Today, at the Kadoorie synagogue in Porto, in the presence of a large number of worshippers from Jerusalem, a significant historical event was commemorated. The 9th of Elul is highly significant. It marks the exact date that Nachmanides (the Ramban) arrived in Jerusalem in 1267, initiating the physical and spiritual re-establishment of its permanent Jewish community.
Following his forced exile from Spain after the Disputation of Barcelona, the 72-year-old scholar traveled to the Holy Land. Upon entering the city on the 9th of Elul, Nachmanides found Jerusalem severely battered by Crusader, Mongol, and Mameluke invasions. He famously recorded in a letter to his son that the city was completely desolate, finding as few as two Jewish residents. They were two brothers who worked as textile dyers.
Immediately after his arrival, he set into motion the infrastructure needed for a community. He secured a ruined, empty building with marble pillars to serve as a house of worship. He arranged for the return of Torah scrolls that had been smuggled out to Shechem (Nablus) for safety during prior invasions, installing them in the new sanctuary just in time for the High Holy Days.
The community hub he founded—the Ramban Synagogue—served as the cornerstone for a renewed Jewish presence. This catalyzed a wave of migration, attracting scholars and pilgrims back to the historical capital.
The Ramban Synagogue still exists today and functions as an active place of worship. However, the physical structure is not the exact original building from 1267, nor is it in the exact same location.
When Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman arrived in Jerusalem, he established the original synagogue inside a ruined house featuring marble pillars, located outside the current Old City walls on Mount Zion.
Roughly 130 years after his lifetime, the congregation and institutional identity of the synagogue moved to its current location on Ha-Yehudim Street inside the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
In 1586, following complaints regarding the noise of the services, Ottoman authorities officially closed the synagogue. Over the next few centuries, the building was repurposed and used alternatively as a mosque, a cheese factory, and a raisin mill.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the building was completely destroyed during the Jordanian siege of the Jewish Quarter.
Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel reclaimed the Jewish Quarter. The synagogue was rebuilt directly over its historic ruins and reconsecrated.
Today, it stands as the second oldest active synagogue in Jerusalem, after the Karaite Synagogue, and primarily serves the local Ashkenazi community.
