By Uriel Heilman

Special to the Advocate

NEW YORK -- When an elderly Arab gentleman first approached the Jerusalem municipality shortly after Israel's victory in the Six-Day War claiming that he had a set of keys to an old synagogue in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, he was nearly laughed out of the city office. Israeli authorities knew that nearly all of the Old City's Jewish institutions and synagogues were destroyed in the decades between the Arab riots in the 1920s and 1930s and the end of Jordanian control of the city, in 1967.

When the Arab man persisted, a few reluctant Jews followed him to an inconspicuous building in the heart of the Muslim quarter. When the door was opened to reveal a synagogue that was completely intact, the group was shocked. "They couldn't believe it," recalls Israeli Mati Dan. "Everything was there -- the beit midrash study hall, the holy ark, the Torah scrolls and about 2,000 books -- everything!"

Since the synagogue's rediscovery and restoration -- the structure dates back to 1886 -- it has become the world headquarters of Ateret Cohanim, an organization whose declared mission is to "renew and bolster the Jewish presence in the heart of the Jerusalem." Dan, a native of Bnei Brak, an Orthodox suburb of Tel Aviv, has been involved with the organization for more than 20 years and currently serves as its senior director.

In recent years, Ateret Cohanim's efforts have been a frequent source of friction for the organization's continued purchase of properties for Jews in predominantly Arab sections of Jerusalem. Such actions have had a disruptive effect on the peace process, resulting in occasional clashes between Arab protestors and Israeli authorities and stalled peace negotiations.

Ateret Cohanim also has a close relationship with American millionaire irving Moskowitz, whose sponsorship of a controversial property purchase two years ago brought relations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat to a point of crisis.

Dan insists that any Arab violence that results from such action is no fault of Ateret Cohanim. "If we don't settle there, the [Arabs] won't make problems?" he said in a recent interview. "What we need to achieve is to strengthen the Jewish hold on the Old City.

"We need to enable Jews to walk in Jerusalem and feel like it belongs to them, not like they're scared strangers."

He rejects any division of the Old City into ethnic or religious quarters. "All these divisions are not real," he said. "It is a wrong picture. The Jewish quarter is a result of violence that forced the Jews into a particular place, but there is really Jewish property all over the Old City."

Dan continually refers to what he terms the so-called Muslim quarter as the "kotel [the wall] quarter." "We even buy property from Arabs that we really should not have to pay for," he said. "It belongs to us. They took it from us. But the people of Israel pay."

According to Dan, those who regard Ateret Cohanim as a rightwing extremist organization have it all wrong. "Today, if you choose to live in the Old City, you have to live with Arabs, and that means you're more of a dove than Peace Now," he said. "They want separation. We are in favor of normalcy, co-existence and Jerusalem."

Dan cited a number of cooperative efforts that his organization has recently begun in an effort to bring the interests of Jewish and Arab residents of the Old City together. Most relate to neighborhood upkeep and general cleanliness. "Our problems are not with Arab residents, but with terror organizations," he said.

Author not available, Organization aiming to make Jerusalem Jewish again not settling for. , Jewish Advocate, The, 10-15-1998, pp 5.