Tomb of Simeon the Just

Tomb of Simeon the Just ( ; translit.¹ Kever Shimon haTzadik ) is the name given to a tomb located on Abu Bakr-a-Sidiq road, in northern Jerusalem , just south of the British School of Archaeology, which is located at the east end of Simeon-the-Just street, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.² According to Jewish tradition, it is the tomb of Simeon the Just and his students.³ However, archaeologists date the burial cave to the Roman or the beginning of the Byzantine period. Indeed, the tomb itself, via a Latin inscription, declares that it is actually the burial place of Julia Sabina ; for uncertain reasons, the inscription has since been badly mutilated, and the vestibule in which it is sited has been walled up, and hidden behind a closed 20th century door The first recorded mention of the site is by Jacob-the-Apostle, a student of Jehiel of Paris , writing in 1235 that near Jerusalem is the cave of Simeon the Just and his students . Charles Warren asserts that the tradition of the tomb dates back at least to 1537. However in 1876 the Jewish community purchased the site and surrounding land for 15,000 francs . Under the guidance of Jerusalem's chief rabbi, Shmuel Salant , housing construction in the area around the tomb commenced in 1891. By 1948, twenty Jewish families were living in these homes, but the area then found itself in the very middle of a war zone; after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , the property fell on the Jordanian side of the Green Line , and Palestinian families moved into the, by then abandoned, homes. Pro-Israel organisations such as CAMERA have alleged that the Palestinians had no respect for the site, using it as stables . During the Ottoman period, Wasif Jawhariyyeh mentions the site as the location of communal festivities known as the Yehudia, attended by Jewish, Christian, and Muslims in honor of Shimon the Just . While people flock to the tomb of Shimon bar Yochai on Lag Ba'omer to perform the Upsherin ceremony, the Tomb of Simeon the Just is used by many as an alternative location. Hanaueb, Folklore of the Holy Land (1907), page 62; now in the public domain, an online copy is available (large file) Warren, Charles & Conder, Claude Reignier. The Committee Of Palestine Exploration Fund. 1889 [1] "Ishaq al-Shami and the Predicament of the Arab Jew in Palestine" . August 2004 . : Check date values in: |date= ( help )⁴