Four Sephardic synagogue in the Jewish Quarter - complex, which actually consists of four walls connected by the old synagogue, erected in different epochs. They are united by belonging to the Sephardic community of Israel.

Sephardim - the descendants of the Jews expelled in the XV century from Spain. Great in 1492, celebrated the opening of Columbus America, was also a black year in the history of the Jewish people. The royal couple, Ferdinand II and Isabella issued an edict that ordered all the Jews in the three-month period or baptized, or on pain of death to leave Castile and Aragon.

It was the expulsion of a national catastrophe for the Jews scattered after it's Europe and North Africa. Some of them fled to Palestine, to the territory of the Ottoman Empire. In Jerusalem, in those days, the synagogue was closed by Muslims, Jews come to pray at home. At the beginning of the XVII century, however, the authorities have allowed to build the first of the four Sephardic synagogues - Yohanan Ben Zakai.

A plot of land on which the synagogue is located below street level. This is partly due to the restrictions imposed on non-Muslim house: they should not exceed the height of the mosques. In addition, the surrounding complex of houses destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries, new houses were built over them, the synagogue remained in its place and gradually sank into the ground.

In Yohanan Ben Zakai just two of the ark. Muslims are required to keep at the same time in the temple and the Torah, and the Koran, the Jews divided the great books, set each his ark.

Nearby, the largest in the complex, Istanbul synagogue was erected in 1764 by Sephardic immigrants from Istanbul. Another temple, Eliyahu ha-Navi, named in honor of the prophet Elijah, was founded in the XVI century and is the oldest of the four. Central in this quartet - Synagogue Kahal Zion. In its place he was in the old courtyard where the women were praying.

The complex has a small museum of Judaica that are based on Genizah - the place where stored dilapidated scrolls, books, religious objects. Here you can see the Torah scrolls in traditional Sephardic covers graceful work pointers trays scrolls. In the old drawings and photographs - the Sephardim in clothes typical of the Ottoman era.

During the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, during the siege of the Jewish Quarter in this complex for two weeks hiding from shelling locals. However, the quarter fell, synagogues were burned and turned into stables. After the Six Day War in 1967, the church was restored. A plaque in memory of this event is set at the entrance to the synagogue of Istanbul.

Today, the four Sephardic synagogues praying inhabitants of the Jewish Quarter - and the Sephardim and Ashkenazim (Jews whose ancestors immigrated from Central Europe).