Page 42 - HaMizrachi_Chayei Sarah_USA_2020

GENERAL INTEREST

The Chevron

Lockdown

of 1840

rom 1831 to 1918, in addition Such buildings can still be seen today. mistaken, the quarantine time was
to malaria, tuberculosis, small- indeed seven days the previous month,
Fpox and dysentery, the Land of He described the Tomb of the Matri- but the government decided to raise it
Israel suffered from repeated cholera archs and Patriarchs, the giant com- to 12 days…”
epidemics with high mortality rates. plex built by King Herod the Great to
The Ottoman Government imposed house the Cave of Machpelah, as “a The quarantined quarters in Chevron
quarantine as the major measure medieval church” surrounded by walls were also referenced by L. M. Cubley
but people repeatedly broke it while and accompanied by minarets. “This in her book “The Hills and Plains of
trying to escape from affected areas, church, converted into a mosque, con- Palestine,” published in London in
particularly in walled cities. In the tains, it is said, the tombs of the six 1860. The author and artist visited
mid-1840s, during an outbreak orig- characters of Genesis… The Turks, the Land of Israel in 1853 and created
inating in Egypt and affecting other who have great veneration for the several paintings and drawings of the
Mediterranean countries, a quarantine Patriarchs, do not let the Christians scenes she witnessed, including that of
center was created in Chevron. Special enter. They have, because of these the quarantine buildings in Chevron.
living quarters were built just out- traditions, given Chevron the name “We then crossed the bazaar to the
side the city to house those who were of El-Khalil (the friend, Abraham the
contagious. friend of G-d). It was also in Chevron wall of the castle (Kalha), above which
that David was crowned king of Israel.” is the wall of the mosque Haram
The quarantine was referenced by Sharif, that encloses the cave of Mach-
Charles de Pardieu, a French count, He continues, “this city is now pelah,” she states. “Here I took the
who wrote of his experiences in his renowned for its glassworks. They sketch looking over the mosque on the
1851 book “Excursion en Orient: make a lot of vases, ornaments, and part of the town, Lower Pool, and Jebel
l’Egypte, le Mont Sinaï, l’Arabie, la glass bracelets…” Kubbe Janib, on which the quarantine
Palestine, la Syrie, le Liban.” In it, he buildings are situated… We then went
describes being confined to the living Such is true today, where modern by the Turkish burial ground to the
quarters in October 1849. There were Chevron produces and exports glass, quarantine buildings, outside of which
walls, and separate units manned by shoes and other items. De Pardieu also the Pasha was encamped with his
Turkish soldiers to make sure poten- complained that the Turkish soldiers
tially contaminated people were kept were “brutes” and kept him and his troops. After calling on the Pasha and
socially distant from one another. De entourage for longer than expected: quarantine doctor, the latter joined us
Pardieu describes Chevron as a city in “…to our amazement, the director of in our ride to Ayin Jedidi, the supposed
the valley with about 5,000 residents, the quarantine said… our detention well of Abraham, and near which it is
both Arabs and Jews, with grey, block- had to be 12 days. We do not go out probable he lived, as it is on the hill
like houses surmounted with domes until November. How is it 12 days?… opposite the mosque, which, there is
set in the middle of roofs that doubled the health guards had told us seven little doubt, is on the site of the Cave
as balconies. days. The health guards had been of Machpelah.” 

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