House of the Wall Platoon

All the information about the House of the Wall Platoon, the permanent and central exhibits in the Museum of the House of the Wall Platoon, takes visitors along a route that began in 1928, when the British restricted Jewish existence in the Land of Israel and forbade the blowing of a shofar near the Western Wall following the Arabs' complaint that the blowing harms Islam's holy sites. The visit begins with a short exhibit that reveals the members of the youth movement Betar, continues through sculptures and a model of the sleeping room that served the platoon, and goes on to the main exhibit. The main exhibit reveals the story of the platoon, which took upon itself the task of smuggling the forbidden shofar to the Wall, so that the Jews could fulfill the commandment every day of Yom Kippur. Interwoven into the story is Betar's ideology through acts of heroism, the choice of life under ongoing danger, arrests, and clashes with the Arab population and the British authorities. In addition, the museum, operating through the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, presents some of the items of the movement's members, including the shofar they smuggled to the Wall, the wooden gun they used on patrols in the Jewish Quarter, and a photo of all the shofar blowers.