“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand wither….”  — Psalm 137:5

The formal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital, and the move of the U.S. Embassy to the holy city, is an event comparable to the founding of Israel in 1948, the Israeli victory in the Six-Day War, and other cosmic developments in the long history of the Jewish People.

After President Donald Trump’s bold decision to at long last move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, much of the Jewish world was stunned and breathless. Could the promises of every U.S. president since 1995, which were repeated but never carried out for fear of inflaming Arab opponents, actually be carried out in our lifetime and not hundreds of years in the future? Were the plaintive calls in our Passover Haggadah, “Next Year in Jerusalem” finally to be not just proclaimed but carried out?

Yes, this is reality and not merely a long cherished dream.  Jerusalem has been central not only to the land of Israel but to the Jewish people ever since King David, one of our greatest leaders, moved the capital of ancient biblical Israel from Hebron to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, the Golden City, is said to contain nine of the 10 measures of beauty in the entire world.  In the year 70 of the Common Era, the Roman Empire crushed the Jewish State of Judea that had been established by the Maccabees, including tearing down the Second Temple, leaving only the Western or outer retaining wall standing as what became and remains the holiest site in Judaism.

During Israel’s War of Independence, the Arabs seized control of the Old City of Jerusalem under the Kingdom of Jordan, which established a barrier to prevent Jews from visiting their holiest site. The world was curiously silent during the 19 years of Jordanian occupation, when Jews were barred from the Western Wall, sometimes referred to as the “Wailing Wall.”

On June 7, 1967, the Israel Defense Forces liberated East Jerusalem and unified the city under the municipal control of its city government.   In contrast to the Jordanian blockage of access to the Western Wall, Israel has placed oversight of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites under the administration of the major faith groups.

We recall with fondness the iconic photo of young Israeli soldiers standing before the Western Wall, as Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan proclaimed, “We have returned to our Holy City—never again to leave!”

Even as we celebrate the historic opening of the Embassy in Jerusalem, we must not be indifferent to the human suffering in Gaza. 

Sadly, the terrorist group Hamas, which controls the wretched Gaza Strip, the most densely populated enclave in the world, has organized its so-called “March of Return,” using their own desperate youth as cannon fodder to attempt to breach the border with the Jewish State of Israel, which Hamas has vowed to destroy.  

Scores of Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,700 wounded recently along Israel’s border with Gaza. The conditions under which the nearly 2 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip are indeed deplorable and there is an urgent need to provide the residents of Gaza with a way out of their current very real predicament. Immediate attention is needed to stop the violence and to move forward with a peace plan which respects both Israeli and Palestinian aspirations. 

The Light — and others, including The New York Times — recently called for the resignation of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas in view of his virulent anti-Semitic speech before the Palestinian National Council. The Hamas “leaders” of the Gaza Strip have also proved incapable of providing for the needs of their own citizens—and both the West Bank and Gaza leadership need to be replaced by more enlightened and altruistic people—and the sooner the better.

As we savor this historic moment in Jewish history, we again offer the wish expressed by modern Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. Israel should advance once more its offer to the Arabs to live in peace and security, side by side in fulfillment of the United Nations Partition Plan, which called for the creation of separate Jewish and Arab States. 

If the prayer “Next Year in Jerusalem” can be fulfilled in our lifetime, can we also add the prayer that true peace can at last come to the ancient City of Peace? Let that prayer be on our lips as we celebrate this historic day!