Open Jerusalem is a European Research Council project devoted to opening and interconnecting the administrative, religious and private archives of Jerusalem for the period 1840-1940. Led by a transnational team of historians and archivists, the project maps, catalogues and digitises dispersed collections in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Hebrew, Latin and European languages, then uses this documentation to write a “connected” bottom-up history of urban life (citadinité) in the Holy City.
Rather than focusing on geopolitical or confessional narratives, Open Jerusalem reconstructs the practical arenas in which Jerusalem’s diverse populations interacted—public space, shared time, emerging public opinion and circulating knowledge—revealing points of contact, exchange and hybridisation across communities. Its online finding aids, thematic datasets and scholarly publications now serve researchers worldwide while modelling an inclusive approach to Middle-Eastern urban history.
