From: The Karaite Encyclopedia by Nathan Schur (Frankfurt, 1995)
When the State of Israel was founded in 1948 its only two Karaite inhabitants were in Jordanian captivity. But soon after new immigrants began to arrive from Egypt. One of the first was Solomon Shabbethai Nono, a teacher of Hebrew, who is credited with having selected Ramle to be the main location of the Karaites in Israel (according to another tradition, the credit is due to Izhak Ben-Zvi, later the second President of Israel). According to M. El Kodsi only about 1% had left Egypt till 1956; but Ben-Zvi mentioned already 1,200 Karaites by 1955. After the Suez War of 1956 some 40% of them left Egypt, according to El-Kodsi, mostly to Israel. Further immigrants arrived from Egypt after the 1967 Six-Day War. Only a very few came from Istanbul and from Hit in Iraq. In 1970 the total number of Karaites in Israel was estimated by L. Nemoy at 7,000; in 1985, by E. Trevisan-Semi, at 10,000; and in the early 1990's it might have approached 15,000.The main Karaite settlements in 1990 were in Ramle (700 households), Ashdod (800 households, equalling 4000 souls); Beer-Sheva (250 households/1250 souls); and Ofakim (220 households). Karaites lived also in about a dozen other cities (in Jerusalem there were only 50) and also in two agricultural settlements, Mazliah and Ronen.
On arrival many had to find work in building and construction. But since then, there has been a trend of upward social movement, away from menial tasks. While there are as yet no very rich Karaites, many have prospered.
Most jewellery shops in Ashdod are owned by them. Some fifty were studying around 1980 in Israeli universities.
The Chief Hakhamim of Israel have been Josef ben Moshe Marzuk from Dimona (till 1968); Emmanuel Mas'uda, from Mazliah (1968-1972); Salomon Shabbetai Nono, from Ramle (1972-1976); David Jerushalmi, from Ramle; Haim Levi, from Ashdod; and Elijah ben Izhak Marzuk from Ofakim (since 1991). There are no Karaite schools, but in 1991, a Karaite Yeshiva (academy) was set up, to train Hakhamim. But in most matters secular leaders are in charge. A few Karaites have emigrated to the USA, but the main problem is one of local assimilation.
The Holy City of Judaism and Christianity and to a lesser degree of Islam is also very much the Holy City of Karaism. Initially the Karaite sect arose and coalesced far to the east, but in its revolt against the Babylonian Centre, it rediscovered in the later ninth century Jerusalem as an alternative of unmatched drawing power and authority. More than anybody else it was Daniel alKumisi who brought this about. He moved from Persia to Jerusalem around 880. He initiated the energetic propaganda for settling in Jerusalem and demanded from Karaites living elsewhere to supply the funds needed to enable their coreligionists in Jerusalem to dedicate their lives to prayer, to active mourning and to supplication for redemption. He was apparently the author of the official program of the Mourners of Zion, previously a Rabbanite movement, and the founder of the Karaite "Congregation of the Roses". Karaims of Jerusalem
The Karaite quarter in the tenth and eleventh centuries was outside the city walls, on the hill where the original city of the Jebusites and King David had stood two thousand years earlier. It was called Haret alMasharakah (the quarter of the easterners) because the Karaites who settled there came from such eastern countries as Persia. They themselves called it "Zela Eleph", after Joshua 18:28. Their Rabbanite opponents called them accordingly "The Sect of the Zela", or, from the same Hebrew root, "The Lame Sect". We have to imagine this quarter to have been a poor locality, of crooked, narrow alleys, because of the Spartan lifestyle of its inhabitants. The existence of an important Yeshivah (academy) is reported from this quarter. It was located in the "Courtyard" (group of houses) of Joseph ben Bakhtawi, around 1000, and was named the Bakhtawi Academy. The Bakhtawi "courtyard" seems to have served also as the Karaite communal centre ("Maglis") of Jerusalem.
Some sixty Karaite sages were mentioned in Jerusalem in the tenth century by Sahl ben Mazliah, which would indicate a total Karaite population of some 250 souls. In the eleventh century seventy scholars are mentioned at the Bakhtawi Academy, which would indicate a larger Karaite total population, but still far less than one thousand. Some of its outstanding members were, around 1040, Tobias ben Moses, who was in charge of the Fatimid landed estates in all of Palestine, and around 1060 Abu Sa'ad Itzhak ben Aaron ben Ali, who served as governor of Jerusalem.
This small community is regarded by modem scholars as the seat of the "Golden Age" of Karaite cultural history, because of its intellectual elite of thinkers, lawyers, scholars, exegetes and grammarians. The best known ones among them were Sahl ben Mazliah, Salmon ben Jeroham, David ben Boaz, a descendant of Anan, Japheth ben Ali haLevi, his son Abu Sa'id Levi ben Japheth, Joseph ben Noah, Abu alFaraj Harun, Yaakub Yusuf alBasir, Jeshua ben Judah and Sahl ibn Fadl, of the Tustari clan. Most of them were original thinkers, holding often very different opinions. They were not overawed by the prestige of their own leaders, and were often prepared to contest Anan's or Nahawendi's opinions. They were contemptuous of any sign of irrational thinking. In their view, ever since the catastrophy of the destruction of the Temple, the contact with Divine Justice had been cut off and now each individual was on his own and had to try as hard as he could to reestablish contact. Rational thinking was regarded as his best tool in this quest.
When the Seljuks captured Jerusalem in 1071 the Karaite centre was gravely blighted and with its 1099 capture by the crusaders, the Golden Age there came to its end. Quite a few of the Karaites seem to have survived, some by escaping to Ascalon, others by being ransomed. Many reached Egypt, but Byzantium became the new Karaite centre to take up the inheritance of Jerusalem.
After the end of the crusader domination, Karaites returned to Jerusalem apparently in the later thirteenth century. Their community never regained its previous importance, but because of the special place the city held in their affection, they tried during the next seven centuries to hang on to their foothold there, sometimes by the skin of their teeth, in spite of all difficulties.
In the thirteenth century they seem to have taken over an unoccupied building and to have turned it into their synagogue, which they named for Anan. They settled in nearby buildings, thus creating the nucleus of a Karaite quarter, but this time within the city proper, in a part which later became the Jewish Quarter. Their presence is attested in the Mamluk period (12601516) mainly by colophons of various Karaite manuscripts, mostly found in the Geniza. In the end of the fifteenth century they disappeared for some time, during the repressive and extortionist dominance of the Arabic speaking Jewish "Zekenim" (Sheikhs), at the same time as the wealthy Ashkenazi and Sephardi members of the Rabbanite community withdrew too. For some time their synagogue had to be looked after by two Falasha caretakers.
When control of the congregation passed to R. Obadia from Bertinoro, they returned, and that apparently in greater numbers than previously. Thus, when the Ottoman Turks occupied Jerusalem in December 1516, they bad sufficient influence to gain possession of the synagogue near the traditional tomb of Prophet Samuel, north of the city, and to establish (in 1518) a Waqf (religious endowment) over two buildings, near their synagogue. As the result of a lawcase they had to return the tomb of Samuel to the Rabbanites, who had controlled it in the Mamluk era, but were able to add in 1558 and 1560 two further endowments, so that the total of their buildings reached fifteen. These houses were only partly settled by them, and mostly rented to Rabbanites and Muslims, in order to create an income for the Karaite community. Ibis "Mahlat alKarain", or "Karaite Street" existed till 1948, consisting of the selfsame buildings and partly still belongs to the Karaites now.
In the sixteenth century many details about the Karaite community are known from the 80odd volumes of the Jerusalem "Sijjil" (Muslim Court records), from which the material of Jewish interest has been published by Amnon Cohen. Several Karaite physicians, money changers and merchants are mentioned. Though their number must have been minuscule, they appear mostly to have been reasonably well off. They payed their taxes through the Rabbanite community. They obtained in 1560 a cemetery of their own, on the slope of the Valley of BenHinnom.
From the late sixteenth century onward the situation of the Ottoman Empire worsened, and this was faithfully mirrored by the Jewish communities of Jerusalem. Their economic situation worsened and during the rule of tyrannical governors, such as Ibn Faruh in the 1620's, they were nearly wiped out. Still, twenty Karaites were left, to rise to 27 (including eight widows) in 1641. Our main sources are now the reports of travellers, and especially those composed by three Karaite pilgrims. In 1641 Samuel ben David was received by the local Hakham, David ben Joshua, who, after Samuel's departure, was arrested because of nonpayment of taxes, and died in 1647 abroad,
when trying to collect alms for his congregation. In 1654 Moses ben Elijah haLevi visited Jerusalem and reported: "We saw our synagogue, which is very dear to us, and three oillamps, and one memorial candle are always kept burning ... His excellency, Moses haCohen serves there as Hazzan: he is an excellent though poor man ... Two women, who are widows ... come regularly (to the synagogue) and know how to pray, and they attend from the moment the door of the synagogue is opened. It is surrounded by the fifteen houses of the endowment .... which are sturdy buildings, with vaulted ceilings. There is a reservoir in the courtyard of the synagogue, into which is collected the rainwater, from the roofs of the houses of our endowment".
Apparently as a result of the Revolt of the Nakib alAshraf (the leader of the local aristocracy) in 17031705, the Karaites had to leave the city (1708) and returned only in 1731 and 1748, mainly from Damascus, led by Josef Cohen and Samuel ben Abraham haLevi. Protracted friction with the Rabbanites resulted in the 1740's and 1750's, till the Karaites got back their 15 houses. But in the second half of the eighteenth century the relationship between both sects was close and reasonably friendly.
As a result of the wars of Daher alUmar, 17701775, the usual alms from the Crimea did not reach Jerusalem, and the Karaites had to borrow 2000 piasters. The third pilgrim, who wrote a record of his visit, Benjamin ben Elijah, reached Jerusalem in 1785, mainly in order to renew the flow of alms. During the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, the situation worsened once more, and the Karaites owed again 2000 piasters.
In the nineteenth century quite a bit is known of the local Karaite community, mainly from the reports of Christian and Jewish travellers from the West. The number of the Karaites rose and fell, mostly as a result of the political situation. In 1806 there were 12, around 1850 some 20, in 1856 32. But as a result of the Crimean War it dipped to half a dozen. Later it increased again and reached some 50 in 1895, but by the outbreak of World War I only 16 were left, mostly women. Early in the nineteenth century most of the settlers came from the Crimea. The Hakham was, early in the century, Abraham ben Moses ben Samuel haLevi, who hailed apparently from the Crimea. Later his elder son David followed him and in 18721905 his younger son, Moses alKudsi ben Abraham took over, who had previously been Hakham a]akbar in Cairo. A colour photo from 1895 shows him, as he looked then. During a short period of time he published the Rabbanite journal "Sha'arei Zion". Detailed reports have survived of the Karaites' appearance, dress, abode, food, customs, employment, prayers and relations with the Rabbanites. Their synagogue was twice restored, in 1837 and 1864. Rahel Yanait described it in 1908: (it stands) "next to a narrow courtyard, which is cobbled with slippery stones. The ceiling is vaulted and low, its two screened windows face towards an inner courtyard. The building is derelict and there is no splendour there, but in the corner of the courtyard grow fragrant plants, various geranium shrubs and ivy, which interlace the walls and give the place a comfortable atmosphere".
Between the wars a legal battle raged between the Egyptian community, which claimed ownership of the Karaite endowment, and the actual caretakers, which were members of the Siniani family. By the time of the War of Independence, only two male Sinianis were left, who were taken prisoner in 1948 by the Arab Legion. The Karaite quarter and synagogue were mostly destroyed during and after the capture of the Old City by the Arabs. After its recapture in the 1967 Six Days War, the synagogue of Anan was restored. Karaites came to settle again in Jerusalem, and numbered by 1990 some fifty. A special Hakham has been appointed since 1978 to look after the synagogue and the congregation.
The Holy City of Judaism and Christianity and to a lesser degree of Islam is also very much the Holy City of Karaism. Initially the Karaite sect arose and coalesced far to the east, but in its revolt against the Babylonian Centre, it rediscovered in the later ninth century Jerusalem as an alternative of unmatched drawing power and authority. More than anybody else it was Daniel alKumisi who brought this about. He moved from Persia to Jerusalem around 880. He initiated the energetic propaganda for settling in Jerusalem and demanded from Karaites living elsewhere to supply the funds needed to enable their coreligionists in Jerusalem to dedicate their lives to prayer, to active mourning and to supplication for redemption. He was apparently the author of the official program of the Mourners of Zion, previously a Rabbanite movement, and the founder of the Karaite "Congregation of the Roses". Karaims of Jerusalem
The Karaite quarter in the tenth and eleventh centuries was outside the city walls, on the hill where the original city of the Jebusites and King David had stood two thousand years earlier. It was called Haret alMasharakah (the quarter of the easterners) because the Karaites who settled there came from such eastern countries as Persia. They themselves called it "Zela Eleph", after Joshua 18:28. Their Rabbanite opponents called them accordingly "The Sect of the Zela", or, from the same Hebrew root, "The Lame Sect". We have to imagine this quarter to have been a poor locality, of crooked, narrow alleys, because of the Spartan lifestyle of its inhabitants. The existence of an important Yeshivah (academy) is reported from this quarter. It was located in the "Courtyard" (group of houses) of Joseph ben Bakhtawi, around 1000, and was named the Bakhtawi Academy. The Bakhtawi "courtyard" seems to have served also as the Karaite communal centre ("Maglis") of Jerusalem.
