Beit Yehudayoff, Historic residential building on Ezra Street, Bukharan Quarter in Jerusalem, Israel.
Beit Yehudayoff is a residential building in the Bukharan Quarter featuring a richly detailed neo-Renaissance facade that extends for 55 meters along Ezra Street. The design showcases arched windows, supporting pilasters, carved reliefs, and an ornamental wrought-iron railing that runs along the flat roofline.
Elisha Yehudayoff, a cotton merchant from Kokand, had the house built between 1905 and 1913 on a rectangular plot bought from the neighbouring Kerem Avraham quarter, since his family had not joined the Bukharan Quarter's original plan. His father-in-law Israel Hefetz and Hefetz's son Zvi carried out the construction in Jerusalem. The family came for Passover 1914 to inaugurate it, then returned to Kokand when World War I broke out; after the Bolshevik revolution Yehudayoff's property was confiscated and he was imprisoned. He reached Jerusalem in 1925 and died in 1940.
The synagogue on the top floor served as a gathering place for the Bukharan Jewish community and remains a symbol of their religious traditions. The building's design and layout reflect how this community organized their daily lives around faith and family.
The building stands at 19 Ezra Street in the Bukharan Quarter, a rectangular plot about 55 metres long and 20 metres wide, with entrances on all four sides. The two main entrances are in the centre of the front facade and on the eastern side, where two curved external staircases lead straight to the upper floor. The basement level, holding a mikveh, lies beneath the western courtyard.
The nickname "Palace of the Messiah" comes from Meshiah, the only son of Elisha's brother David, who joined the family business in Kokand. The house is also called simply "the Palace" and "Beit Yehudayoff", after its owner Elisha Yehudayoff and his wife Malka Hafetz.
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