite Rabbi, Halachist, Chazzan and Kabbalist. In later life, he became Rosh Yeshiva of Bet El Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem.
- יעקב חיים סופר ״כף החיים״ Yaakov Chaim Sofer, the ״Kaf Hachaim" (1870-1939), Sephardi rabbi, Kabbalist, Talmudist and posek.
Hasidic Rebbes
- שמחה בונים אלתר - Simcha Bunim Alter (1898-1992), 5th Gerrer rebbe
- ישראל אלתר - Yisrael Alter (1895-1997), 4th Gerrer rebbe
- רבי משה מרדכי בידרמן, האדמו״ר מלעלוב Admor Moshe Mordechai Biderman (1903-1987), Lelover rebbe
- מרדכי שלמה פרידמן, האדמו״ר מבויאן ניו יורק Admor Mordechai Shlomo Friedman (1891-1971), Boyaner rebbe of New York City
- לוי יצחק הורוויץ, האדמו״ר השני מבוסטון Levi Yitzchak Horowitz (1921-2009), second Bostoner rebbe
- הבתולה מלודמיר Maiden of Ludmir (1805-1888), the only independent female Rebbe in the history of the Hasidic movement.
- רבי מרדכי יהודע רבינוביץ, האדמו״ר מביאלה-ירושלים Grand Rabbi Yechiel Yehoshua Rabinowicz (1900-1982), Admor of Biala-Jerusalem
- איתמר רוזנבאום Issamar Rosenbaum (1886-1973), Nadvorna rebbe of Yau Eliyahu.
- שאול ידידיה אלעזר טאוב Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub (1886-Oct. 29,1947), Second Modzitzer rebbe in NY. He was the last person to be buried on Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery until it was liberated in 1967
Chief Rabbis
- שלמה אליעזר אלפנדרי - סבא קדישא Solomon Eliezer Alfandari, (c. 1826 – 1930), distinguished rabbi, kabbalist and rosh yeshiva in Constantinople, and later Chief Rabbi of Damascus, Syria Vilayet, and Safed, Beirut Vilayet.
- רבי מאיר אוורבוך Rabbi Meir Auerbach (1815-1878), first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem
- הרב חיים ברלין Rabbi Chaim Berlin (1832-1916), Chief Rabbi of Moscow
- הרב שאר ישוב כהן Rabbi She'ar Yashuv Cohen (1927-2016), Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Haifa
- רבי חיים משה דוואק Rabbi Haim Moshe Douek (1905-1974), Last Chief Rabbi of Egypt
- יעקב שאול אלישר Jacob Saul Elyashar (1817-1906), also known as Yisa Berakhah, was a 19th-century Sephardi rabbi in Ottoman Syria. He became Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Ottoman Palestine - Rishon leZion, in 1893-1906.
- שלמה גורן - Shlomo Goren (1917-1994), Orthodox Religious Zionist rabbi in Israel; founded and served as the first head of the Military Rabbinate of the Israel Defense Forces and subsequently as the third Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1973 to 1983.
- לורד עמנואל יעקובוביץ׳ - Lord Immanuel Jakobovits (1921-1997), Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, London
- אברהם יצחק הכהו קוק Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), First Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar.
- רבי יעקב מאיר Rabbi Jacob Meir (1856-1939), Sephardic Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine
- Meyer Rosenbaum, Chief Rabbi of Cuba
- רבי שמואל בן צבי סלנט Shmuel Salant (1818-1909), Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem
- יוסף חיים זוננפלד Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (1848-1932), Chief Rabbi and co-founder of the Edah HaChareidis, Haredi Jewish community in Jerusalem, during the years of the British Mandate of Palestine.
- איסר יהודה אונטרמן - Isser Yehuda Unterman (1886-1976), Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
Cultural figures
- ש״י עגנון - Shai (Shmuel Yosef) Agnon (1888-1970), Israeli writer, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1966
- Nissim Behar, pioneer of modern Hebrew education
- Shmuel Ben David, (1884–1927), illustrator, painter, typographer, and designer
- אליעזר בן יהודה Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922), father of modern Hebrew
- ישראל דב פרומקין Israel Dov Frumkin (1850-1914), a pioneering Hebrew journalist, Editor and owner of Habazeleth, a Hebrew-language newspaper published in Jerusalem in 1863 & 1870-1911.
- אורי צבי גרינברג - Uri Zvi Greenberg (1896-1981), Israeli poet and journalist
- חזן יוסף רוזנבלט Yossele Rosenblatt (1882-1933) hazzan and composer
- Else Lasker-Schüler, German-Jewish poet
- בוריס שץ Boris Schatz (1867-1932), founder of the Bezalel School in Jerusalem
- Ephraim Urbach, Israeli scholar
- זלדה - Zelda (Zelda Mishkovsky (Schneerson) (1914-1984), Israeli poet.
Political figures
- רבי יהודה בן שלמה חי אלקלעי Rabbi Judah ben Shlomi Chai Alkalai (1798–1878), Sephardic rabbi in Zemun (Serbia). a precursor of modern political Zionism 50 years before Herzl.
- משה ברזאני- Moshe Barazani (1926-1947), Lehi Freedom Fighter and Martyr
- מנחם בגין - Menachem Begin (1913-1992), 6th prime minister of Israel
- אליהו בן אלישר Eliyahu Ben-Elissar (1932-2000), Israeli politician and diplomat
- ישראל אלדד-שייב - Israel Eldad (1910-1996), Revisionist Zionist philosopher and fighter
- מאיר פיינשטיין - Meir Feinstein (1927-1947), Irgun Freedon Fighterand Martyr
- יעקב ישראל דה-האןJacob Israël de Haan (1881-1924), Dutch Jewish journalist assassinated by the Haganah
- זבולון המר - Zevulun Hammer (1936-1998), Israeli politician, minister and deputy prime minister
- משה הירש Moshe Hirsch (d. 2010), leader of Neturei Karta
- Ida Silverman, Jewish philanthropist, speaker, and Zionist fund-raiser
- הנרייטה סאלד Henrietta Szold (1860-1945), Translator, editor, philanthropist, educator, Zionist leader and the founder of Hadassah and Youth Aliyah and the Women's Zionist Organization of America.
- Dawid Wdowiński Founder of the ZZW
Christians - buried on Mount of Olives, but NOT in the Jewish cemetery.
- Boedil Thurgotsdatter (1065-1103), medieval Danish queen
- Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885-1969), mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, recognised as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem