Bishop Gobat School

Readers may wonder about the campus of Jerusalem University College as they see the photograph of it on the masthead of our website. Clearly, the buildings are not of recent construction.

Pictured here is a photograph taken around 1936 looking east toward the Dead Sea and ancient Moab. The main buildings in the center of the picture were formerly called the Bishop Gobat School for Boys. Gobat, an Anglican clergyman, built the school in 1853. His intention was to provide poor Arab boys with a rudimentary education and teach them a trade. Bishop Gobat was a very influential voice for the Anglican Church in Palestine in the mid-nineteenth century. In fact, he succeeded in gaining a place for Anglicans at the religious table in Jerusalem, alongside the long-established and powerful Latin and Greek Christian communities, as well as the less well-known communions like the Armenians, Copts, Ethiopians, Jacobite Syrians, Marionite Catholic, and others.

At any rate, the school itself had a checkered history and there were those in the Anglican Church who were scandalized by alleged immorality among the Arab boys and were critical of the leadership of Gobat, claiming the boys were scarcely literate. But being a powerful and persuasive personality, Gobat weathered the storms and challenges and the school continued for many years.

In 1948, the Bishop Gobat School found itself smack dab in the middle of a desperate struggle by the Jewish community to maintain a foothold in the Old City. This was shortly after Israel proclaimed herself a sovereign state in May of 1948. In response, six surrounding Arab nations invaded and sought to obliterate the fledgling state before it could even spread its wings. The Jordanian Legion had cut off the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem from the new city, the predominantly Jewish sector. The situation for the small Jewish garrison in the Jewish Quarter was critical. Short of ammunition, bodies, food and medicine, they appealed for help to the Jewish Haganah (defense force).

The Haganah came up with a bold plan. Sitting on the bedrock scarp of Mt Zion, overlooking the Hinnom Valley and upon which the Second Temple wall once stood, the Bishop Gobat School afforded a place to transfer supplies across the deep Hinnom Valley, separating the Jewish Quarter from the Jewish sector of the new city. Inside one of the rooms of the school, the Haganah fastened a cable and strung the cable across the valley to the opposite side as seen in this photograph I took in 1968. Under cover of darkness, the Jews ferried munitions, food and medicine across the valley in baskets. There is a story that circulates about the famous one-eyed Israeli general, Moshe Dayan. They say he crossed over the Hinnom to the Jewish Quarter one dark night in a basket suspended by the cable. Perhaps it's an urban legend, but it's certainly in character for this dashing military hero. At any rate, although the resupply strategem succeeded in buying time for the beleagured Jewish defenders, in the end, they were unable to hold the Jewish Quarter. Under a truce, the defenders evacuated and the Jordanians occupied the quarter. The Jordanian Legion immediately destroyed all remnants of a Jewish presence, including the Hurva and Rambam Synagogues, dating to the medieval period. The synagogues were even used as latrines. The Jewish Quarter languished until the Six Day War, during which the Israelis seized control of the Old City and shortly afterward set about reconstructing the old Jewish Quarter. Today, you will be amazed at its remarkable transformation. The Israelis restored the destroyed synagogues with the exception of the Hurva. Until just recently,they left it pretty much as they found it, seen here with only one arch standing, in order to remind the viewers of its desecration. But today they have restored the synagogue to all its glory.

Dr. G. Douglas Young now enters the story. He was an Old Testament Professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. For several years he led student tours to Israel. In his visits, he often observed the choice location of the Bishop Gobat School. This was before the Six Day War. Since 1948 the building sat isolated and neglected in no man's land. Jordanian legionnaires, posted on the Old City walls, made sure there was no Jewish presence on the premises.

Then came the Six Day War. Dr. Young realized he had a golden opportunity and he seized the moment. He approached the Anglican leadership in Jerusalem about the building. He wanted to fix it up and use it as a school primarily for North American students. His initial aim was to establish a graduate level institution that would enable students to study the Bible in the land of the Bible. To make a long story short, he was able to negotiate a long-term lease on the building with the understanding that he would renovate and rehabilitate the structure. Today, some 43 years later, you may judge for yourself how successful he and his successors have been. Just go the the JUC website and click on the slide tours of the campus. Dr. Young's dream has been fulfilled many times over and several generations of students have reaped the benefits of studying at JUC.

Joyce and I were among the very first students to spend a full year at the campus on Mount Zion. When we first came in the summer of 1968, only a few of the many rooms had been cleared of debris and rehabed. We often wandered through the rubble-filled rooms and tried to imagine what it would look like when finished. This semester we get to go back and enjoy the fruits of many years hard labor and sacrificial giving that has made this place what it is today. Here is a picture of the building and our group of students enjoying a Shabbat barbecue at JUC. It's come a long way!