Tonight and tomorrow throughout the Jewish communities all over the world there will be celebrations, speeches, parties and commemorations . Why? Because tomorrow marks the 47th anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem, its reunification, and the ability of Jews to once again pray at their holy site,the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. The Mandelbaum Gate was opened permanently and the pictures of the tired and joyous paratroopers who liberated the Wall became famous, iconic. Here were no longer little boys with hands raised in surrender with guns aimed at them. Here were Israeli soldiers, boys, yes, but boys who were defending their homeland, their families.
Once again Israelis were able to freely travel to the Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus, to the Hebrew University there, to walk the byways of Jerusalem and environs once more, to visit the graves of holy and historical figures in Jewish history, to rebuild what had been neglected over the years, to straighten the tombstones on the Mt. of Olives, to remove them from the urinals where the Kingdom of Jordan had placed them, from the pathways, where the soldiers trod on them.
In 1969, after saving for two years and as a deferred honeymoon, Gerry and I took our first trip overseas, our first trip to Israel where we planned a 10 week stay, to tour, to walk, and to meet our family there, many survivors of the Holocaust or the luckier ones who had come prior to WWII on foot and by ship.
We did not know what to expect or what we would feel when first we saw the Kotel, the Western Wall. In fact, our first view was perplexing. It was a stone wall surrounded by rubble, a very small plaza and people standing around in various poses of life. We walked to the stones that were stuffed with notes in every crevice, a post office for G-d. We touched the stones, lay our heads on them and said our private prayers and backed away. Emotional? Yes, but not overwhelming and after 12 years of private day school education I thought there would be more. I was disappointed.
Several weeks later it was the eve of Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, the day when two Temples were destroyed, and the day when so many of the terrible events throughout Jewish history in the Diaspora had taken place. We decide to go to the Wall that night to say and hear the special Megillah or scroll that was read, Eichah. So in the dusk we walked through the Old City's narrow streets, a throng growing with every step. It was a quiet crowd. Finally we came to the end of the street and had to slide and stumble down a hill of rubble and did so. Hundreds of others did so as well. The plaza in front of the Wall was crowded and silent and seemed to expand as so many people sat down on the stones of the plaza and then....the eerie, heart wrenching sound of the first notes of Eichah were heard. Suddenly the plaza was quiet no longer as people joined in while tears ran, no, streamed down their faces for here, once again, after so many years, we were free to say our ancient prayers and mourn the tragedies that had taken place. Here we could remember the promises that G-d had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And here was where the emotional response to the Wall took place. I will never forget it and can still feel the tingle in my bones, in my heart, from that night.
Jerusalem Day is a day of joy. The Mandelbaum Gate was destroyed shortly after; the gates of the Old City were thrown open once more, and the plans to rebuild that which had been destroyed began. Finally, only recently, was the Rambam Synagogue, the Churvah (the destroyed, ruined), was rebuilt and its walls once again ring with the sound of prayer. It is also a day of sadness when we think of the lives of so many young soldiers lost in order to regain that which had been lost, even as they kept destruction to a minimum. Golda Meir had pleaded with King Hussein of Jordan to stay out of the war, but he threw his lot in with his fellow Arab countries and for that, he lost much, much which was not really his in the first place.
Tomorrow we celebrate Jerusalem Day. In our synagogues we recite prayers of joy, of thankfulness that G-d has allowed this to be returned to us. After 2,000 years of Diaspora, of pogroms, of Holocaust, of being pillaged, beaten, raped, burned and forcibly converted....after all those millennium - we were home again and a major part of that home, its heart, Jerusalem, was united again. May it remain so for all eternity, please G-d. Am Yisrael Chai - The nation of Israel lives!
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