Montefiore Windmill | |
---|---|
Origin | |
Mill name | Montefiore Mill Jaffa Gate Mill |
Mill location | Jerusalem |
Coordinates | 31°46′17.31″N35°13′27.03″E / 31.7714750°N 35.2241750°E |
Year built | 1857 |
Information | |
Purpose | Flour mill |
Type | Tower mill |
Storeys | Four storeys |
No. of sails | Four sails |
Type of sails | Patent sails |
Windshaft | Cast iron |
Winding | Fantail |
Fantail blades | Six blades |
Auxiliary power | Electric motor |
No. of pairs of millstones | Two pairs |
The Montefiore Windmill is a landmark windmill in Jerusalem. Designed as a flour mill, it was built in 1857 on a slope opposite the western city walls of Jerusalem, where three years later the new Jewish neighbourhood of Mishkenot Sha'ananim was erected, both by the efforts of British Jewish banker and philanthropist Moses Montefiore. Jerusalem at the time was part of Ottoman-ruled Palestine. Today the windmill serves as a small museum dedicated to the achievements of Montefiore. It was restored in 2012 with a new cap and sails in the style of the originals. The mill can turn in the wind.
The windmill and the neighbourhood of Mishkenot Sha'ananim were both funded by the British Jewish banker and philanthropist Moses Montefiore, who devoted his life to promoting industry, education and health in the Land of Israel. [1] Montefiore built the windmill with funding from the estate of an American Jew, Judah Touro, who appointed Montefiore executor of his will. [2] Montefiore mentions the windmill in his diaries (1875), noting that he had built it 18 years earlier on the estate of Kerem-Moshe-ve-Yehoodit (lit. "the orchard of Moses and Judith"), and that it had since been joined by two other windmills nearby, owned by Greeks. [3] The project, bearing the hallmarks of nineteenth-century artisan revival, aimed to promote productive enterprise in the yishuv .
The mill was designed by Messrs Holman Brothers, the Canterbury, Kent, millwrights. The stone for the tower was quarried locally. The tower walls were 3 feet (0.91 m) thick at the base and almost 50 feet (15.24 m) high. Parts were shipped to Jaffa, where there were no suitable facilities for landing the heavy machinery. Transport of the machinery to Jerusalem had to be carried out by camel. In its original form, the mill had a Kentish-style cap and four patent sails. It was turned to face into the wind by a fantail. The mill drove two pairs of millstones, flour dressers, wheat cleaners and other machinery. [4]
The construction of the mill was part of a broader program to enable the Jews of Palestine to become self-supporting. Montefiore also built a printing press and a textile factory, and helped to finance several agricultural colonies. He attempted to acquire land for Jewish cultivation, but was hampered by Ottoman restrictions on land sale to non-Muslims.
On the night of 1 January 1873, Aaron Hershler was standing guard at the windmill, when a group of Arab Muslims from Silwan attempted to rob his family's home in Mishkenot Sha'ananim, the first Jewish neighborhood outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Hershler took chase and was shot 12 times. He died in the hospital on 5 January and was buried on the Mount of Olives. [5] Seventy-five years after his death, Hershler was recognized by the Israel Defense Forces as the first "national martyr" in the Jewish-Arab conflict. He is one of approximately three dozen Jews killed during Ottoman-ruled Palestine, who are commemorated as part of Israeli's annual Yom Hazikaron memorial day. [6]
The mill was not a success due to a lack of wind. [7] Wind conditions in Jerusalem could not guarantee its continued operation. There were probably no more than 20 days a year with strong enough breezes. Another reason for the mill's failure was technological. The machinery was designed for soft European wheat, which required less wind power than the local wheat. Nevertheless, the mill operated for nearly two decades until the first steam-powered mill was completed in Jerusalem in 1878. [8] [9] In the late 19th century the mill became neglected and abandoned. [9]
It was not until the 1930s that the mill was cosmetically restored by British Mandate authorities together with the Pro-Jerusalem Society. During this restoration decorative, non-functional fixed sails were placed at the top of the structure. [9]
During the 1948 blockade of Jerusalem the Jewish Haganah fighters built an observation post at the top of the tower. In an attempt to impede their activities, the British authorities ordered the windmill be blown up in an operation mockingly dubbed by the population "Operation Don Quixote." [10] [11] By chance however, the unit tasked with destroying the windmill happened to be from Ramsgate, home to Montefiore's long-time residence. When the soldiers observed the name of their hometown next to Montefiore's on a plaque displayed on the building, they "re-interpreted" their orders and blew up only the observation post at the top of the tower, rather than the entire structure , there is also a story that one of the soldiers was of Romany Gypsy descent. His family had picked hops on one of Lord Montefiore's estates, and he remembered the kindness of the family and the Jewish people in England towards the Romany community. He reminded his fellow soldiers of the fact that Montefiore's alms-houses had housed and fed thousands of British men, women, and children. Hearing this, they decided to only blow up the outpost at the top and went to great lengths to keep the structure intact during the process.
