ETERNAL CAPITAL

For far more years than London has been the capital of England, Paris of France, Berlin of Germany, etc., Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of only one nation in the history of the world – Israel. Today, JERUSALEM DAY is being celebrated, in  commemoration of 52 years after the miraculous victory of the Six-Day War when Jerusalem was reunited. 

Ever since King David declared it the capital of Israel around 1,000 BCE, Jerusalem has remained the focus of the Jewish people. His son, Solomon, built the First Temple there. . Today, 3,000 years later, Jerusalem continues to have unbreakable religious and political significance for Jews. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks refers to Jerusalem as the “beating heart” of Judaism.

During these thousands of years, Jerusalem was never divided. Its only period of division was 1949-1967 when the UN Partition Plan of 1947 to make Jerusalem an international city was accepted by the Jews, and rejected by the Arabs.

War commenced, followed by Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. The Arabs responded by attempting to annihilate Israel. Israel beat them back, securing an armistice in 1949. The dividing line between “east” and “west” Jerusalem was not based on reason, geography, or history – but a relic of the first Arab attempt at a second Holocaust. During that period, the Palestinians sought systematically to erase every trace of 3,000 years of Jewish life in Jerusalem.

The following is a first-hand account by journalist Rinna Samuel on the re-opening of Hadassah hospital on Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus, which had been closed since 1948, after Jordan took control:

“Jordan’s Jerusalem had grown and changed in many ways in the nearly 20 years since 1948. It was a little like being abroad, in a foreign land, until the passengers began finding their bearings, recognizing an old landmark or a familiar house, and even identifying specific trees. ‘Remember that house?’ passengers nudged each other and their voices were sad. Their collective memories of the end of the last Hadassah Hospital convoy that was mowed down, of the losses sustained in 1948, were raw and painful. … In the hall stood a clock without hands, as though Mt. Scopus had forgotten time. We were moved to speechlessness. Room after room revealed the hospital’s violation. Corridor after corridor paved with broken glass displayed the ravages of the nineteen years that passed.”

Jerusalem was reunited, under Israeli control, in wake of the Six-Day War in 1967. History speaks of the “Hundred Years’ War,” the “Thirty Years’ War,” and many other long-fought battles. Here, in a matter of six short days, a tiny nation managed to utterly rout the combined powerful forces of the Iraqi, Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian armies. An incredible sense of pride and spiritual awakening gripped the Jewish people worldwide.

The centrality and importance of Jerusalem to the Jewish nation is the natural connection of a national tie as unbreakable as the bond which links parents and children.