"#Anglican #missionary Rev. #WBLewis describing the desperate situation of #Jews living in #Jerusalem under #Ottoman #Turkish rule in 1824.
#Lewis wrote his letter from #Aintoura, a village in present-day #Lebanon, on February 23, 1824. His account is one of the most detailed non-#Jewish eyewitness reports of what life was really like for Jews in the #HolyLand at that time.
He describes horrifying #extortion, #beatings, wrongful #imprisonment, #forcedlabor, and stolen property — all suffered by a community with no #European diplomatic protection in Jerusalem. The letter also covers the long Jewish struggle to reclaim the ruined #Hurva #Synagogue, which had been destroyed by #Arab creditors a century earlier.
This document is historically valuable precisely because Lewis was a non-Jewish outsider with nothing to gain by exaggerating. His testimony confirms what Jewish sources also describe about life under Ottoman rule in Jerusalem."
Horrific Life of Jews Under the Ottomans New Historical Report Discovered About Rav Menachem Mendel of Shklov on his Yahrtzeit - VINnews
THE JEWISH EXPOSITOR, AND FRIEND OF ISRAEL Join our WhatsApp group Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email October, 1824 Letter of the Rev. W. B. Lewis — Reproduced and Annotated by Rabbi Yair Hoffman. I am indepted to a friend, Professor Shaul Stampfer of Jerualem. for sending me a copy of the original article. Introduction: […]










