A visit to the holiest site in Judaism gives a perspective on Jewish life through the ages.
Through a combination of factors, we found ourselves enjoying a staycation this summer. Not all carriers have returned to Israel, and the price of travel is exceptionally high. If one wants a direct flight with El-Al from Tel Aviv to JFK and back, travel websites will spit back prices over $11,000 per ticket. When multiple carriers flew that route and there was no war, such a trip might run $800. What we used to pay to fly to Vegas two years ago today would get us to Zurich with a plane change in Abu Dhabi.
Being at home, we played tourists and went to the Western Wall tunnels tour. It is an extraordinary spectacle to go back over 3,000 years of Jerusalem’s history in a little over an hour. Each generation simply built upon the ruins of its predecessors, so by going up or down, one might find himself looking at a wall from the First Temple period, that structure being destroyed by the Babylonians over 2,500 years ago. Then going further up, we found ourselves walking on massive floor tiles placed by Herod when he expanded and renovated the Second Temple nearly 2,100 years ago. A “spare” tile, weighing one ton, was propped up against the far end of the Western Wall, which runs nearly 500 meters along the Temple Mount. At the location archaeologists discovered a nine-meter high aqueduct, multiple cisterns for drinking water, over 200 “ritualariums” used to purify oneself prior to entering the Temple, and money from all over the world used to buy animals brought as sacrifices on the altar in the Second Temple. That building was destroyed by Titus in the year 70.
One of the many amazing sights was a stone in the Western Wall. Typical stones are about one meter on each side and weigh 3 tons. There is a massive stone sitting relatively high on the structure that is simply enormous. LIDAR studies have shown that it is a single stone in all three directions and its calculated weight is around 570 tons. The tour guide asked the obvious questions: how did they lift it in place? Why did they use this massive stone when the ones just under it are the usual type? The remains of a Roman wall can be seen in front of the massive stone.
It was very emotional to go back through so many years of both Jewish and world history. I am not a good candidate for emotions, as I can cry when somebody gets sent home from Master Chef. One can see both the glory and the destruction of the Jewish state of yore. At one point, we went by a cistern that had massive boulders sitting in the water. Our guide suggested that they most likely fell during the Roman destruction of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. Where is Mr. Spock when you need him, as he could have put his hands on the stones and they would have told them what they saw. Anyone, including Mahmud Abbas, who claims that the Jews have no connection to the land of Israel is a liar. Abbas said that the Temples were in Yemen. No, they were in Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount well before the present mosques, and there is endless archaeological material to support the same conclusion. Many people look at the Torah and Old Testament as a bunch of fables and myths. The historical record oftentimes does not support their claim. Josephus Flavius was right there during the time of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and is one of the few eye witnesses we have to the events that occurred at the beginning of modern history.
When we emerged from the tunnels we found ourselves in the heart of the Christian Quarter, directly facing the Via Dolorosa. One of the takehomes from the tour is that the Jewish people have experienced both periods of great success and horrific persecution. The glory of the two Temples, which were in use for over 800 years together, stands in contrast to the destruction of Jewish communities from Jerusalem to Warsaw to Be’eri in southern Israel. The modern state of Israel can rightfully claim that the Jews have always had a connection with the “land of Israel.” Even after the Jews were sent off to Rome, there were always some Jews living here. The historical connection of Jews to Israel is not the sole reason that there is today a modern state of Israel. Nobody would give Harvard Yard to an Indian tribe that could prove without doubt that its people lived where Widener Library is 150 years before Harvard was born. The modern state of Israel was created by Jews drawn back to their eternal homeland who bought and developed land and later fought multiple wars. The historical connection brought Jews here but nobody is going to give a group a piece of land because of who lived where 2,000 years ago. Jews returned and developed a desolate land. They next fought and won against five Arab armies, and the world has never forgiven them. As long as there have been Jews, there has been antisemitism. When Jews have succeeded and countries supported them, the hatred was hidden. But when Jews have been attacked, antisemitism seeps out in many forms.
The present Jew-hating has taken directions that would have surprised psychiatrists of any period:
*I see old white women banging on pots because Hamas said that there is a famine in Gaza when there is none—according to those who live there and see food prices dropping.
*I see a guy in a dress defacing a Dutch war memorial with “Never again is now”—a slogan stolen from the Jews and put up by a guy that Hamas would turn into a projectile if there were still any tall buildings left in Gaza.
*Jews themselves, straight, gay, or “trans” join forces with those who are actively promoting their death and destruction. Just as some Jews helped the Romans and the Nazis, so too today young Jews find more meaning demanding their own “intifada revolution” execution rather than side with their persecuted coreligionists.
*At a Serbian hotel, 37 Israeli passports were somehow thrown in the garbage, leaving the travelers without documents for their flights home.
*Israelis have been hounded and attacked in Greece, Austria, Italy and elsewhere whereas just two years ago nobody would have molested them. Restaurants are taking great pride in throwing Israelis out of their establishments to show how pro-Hamas they really are.
*Australia has refused visas for a pro-Israel Knesset member and a Zionistic blogger. A hair salon in Melbourne threw out a customer when he answered that he was from Israel.
*I hear more and more French as Macron’s government cannot rein in the Jew-hating of the Muslim immigrants taking over the country.
A dear friend of mine once compared notes on the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. Moving historically from one period to the next, both he and I noted that there were periods of around 50-100 years when the Jews had it good: peace, wealth, respect, acceptance. Then things went downhill for some period of time with destruction, death, fleeing for one’s life and hatred. The mass murder in Israel on October 7, 2023, ostensibly should have ushered in some period of sympathy and understanding. And in some quarters it certainly did. Joe Biden got right on a plane and came to show his support and American solidarity. But many saw the opportunity to let antisemitism out of the bottle. Muslims and their new friends on the left (whose debauched values Muslims despise) unleashed Jew hatred not seen since the days of World War II.
Jews have been around for thousands of years, with many ups and some downs. The present period will also pass and the Jewish people will continue marching together into the future.
Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the truth about the rise of anti-Semitism worldwide.
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