Saving the Holy Sepulchre: How Rival Christians Came Together to Rescue Their Holiest Shrine (review)

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the holiest worldwide Christian shrine, has been the topic of much research focusing on the struggles between the churches over strongholds within and surrounding the church. This book, written by Raymond Cohen, professor emeritus of international affairs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focuses on a different perspective—attempts at coordination and cooperation between rival churches for the restoration and maintenance of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The book covers the periods of the British occupation and Mandate (1917–48), Jordanian rule (1948–67), and oversight by the Israeli government (since 1967). Focusing on the human perspectives behind the scenes, it opens with the 1927 earthquake and the damage it caused to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the lives of the monks who served there. The book flashes back to the history of the basilica and the rivalries between the major churches in Jerusalem since the fourth century. A major landmark was the “status quo” arrangements at the Holy Places—designed in 1853 by the weakened Muslim Ottoman Sultan Abd al-Majid—that Cohen considers as an informal system for coexistence among the three major churches in Jerusalem and a way to alleviate international pressures and conflicts such as preceded the Crimean War.

The British government of Palestine was concerned that the rivalries among the churches in the Holy Places as backed by European powers ultimately would undermine its rule over Palestine. It set up a commission headed by Lionel George Archer Cust that presented its memorandum in September 1929. It became the British Mandate’s manual on the status quo and has been respected by the rival churches in Jerusalem until the present day. Cohen vividly describes how the British administration managed repairs of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, overcoming conflicts within as well as between the churches through personal contacts behind the scenes.

A serious fire occurred at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1949 as the Jordanians were repairing damage from the 1948 war. Because of the fire, the dome was in imminent danger of collapse. King Abdullah of Jordan took personal responsibility for repairing the church. Cohen sees the king’s incentive as the desire to reject the initiatives to internationalize Jerusalem and to prove to the United Nations and worldwide Christianity that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan would be a capable caretaker of the Christian holy places. The Jordanian view was that it was the government’s responsibility to restore the church, which it would accomplish with or without the cooperation of the local churches. Cohen gives major credit to the Jordanian governors of Jerusalem, especially Hasan al-Khatib, in moving forward with the process of repair. An impressive, honest civil servant educated in Ottoman-era Muslim law, Khatib treated the church heads with courtesy and firmness as backed by Amman. He induced the churches to sign an agreement of cooperation in 1952 so that the restoration could commence. However, the restoration did not begin until 1961 because of strife within the major churches in Jerusalem and Jordan’s problems with Egypt’s Gamal Abd al-Nasser and Nasser’s promotion of pan-Arabism. By 1966, the danger of the collapse of the dome’s ceiling had been alleviated.

Following the 1967 war, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and officially united it with the Israeli West Jerusalem, putting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre under direct Israeli rule. Unlike the British and Jordanians, the Israeli authorities declared their abstention from any involvement in the restoration of the Holy Sepulchre Church and inter-communal rivalries except for cases of violence. Cohen quotes Israel Lippel, the deputy director general of the ministry of religious affairs at the time: “We are not interested in the Christians accusing the Jews once again of murdering Jesus and I do not think that we...