The ancient graves of Jews buried on the mountain were desecrated as a matter of routine in the years in which Jordan controlled the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem. Now, almost 50 years later, the nationalist phenomenon continues, and anyone who comes to the mountain will discover the unbridled vandalism and desecration of dozens of Jewish graves and gravestones in this great and ancient cemetery. The Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives is one of the oldest in Jerusalem. Bodies were first interred in rock-cut tombs on the mountain during the First Temple period, in the seventh century BCE, and continued to be buried there throughout the generations in many graves spread across the mountain. Many notable personalities in Jewish history are buried on the mountain, including Israel's sixth prime minister, Menachem Begin; Nobel Prize laureate S.Y. Agnon; Deputy Prime Minister Zevulun Hammer; and distinguished rabbis such as Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, one of the fathers of religious Zionism; Rabbi Sar Shalom Sharabi; and Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar. Jerusalem's Givat Shaul neighborhood is named after Elyashar. In the cemetery's Kehillat Yerushalayim plot, adjacent to the vantage point that allows visitors to see the Temple Mount, a significant number of graves and gravestones have been vandalized throughout the years. One of the desecrated graves belongs to Dr. Hanoch Keller, a doctor who immigrated to Israel from the U.S. and founded the Israel Foundation for Handicapped Children. He died in 1944. Also buried in this plot is Professor Yosef Joel Rivlin, the father of President Reuven Rivlin. His gravestone has not been damaged. Jewish Zionist leader and founder of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, Henrietta Szold is also buried in the Kehillat Yerushalayim plot. Vandalism of the plot has been so extensive that some of the gravestones have been smashed to pieces, and on other headstones, the names are now illegible. David Rodman, head of training at the City of David National Park outside the Old City of Jerusalem said, "The desecrated graves have been like this since the days of Jordanian rule between 1948 and 1967, when the graves were systematically desecrated. The Jordanians damaged the gravestones when they paved the road that leads up to the hotel that was built at the top of the mountain, and even took apart tombstones and used them for fences and walkways. In recent years, the Ir David Foundation has made a concerted effort to restore the gravestones and map the cemetery. The restoration of the graves must be expanded. Now, leading up to 50 years to the reunification of Jerusalem, it is fitting and appropriate for the effort to be recognized by the state as a national project."