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Maharam Galanti; Maharam Pardo; Rabbi Yehuda HaChasid, who led a large aliya of Ashkenazi Jews to Jerusalem at the beginning of the 18th century; Rabbi Shalom Sharabi, the renowned Yemenite kabbalist, also in the 18th century; Rabbi Haim Ben Attar, author of the Or HaHaim Commentary on the Torah in the same period; the disciples of the Vilna Gaon who settled here in the 19th century; Rabbi Avraham HaCohen Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, and his son, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda; and many others too numerous to mention.
There are also two mass graves: One - of the remnants of bones and tombstones which were found strewn all over the mountain - the result of the wholesale Arab desecration of the cemetery from 1948 until 1967. Most of the gravestones had been taken away and used to build roads, buildings and toilets in Jordanian Legion out posts and army camps, as well as a part of the Jericho cinema and other structures. One of these camps, the Camp of the Tombstones, about two miles from the cemetery area, is still standing today. There is ample evidence that this gross desecration was carried out with the full knowledge and active participation of members of the Jordanian government.
A second mass grave is that of the 48 victims of the battle over the Jewish Quarter, who were buried within the "Old City" walls during the six months of siege and warfare from November 1947 until the fall of the Quarter on May 19, 1948. At that time the Quarter's residents were evacuated, but the graves were not allowed to be removed. In 1967, they were transferred to a national memorial plot on the Mount of Olives, the first burial to take place in the cemetery after the Six-Day War.
During the war itself, the I.D.F. progressed from Mount Scopus to the Mount of Olives, and from there through Lions Gate to the Temple Mount and the Kotel. It was on the Mount of Olives that the order was given: "To all commanders - we are situated on the mountain range overlooking the "Old City" which we will soon enter - The 'Old City" of Jerusalem which we have dreamed about and longed for for so many generations. We will be the first to enter...Forward! Towards the gate!.."
In August of 1967, two months after the liberation, regular Jewish funerals resumed on the Mt. Of Olives, and continue to this day. Har HaZaytim has resumed its role as the prime burial spot for Jews throughout Israel and the world. Today, there are an estimated 150,000 gravesites there.
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