Ateret Cohanim honors tough living in east Jerusalem

Their home has armed guards, their ride has bulletproof windows, but the dangers surrounding the Tanami family are not on an isolated settlement, they are within the capital of Israel.

“My life has become complicated with daily challenges. We have faith in our cause as messengers of the entire nation,” said Chaya Shira Tanami, an American-born optometrist who lives with her husband and three children in Yemenite Village, a Jewish community within the largely Arab Silwan neighborhood. Tanami was honored on June 1 at the Jerusalem Day fundraiser dinner held by American Friends of Ateret Cohanim-Jerusalem Chai, an organization that raises funds for Jewish property purchases in parts of Jerusalem annexed by Israel after the Six Day War.

“They redeem homes that once belonged to Jews in the Old City. These young families are amazingly brave,” said Bernard Hoenig, a Far Rockaway resident, who is a founder of American Friends of Ateret Cohanim.

Along with Chaya Shira Tanami, Brooklyn real estate developer Henoch Messner and his wife Tova were honored for their work in purchasing a 150-year-old home in the Muslim Quarter that still had evidence of its former Jewish ownership. “We found here an old niche for a mezuzah,” Messner said in a video presented at the dinner, held at Terrace on the Park in Queens. “We are going to put a mezuzah back in this place.” Between 1930 and 2010, Arab tenants had occupied the home.

The keynote speaker at the event was World Likud Chairman Danny Danon, who also spoke later in the week at the Israel Day Concert/Rally, on Israel’s commitment to keeping Jerusalem united. “I am not afraid of September. Jerusalem will exist after September,”

he said, referring to the likely date for a UN vote on Palestinian statehood. “We made a poll among Israelis and 80 percent are against any compromise of Jerusalem,” Danon said.

In the mean time, families such as the Tanamis look back at their home, which flies Israeli flags from its windows, next to burn marks on the walls from Molotov cocktails lobbed by Arab rioters. “The more Jewish homes we have, the more secure it becomes. We need more neighbors,” Tanami said. “We invite each of you to visit us in Jerusalem.”