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The Old City of Jerusalem. (israelinsider)
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| By Ellis Shuman May 21, 2001 |
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Residents of Jerusalem are trying, at least for just one day, to forget about terrorist threats, bombs and shooting attacks. Celebrated today according to the Hebrew date, Jerusalem Day marks 34 years of the city's reunification as the capital of the State of Israel.
Jerusalem Day events began yesterday afternoon when a colorful parade made its way through Jerusalem streets. Marchers from all over the world waved flags alongside colorful floats highlighting local agricultural products. An American marching in the parade said, "At this troubled time, we want to stand with Israel," and a yeshiva student was quoted in the Jerusalem Post saying, "It is really nice and enjoyable to see such an event taking place peacefully in Jerusalem."
Additional Jerusalem Day programs will include a central memorial ceremony to the Israeli soldiers who fell during the Six Day War in attempts to liberate the city. President Moshe Katsav, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, government ministers, Knesset members, I.D.F. officers and bereaved families who lost loved ones in the 1967 war will attend the ceremony, to be held this evening on Ammunition Hill.
Members of the Temple Mount Faithful group will make their traditional Jerusalem Day march from Ammunition Hill through East Jerusalem to the Old City and the Western Wall.
Security in Jerusalem is tight, with thousands of police officers, border police and soldiers stationed in the capital to protect the Jerusalem Day events.
In contrast to the celebrations marking the city's unity, Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Faisal Husseini said today, "Jerusalem is truly divided, and there are two cities, one of them under occupation."
The centrality of Jerusalem in Judaism
Last year on Jerusalem Day, months before negotiations over Jerusalem's future were to take place, Prime Minister Ehud Barak said, "Only those who do not understand the depth of the total emotional bond of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, ? could possibly entertain the thought that the State of Israel would actually concede even part of Jerusalem."
Author Elie Wiesel expressed the centrality of Jerusalem in Judaism when he wrote, "Jerusalem is the national landmark of Jewish tradition. It represents our collective soul. It is Jerusalem that binds one Jew to another."
The Jerusalem Post reported today that "more than 1,500 Orthodox rabbis plan to advertise the centrality of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to the Jewish people this week in The New York Times." According to the report, a "full-page ad, which calls the Temple Mount "a central Jewish link throughout the ages, throughout the world," was paid for by a private donor in honor of Jerusalem's 34th birthday under Israeli sovereignty."
The spiritual and historical connection of the Jewish People to Jerusalem is documented in the Bible and revealed by archaeological discoveries. Even so, the city is also holy to Christianity and Islam, and negotiations over the final status of Jerusalem have resulted in no agreements over the city's boundaries and sovereignty.
Jerusalem of a perfect world
Author Aldous Huxley once said, "We have each of us our Jerusalem." Rabbi Nachum Braverman, Executive Director of Aish HaTorah's Jerusalem Fund for the Western Region, explained that Huxley referred to "a vision of what life might be." Braverman writes, "Jerusalem is a living memory, a vision of God in our lives, an image of a perfected world. Jerusalem gives us the strength to achieve what we as a people must do, to unite ourselves, and to sanctify this world."
Unfortunately, Jerusalem, City of Peace, whose very name comes from the same root as the word 'Peace,' has yet to fulfill its biblical and spiritual promise of bringing about a better world.
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