By Judy Lash Balint
JERUSALEM — The amplified wail of the muezzin from the Al Aksa mosque on the Temple Mount couldn’t drown out the celebrations that rang out over Jerusalem Wednesday night.
From every corner of the Old City, youthful voices joined in singing all the classic Six-Day War songs as the city celebrated the 44th anniversary of reunification.
The sounds of prayer and thanksgiving at the Kotel rised up above the ancient walls–no longer the ‘wailing wall’ of years past when others ruled Jerusalem. Hundreds of groups of energetic teenagers clad in blue and white danced in front of the Kotel and clogged the approaches to the Old City.
They came to the capital, along with thousands of others, to join with various army bands, street performers and musicians who all wound their way through the center of the city and then dispersed amongst the myriad of events that marked the opening of Jerusalem Day.
The main challenge of the day was getting anywhere. With roads closed throughout the city center, driving was out of the question. Many bus routes suspended operations for a couple of hours during the parade, and getting close to the Old City was virtually impossible except on foot, so the masses took to the streets in a jovial mass of Jerusalem humanity.
Beit Orot, the hesder Yeshiva on the Mount of Olives celebrated Yom Yerushalayim in its usual festive manner, with an all-night event. Traditionally known as THE happening Jerusalem Day party place for the national religious yeshiva crowd, this year’s festivities upheld its reputation. The bands stopped playing around 4:30 a.m. when the young crowd picked up their flags to retrace the footsteps of the paratroopers of 1967. They walked down the same road from the Mt of Olives, turning left at the Kidron Valley and following the Jericho Road as far as Lion’s Gate where they climbed the hill to enter the Old City, just like the paratroopers did 44 years ago. The students generally made it to the Kotel in time for the Vatikin early morning prayers. Forty-four years ago, it was midday as the IDF soldiers made their way down from their conquest of the Temple Mount to become the first Jews in 19 years to gain access to the Kotel.
For the Ethiopian community, Jerusalem Day has evolved into a memorial day. Thousands of Ethiopian Jews who trekked through Sudan and the Ethiopian countryside to take part in Operations Solomon (1991) and Moses (1984) died before they saw Jerusalem. Their relatives marked the day with prayer and ceremonies in the Holy City.
The festivities and commemorations continued all day with the flag parade culminating in a swirl of dancing and celebrating at the Kotel; the official memorial ceremony at Ammunition Hill for the fallen soldiers who helped liberate Jerusalem; the Mayor’s annual open house reception at the Tower of David and the awarding of the prestigious Yakiray Yerushalayim prizes to Jerusalemites who have made a special contribution to the city.
For one day, at least, we ignored the security concerns and political realities (even though it’s hard to swallow the fact that not a single country in the world maintains an embassy in Israel’s capital and that EU and US officials never attend Jerusalem Day observances) and we focused on the miracle that restored the Jewish people to the city that King David declared as his capital so many thousands of years ago.
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Balint is a freelance writer based in Jerusalem, whose stories are filed on her website, Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times. She may be contacted at judy.balint@sdjewishworld.com