Some sixty Karaite sages were mentioned in Jerusalem in the tenth century by Sahl ben Mazliah, which would indicate a total Karaite population of some 250 souls. In the eleventh century seventy scholars are mentioned at the Bakhtawi Academy, which would indicate a larger Karaite total population, but still far less than one thousand. Some of its outstanding members were, around 1040, Tobias ben Moses, who was in charge of the Fatimid landed estates in all of Palestine, and around 1060 Abu Sa'ad Itzhak ben Aaron ben Ali, who served as governor of Jerusalem.
This small community is regarded by modem scholars as the seat of the "Golden Age" of Karaite cultural history, because of its intellectual elite of thinkers, lawyers, scholars, exegetes and grammarians. The best known ones among them were Sahl ben Mazliah, Salmon ben Jeroham, David ben Boaz, a descendant of Anan, Japheth ben Ali haLevi, his son Abu Sa'id Levi ben Japheth, Joseph ben Noah, Abu alFaraj Harun, Yaakub Yusuf alBasir, Jeshua ben Judah and Sahl ibn Fadl, of the Tustari clan. Most of them were original thinkers, holding often very different opinions. They were not overawed by the prestige of their own leaders, and were often prepared to contest Anan's or Nahawendi's opinions. They were contemptuous of any sign of irrational thinking. In their view, ever since the catastrophy of the destruction of the Temple, the contact with Divine Justice had been cut off and now each individual was on his own and had to try as hard as he could to reestablish contact. Rational thinking was regarded as his best tool in this quest.
When the Seljuks captured Jerusalem in 1071 the Karaite centre was gravely blighted and with its 1099 capture by the crusaders, the Golden Age there came to its end. Quite a few of the Karaites seem to have survived, some by escaping to Ascalon, others by being ransomed. Many reached Egypt, but Byzantium became the new Karaite centre to take up the inheritance of Jerusalem.
After the end of the crusader domination, Karaites returned to Jerusalem apparently in the later thirteenth century. Their community never regained its previous importance, but because of the special place the city held in their affection, they tried during the next seven centuries to hang on to their foothold there, sometimes by the skin of their teeth, in spite of all difficulties.
In the thirteenth century they seem to have taken over an unoccupied building and to have turned it into their synagogue, which they named for Anan. They settled in nearby buildings, thus creating the nucleus of a Karaite quarter, but this time within the city proper, in a part which later became the Jewish Quarter. Their presence is attested in the Mamluk period (12601516) mainly by colophons of various Karaite manuscripts, mostly found in the Geniza. In the end of the fifteenth century they disappeared for some time, during the repressive and extortionist dominance of the Arabic speaking Jewish "Zekenim" (Sheikhs), at the same time as the wealthy Ashkenazi and Sephardi members of the Rabbanite community withdrew too. For some time their synagogue had to be looked after by two Falasha caretakers.
When control of the congregation passed to R. Obadia from Bertinoro, they returned, and that apparently in greater numbers than previously. Thus, when the Ottoman Turks occupied Jerusalem in December 1516, they had sufficient influence to gain possession of the synagogue near the traditional tomb of Prophet Samuel, north of the city, and to establish (in 1518) a Waqf (religious endowment) over two buildings, near their synagogue. As the result of a lawcase they had to return the tomb of Samuel to the Rabbanites, who had controlled it in the Mamluk era, but were able to add in 1558 and 1560 two further endowments, so that the total of their buildings reached fifteen. These houses were only partly settled by them, and mostly rented to Rabbanites and Muslims, in order to create an income for the Karaite community. Ibis "Mahlat alKarain", or "Karaite Street" existed till 1948, consisting of the selfsame buildings and partly still belongs to the Karaites now.
