May 23, 2003

OU Celebrates Jerusalem Day with Special Website Program Featuring Remarks by Executive Vice President and International Director on Religious and Political Significance of Israel’s Capital

Thirty-six years ago, on the 28th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, “the Jewish people regained control of the holy city of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) and regained access to its holy places,” declares Orthodox Union Executive Vice President Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, an event he calls “a wonderful and miraculous experience, a wonderful and miraculous achievement.”

That achievement of the Six-Day War, commemorated annually on Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), will be observed this year on Thursday night, May 29th, and Friday, May 30 in OU synagogues. To enhance their celebration, Jews worldwide can visit the OU website, www.ou.org, and its special and comprehensive Yom Yerushalayim section.

OU synagogues will celebrate the day with special prayers, including in many cases the recitation of Hallel, which is said on the Festivals, Chanukah and the New Month.

Rabbi Weinreb’s remarks, together with those of Betty Ehrenberg, OU Director of International and Communal Affairs, are highlights of the website section, along with virtual tours of Jerusalem, photos of the capture of the Temple Mount by the Israel Defense Forces on June 5, 1967, and many opportunities for study among a variety of features.

In his presentation, Rabbi Weinreb discusses the religious significance of Jerusalem. The Hebrew word Yerushalayim consists of two words, he explains in his website video. There is yirah, which means fear or awe of God and is a spiritual term; then there is shalom, which is more of a political term, and which Rabbi Weinreb defines as “peace, harmony between peoples, the end of war, and opportunities for growth, security and development.” The religious significance of Jerusalem includes both aspects, he emphasizes.

For the believing Jew, Jerusalem is the focus of our yirah, Rabbi Weinreb declares. “Wherever we are in the world, in our prayers we pray towards Jerusalem.” Some ancient commentators, he explains, teach that when reciting the Silent Devotion (the Shemonah Esreh), one should bow when reciting the prayer for Jerusalem “in humble acknowledgement of the holiness of the city Jews pray for” and because it “is the focus of our religious attitude.”

“We focus on Yerushalayim, we yearn for Yerushalayim, it means so much in its religious significance,” Rabbi Weinreb says.

According to the Psalms there is a quality about Jerusalem which “helps unite the Jewish people. We know well how much we long for Jewish unity. Jerusalem is the symbol of this unity,” Rabbi Weinreb explains. However, Jerusalem possesses “a broader, universal shalom,” serving as a source of “peace on earth and for harmony among the nations.” That Jerusalem, however, “seems so far, far away,” he laments.

Rabbi Weinreb quotes Psalm 122, a song of ascents by David, in which we pray for the peace of Jerusalem and as Rabbi Weinreb describes it, “to see the good, the blessing, the bounty” of Jerusalem. This concept is “a sublime and supreme blessing for the Jewish people,” he declares.

“We pray to live to see peace upon the Jewish people,” Rabbi Weinreb says in a stirring ending to his remarks, we pray that for generations to come Jews will populate the streets and byways of Jerusalem, and on future Yom Yerushalayim’s will celebrate the dual symbolism of the city – its awe and universal peace.

In her remarks on the political aspects of Yom Yerushalayim, Betty Ehrenberg contrasts the unique stature Jerusalem holds for the Jews, mentioned as it is hundreds of times in the Bible, while for Moslems, Mecca and Medina surpass Jerusalem in holiness and the city is never mentioned in the Koran. “Jerusalem has been our holiest city for more than 3,000 years. Only in recent history have Moslems, the Palestinians, tried to claim Jerusalem as their capital,” she says.

Explaining that Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo “and never Jerusalem” have been historic Arab capitals, Ms. Ehrenberg declares that when Jordan controlled the eastern part of Jerusalem, from 1948 to the Six-Day War, Amman remained the capital of Jordan. She called on OU members “to help educate our community, political leaders, the heads of media outlets, as well as the public at large about the centrality of Jerusalem in Jewish life as the eternal, undivided capital of Israel.”

The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA, and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way. Its kosher supervision label, the , is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 250,000 products manufactured in 68 countries around the globe.

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