Today, on Hoshana Raba in 1811, my 3rd great grandfather, Avraham Shlomo Zalman Zoref arrived in Israel from Keidan in Lithuania.
Zoref, a student of the Vilna Gaon, was the leader of the pioneers who rebuilt the Ashkenazi community in the Old City of Jerusalem and was responsible in 1836 for obtaining the rights to build the synagogue. He was assassinated in 1851.
http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/kedainiai/Zalman_Tzoref.html








The Hurva Synagogue
Chag Sameach
Eli