In the sixteenth century many details about the Karaite community are known from the 80odd volumes of the Jerusalem "Sijjil" (Muslim Court records), from which the material of Jewish interest has been published by Amnon Cohen. Several Karaite physicians, money changers and merchants are mentioned. Though their number must have been minuscule, they appear mostly to have been reasonably well off. They payed their taxes through the Rabbanite community. They obtained in 1560 a cemetery of their own, on the slope of the Valley of BenHinnom.
From the late sixteenth century onward the situation of the Ottoman Empire worsened, and this was faithfully mirrored by the Jewish communities of Jerusalem. Their economic situation worsened and during the rule of tyrannical governors, such as Ibn Faruh in the 1620's, they were nearly wiped out. Still, twenty Karaites were left, to rise to 27 (including eight widows) in 1641. Our main sources are now the reports of travellers, and especially those composed by three Karaite pilgrims. In 1641 Samuel ben David was received by the local Hakham, David ben Joshua, who, after Samuel's departure, was arrested because of nonpayment of taxes, and died in 1647 abroad, when trying to collect alms for his congregation. In 1654 Moses ben Elijah haLevi visited Jerusalem and reported: "We saw our synagogue, which is very dear to us, and three oillamps, and one memorial candle are always kept burning ... His excellency, Moses haCohen serves there as Hazzan: he is an excellent though poor man ... Two women, who are widows ... come regularly (to the synagogue) and know how to pray, and they attend from the moment the door of the synagogue is opened. It is surrounded by the fifteen houses of the endowment .... which are sturdy buildings, with vaulted ceilings. There is a reservoir in the courtyard of the synagogue, into which is collected the rainwater, from the roofs of the houses of our endowment".
Apparently as a result of the Revolt of the Nakib alAshraf (the leader of the local aristocracy) in 17031705, the Karaites had to leave the city (1708) and returned only in 1731 and 1748, mainly from Damascus, led by Josef Cohen and Samuel ben Abraham haLevi. Protracted friction with the Rabbanites resulted in the 1740's and 1750's, till the Karaites got back their 15 houses. But in the second half of the eighteenth century the relationship between both sects was close and reasonably friendly.
As a result of the wars of Daher alUmar, 17701775, the usual alms from the Crimea did not reach Jerusalem, and the Karaites had to borrow 2000 piasters. The third pilgrim, who wrote a record of his visit, Benjamin ben Elijah, reached Jerusalem in 1785, mainly in order to renew the flow of alms. During the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, the situation worsened once more, and the Karaites owed again 2000 piasters.
In the nineteenth century quite a bit is known of the local Karaite community, mainly from the reports of Christian and Jewish travellers from the West. The number of the Karaites rose and fell, mostly as a result of the political situation. In 1806 there were 12, around 1850 some 20, in 1856 32. But as a result of the Crimean War it dipped to half a dozen. Later it increased again and reached some 50 in 1895, but by the outbreak of World War I only 16 were left, mostly women. Early in the nineteenth century most of the settlers came from the Crimea. The Hakham was, early in the century, Abraham ben Moses ben Samuel haLevi, who hailed apparently from the Crimea. Later his elder son David followed him and in 18721905 his younger son, Moses alKudsi ben Abraham took over, who had previously been Hakham a]akbar in Cairo. A colour photo from 1895 shows him, as he looked then. During a short period of time he published the Rabbanite journal "Sha'arei Zion". Detailed reports have survived of the Karaites' appearance, dress, abode, food, customs, employment, prayers and relations with the Rabbanites. Their synagogue was twice restored, in 1837 and 1864. Rahel Yanait described it in 1908: (it stands) "next to a narrow courtyard, which is cobbled with slippery stones. The ceiling is vaulted and low, its two screened windows face towards an inner courtyard. The building is derelict and there is no splendour there, but in the corner of the courtyard grow fragrant plants, various geranium shrubs and ivy, which interlace the walls and give the place a comfortable atmosphere".
Between the wars a legal battle raged between the Egyptian community, which claimed ownership of the Karaite endowment, and the actual caretakers, which were members of the Siniani family. By the time of the War of Independence, only two male Sinianis were left, who were taken prisoner in 1948 by the Arab Legion. The Karaite quarter and synagogue were mostly destroyed during and after the capture of the Old City by the Arabs. After its recapture in the 1967 Six Days War, the synagogue of Anan was restored. Karaites came to settle again in Jerusalem, and numbered by 1990 some fifty. A special Hakham has been appointed since 1978 to look after the synagogue and the congregation.
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