Jaffa Clock Tower

The Jaffa Clock Tower (Hebrew: ‫מגדל השעון יפו‬, Migdal haShaon Yafo, Arabic: ‫ )يافا برج الساعة‬is one of
seven clock towers built in Palestine during the Ottoman period. The others are located
in Safed, Acre, Nazareth, Haifa, Manara Clock Tower in Nablus (West Bank), and Jerusalem, the last
being the only one that has not survived until today.[1]

The Jaffa Clock Tower stands in the middle of Yefet street at the northern entrance of Jaffa, the
ancient city that is now a part of Tel Aviv. The tower, which is made of limestone, incorporates two
clocks and a plaque commemorating the Israelis killed in the battle for the town in the 1948 Arab–
Israeli War.[2]

History[edit]

The construction of the tower was initiated by Moritz Schoenberg, a Jewish businessman and
clockmaker who also built the adjacent Bustrus st., the first Jewish street in Jaffa (Raziel st.
nowadays), to commemorate the silver jubilee of the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abd al-Hamid II.
The tower was built with contributions of the residents of the city, Arabs and Jews, headed by
Joseph Bey Moyal.[3]

The first stone of the tower was laid in September 1900. Within a year two floors were built and the
construction of a third floor had begun. In 1903 the clock tower had been erected and Schoenberg
designed and installed four clocks at its top.[3] It is similar to the clock tower of Khan al-Umdanin
Acre that is dedicated to the same purpose.[4] More than a hundred similar clock towers were built
throughout the Ottoman Empire due to this occasion.[5]

In 1966 the Jaffa Clock Tower was renovated, new clocks were installed and colorful mosaic windows
designed by Arie Koren to describe the history of Jaffa were added.[4]

In 2004 the clock tower appeared on an Israeli stamp worth 1.3 sheqels. It was together with the
clock towers in Safed, Acre, Haifa and Jerusalem featured in a series of Ottoman Clock Towers In
Israel.[6]