S.Y. Agnon on the Windmill

This post presents a short quote about the windmill built by Sir Moses Montefiore outside of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem from S.Y. Agnon’s book “Only Yesterday.” Montefiore built the windmill in order to provide work for the poor Jews of Jerusalem, encourage them to move beyond the walls of the Old City, and to break the Arab monopoly on flour mills. According to Agnon, one of the central figures of modern Hebrew fiction, the Arab millers tried to sabotage this venture: 

“And the Arabs saw and were jealous. They hired an old man to curse the windmill. He turned his eyes to the windmill and said, I guarantee you that when the rains come and the winds come, they will make it into an everlasting ruin, and the rains came and the winds came and didn’t do anything to it.”