60% rise in Jews visiting Temple Mount in past year to nearly 30,000 visitors

Since the Hebrew month of Av of last year, nearly 30,000 Jews have visited the Temple Mount, compared to around 19,000 in the previous year. 

By: World Israel News Staff 

A total of 29,510 Jews have visited the Temple Mount over the past year, according to data provided by the Headquarters for Temple Organizations.

From the Jewish month of Av last year until this month, there was a 60% rise from 18,506.

On Wednesday about 300 Jews went up on the Temple Mount, just days before the Ninth of Av (Tisha B’Av), which commemorates the anniversary of the destruction of the first and second Temples, according to Jewish tradition.

One of the groups that visited Wednesday included over 60 children, accompanied by mothers. The increasing number of women and children visiting the Temple Mount reflects a wider trend, with the pilgrimage gaining popularity among some religious Jews

The site is considered the holiest in the world by the Jewish people.

The visit by children was organized by Women for the Temple, an educational movement that seeks to increase interest in and study about subjects connected to rebuilding the Temple, animal sacrifices and the utensils used in Temple worship as detailed in Jewish sacred texts and ritual law.

The Temple Institute’s educational arm also helped to organize the visit and provide information in a way easily understandable for children.

“Families came from all over Israel, from Ashdod and the Lachish region, from Samaria and from Jerusalem,” Tziporah Piltz, a member of Women for the Temple told WIN.

“The numbers of people who go up to the Temple Mount to visit are growing because people have a desire to realize the dream of rebuilding the Temple,” she added.

Orthodox rabbis are split over whether it is permissible for Jews to go up to the Temple Mount due to complex laws related to ritual impurity and the exact geographical location of the holiest parts of the Temple, which remain sanctified nearly 2,000 years after the Temple’s destruction.