. [9]
Over the years the building's condition had deteriorated again and following the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War another cosmetic restoration was carried out, as part of which a decorative bronze cap was added to the structure. [9]
In 2012 the mill was completely restored to full working order using the original 1850s plans (which were located in the British Library) as a guide. [9] The restoration was part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations. [12]
A Dutch organisation, "Christians for Israel" (Dutch : Stichting Christenen voor Israël) promoted the scheme. A model of Stelling Minnis windmill, built by Tom Holman, was taken to the Netherlands to raise funds for the restoration. None of the original machinery survives. [12] Millwright Willem Dijkstra rebuilt the floors, sails, cap and machinery in his workshop in Sloten in cooperation with Dutch construction company Lont and British millwright Vincent Pargeter. The windshaft was cast and machined at Sanders IJzergieterij en Machinefabriek B.V. (Sanders’ foundry and machines factory) in Goor. [13] The parts were then shipped to Israel and reassembled on site. [14] Dijkstra, his family and employee temporarily moved to Israel to help with the restoration. [13] The cap and sails were lifted into place on July 25, 2012, [15] [16] and the mill was turning for the first time again on August 6. [17] [18] The first bag of flour was ground in May 2013. [9]
ecarrie was brought to Palestine in 1906 by Boris Schatz, the founder of the Bezalel Academy of Art, but was destroyed in a fire in 1986. [19] The carriage was part of the collection of the Bezalel Museum which became the basis of the Israel Museum. [20]
This is a partial timeline of Zionism since the start of the 16th century.
The Lovers of Zion, also Hovevei Zion or Hibbat Zion, were a variety of proto-Zionist organizations founded in 1881 in response to the anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire and were officially constituted as a group at a conference led by Leon Pinsker in 1884.
Kerem Avraham, in English Abraham's Vineyard, is a neighbourhood near Geula in central Jerusalem, founded in 1855. It is bounded by Malkhei Yisrael Street, Yechezkel Street, Tzefanya Street, and the Schneller Compound.
Jerusalem's population size and composition has shifted many times over its 5,000 year history.
Mishkenot Sha'ananim was the first Jewish settlement built outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, on a hill directly across Mount Zion. It was built in 1859–1860. This guesthouse was one of the first structures to be built outside the Old City, the others being Kerem Avraham, the Schneller Orphanage, Bishop Gobat school, and the Russian Compound.
The perushim were Jewish disciples of the Vilna Gaon, Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, who left Lithuania at the beginning of the 19th century to settle in the Land of Israel, which was then part of Ottoman Syria. They were from the section of the community known as misnagdim in Lithuania. They were part of the Old Yishuv.
Yemin Moshe is a historic neighborhood in Jerusalem, overlooking the Old City.
Nachlaot is a cluster of 32 courtyard neighborhoods in central Jerusalem surrounding the Mahane Yehuda Market. It is known for its narrow, winding lanes, old-style housing, hidden courtyards and many small synagogues.
New Mill is a Grade II listed smock mill in Northbourne, Kent, England that was built in 1848 and which has been converted to residential accommodation.
Davison's Mill, also known as Stelling Minnis Windmill, is a Grade I listed smock mill in Stelling Minnis, Kent, England that was built in 1866. It was the last windmill working commercially in Kent when it closed in the autumn of 1970.
Wray Common Mill is a grade II* listed tower mill at Reigate, Surrey, England which has been converted to residential use.
The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the region of Palestine during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah waves, and the consolidation of the new Yishuv by the end of World War I. Unlike the new Yishuv, characterized by secular and Zionist ideologies promoting labor and self-sufficiency, the Old Yishuv primarily consisted of religious Jews who relied on external donations (halukka) for support.
Kollel Shomrei haChomos is a financial charity institute or kollel set up to support the community of Hungarian-Jews who emigrated to the Holy Land, hence it is called by many the Hungarian Kollel. The Hungarian Jews separated themselves in 1858 from its mother institute Kolel Chibas Yerushalayim which at one point in time included the Jewish communities of the entire Austrian Hungarian Kingdom. Kolel Chibas Yerushalayim was itself a breakaway from the original Kolel Perushim, established by the students of the Vilna Gaon. Two leading Hungarian rabbis were appointed as the "Nesyim" or "Presidents of the Kolel, Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer, author of Ketav Sofer, and Meir Eisenstein. In honor of these two leaders the Hungarian Kolel was also called "House of Sofer and Meir"
De Hoop is a smock mill in Dokkum, Friesland, Netherlands which was built in 1849 and has been restored to working order. The mill is listed as a Rijksmonument, number 13186.
Avraham Wolfensohn (1783–1855) was a Jewish rabbi, Talmudic judge and leader of the Ashkenazi community in Safed, Ottoman Galilee in the mid-19th century.
Welgelegen or Tjepkema's Molen is a smock mill in Heerenveen, Friesland, Netherlands, which was built in 1849 and has been restored to working order. The mill is listed as a Rijksmonument, No. 21171.
The expansion of Jerusalem outside of the Old City walls, which included shifting the city center to the new neighborhoods, started in the mid-19th century and by the early 20th century had entirely transformed the city. Prior to the 19th century, the main built up areas outside the walls were the complex around King David's Tomb on the southern Mount Zion, and the village of Silwan.
Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, was a British financier and banker, activist, philanthropist and Sheriff of London. Born to an Italian Sephardic Jewish family based in London, after he achieved success, he donated large sums of money to promote industry, business, economic development, education and health among the Jewish community in the Levant. He founded Mishkenot Sha'ananim in 1860, the first Jewish settlement outside the Old City of Jerusalem.
The bronze bust of former British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill at Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem was created by portrait sculptor Oscar Nemon. Anthony Rosenfelder, together with MK Isaac Herzog, initiated the process of erecting the bust of Churchill in Jerusalem.
Aaron Hershler was a Hungarian-born Jew considered the first national Jewish martyr in the Jewish-Arab conflict. While attempting to intervene in a robbery at his family's home in Mishkenot Sha'ananim, the first Jewish neighborhood outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, Hershler was shot 12 times, dying 5 days later.