Shimon HaTzadik [SEP] named after
Shimon HaTzadik
Shimon HaTzadik is a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem, established around the Tomb of Simeon the Just, after whom it was named. The tomb and surrounding lands (a plot of approximately 18 dunams) was purchased in 1876 by the committee of the Sephardic community and the Ashkenazi Assembly of Israel.
Starting shortly after the UN General Assembly recommended partition of the country into a Jewish state and an Arab state, the Shimon haTsadiq and Nahalat Shimon neighborhoods, close to the Tomb, on the way to Mount Scopus
and tombs.
The Jewish presence in Sheikh Jarrah centered on the tomb of Shimon HaTzadik, one of the last members of the Great Assembly, the governing body of the Jewish people after the Babylonian Exile. According to the Babylonian Talmud, Shimon HaTzadik met with Alexander the Great when the Macedonian army passed through the Land of Israel and convinced him not to destroy the Second Temple. For years Jews made pilgrimages to his tomb in Sheikh Jarrah, a practice documented in travel literature. In 1876, the cave and the adjoining