Israel's National Days of Honor

Apocalyptic Hope

ISRAEL'S NATIONAL DAYS of HONOR

Songs : the Hatikvah ( Our Hope )
Lyrics
Yerushalayim Shel Zahav - Jerusalem of Gold

May 5, 2008; Monday Nissan 30
1. Yom HaAliyah [Aliyah Day] is a day which celebrates the Aliyah of millions of Jews from the four corners of the Earth to the Jewish State of Israel,” Orenstein wrote. “[It] is a day which celebrates the undying will and spirit of the Jewish People throughout the 2,000 year Exile to return Home to the Land of Israel, as is expressed through Jewish tradition and heritage.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126054

A Rose --by any other name-- is still a rose
(and there are 144,000 of them :)
NEW MISSIONARY CAMPAIGN IN SHADOW OF BIBLE CONTEST CONTROVERSY
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz --Arutz 7 May 6, 2008

The Christian missionary organization known as "Jews for Jesus" is about to launch a new proselytizing campaign in Israel. Their redoubled effort to gain Jewish converts comes on the heels of a controversy over the participation of an Israeli girl who worships Jesus in the annual International Bible Contest, to be held on Independence Day in Jerusalem.
The family of Bat-El Levy, 17, the winner of the Jerusalem District Bible contest for secular public schools, is known to be active in a group whose members call themselves "Messianic Jews." Her success in the regional competition earned Bat-El a place among four students representing Israel in the Bible Contest finals on Independence Day, this Thursday. Dozens of Jewish youth come to Israel each year for the last leg of the Bible Contest.
In reaction to the participation of a worshiper of Jesus in the Bible Contest, the head of the anti-missionary organization Yad L'Achim sent a letter to rabbinical and lay leaders in the religious community last week calling for efforts to get Levy disqualified. Several rabbis agreed to call for a boycott of the contest if Levy was allowed to compete. Among the rabbis supporting the idea of a boycott are Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Chief Rabbi of Tzfat Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who is the son of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of the Shas party's spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Meir Mazuz, dean of Kissei Rachamim Yeshiva, Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin Rabbi Meir Druckman, and Har Hamor Yeshiva dean Rabbi Tzvi Tau.
In a letter to the Education Minister, Yuli Tamir, Knesset Member Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) asked last week that Levy be disqualified from the Bible Contest on the grounds that she is not Jewish according to the High Court of Justice. In cases relating to the Law of Return, granting automatic citizenship to Jewish immigrants, the High Court has ruled that those who profess the Christian faith will not be recognized as Jews regardless of their ethnic background. Furthermore, Porush said, the Bible Contest itself may be turned into a tool for Christian proselytizing among Jews, which is forbidden by law in Israel.
According to MK Porush, one of the goals of the annual Bible contest, officially called the International Bible Contest for Jewish Youth, is "to strengthen the religious awareness of the students and their appreciation of the Bible as the source of the fulfillment of the commandments and the religious lifestyle." Therefore, the competition is open only to Jews, which would exclude Jews who believe in or worship Jesus.
Levy Cannot Be Barred
In response to the controversy, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education said that because Levy is listed as Jewish in school records and in the Population Registry, she is Jewish for the purposes of the Bible Contest as well. Therefore, she cannot be barred.
Yad L'Achim has already sent letters about the situation to the Education Ministry, the Jewish Agency, which sponsors the events surrounding the contest, and to the Bible Contest organizers. The organization is now in touch with some of the contest participants, according to Yad L'Achim director Rabbi Shlomo Dov Lipschitz. He is hoping to convince them to boycott the contest, he said, although he realizes the difficulty in his request, considering the great efforts the students made to take part in the competition.
New Jews-for-Jesus Missionary Campaigns
Even as the Bible Contest controversy is reaching its apex, in a letter to supporters, the Jews for Jesus organization announced a series of new campaigns in Israel. "The campaigns are scheduled to begin in 2008 and continue through 2013," the missionary organization announced. "These campaigns could be the most important thing we in Jews For Jesus have ever done...."
Claiming that "only one tenth of one percent (.001)" of the Jews in Israel "believe in Jesus," the missionaries see a positive side in that Israel "is the only place in the world where - when we do street evangelism - we don't need to wonder who is Jewish. All we have to do is walk outside and talk to everyone we meet!"
There are about 8,000 people who worship Jesus and who claim to be Jews in Israel. Yad L'Achim says that there are over 100 missionary, or "Messianic", churches operating in Israel, representing various branches of Christianity.
A 'Spiritual' Hamas
Rabbi Tovia Singer, a leading lecturer countering the efforts of Christian missionaries, says that both the Messianic Judaism movement and Jews for Jesus have as their goal the elimination of Judaism and its replacement with Christianity as the faith of the Jewish people.
Jews for Jesus, Rabbi Singer explained, is in fact an international Baptist mission to the Jews. The organization "is trying to do to the Jews spiritually what Hamas is trying to do physically," he said.
The young Bible Contest competitor, Bat-El Levy, is part of "a parasitic movement" to convert Jews using the ruse of "infiltrating the Jewish community and co-opting Jewish cultural norms to present themselves as normative Jews" instead of as Christians, Rabbi Singer continued. It is "like having Arab members of Knesset dedicated to destroying the Jewish State," he quipped.
Levy's participation in the International Bible Contest "so important to them because they are desperate to be accepted as a normative denomination. It's a bait and switch," Rabbi Singer said.
Explaining the timing of the latest campaign announced by Jews for Jesus, Rabbi Singer said that it is part of an "unprecedented urgency" such evangelical groups feel "to convert as many Jews as possible." According to the rabbi, the reason for the sense of urgency among missionaries is that events in the Middle East, especially Iranian ascendancy and its threat to Israel, have enflamed "old-time Christian eschatology" requiring Jews to convert to Christianity in order for Jesus to return to Earth.
Rabbi Singer concluded that, in the evangelical Christian view, "in essence, the Jews are holding up the show."
Rabbi Singer has provided over 80 hours of audio recordings online presenting the Jewish perspective on, and reaction to, Christian missionary efforts among the Jews. Rabbi Singer also hosts a radio program, The Tovia Singer Show, on Israel National Radio. He recently immigrated to Israel.

2. Holocaust Remembrance Day --- Yom HaShoah ( 27 NISAN )
Six million Jews ; 5 million Gentiles ; 11 million made in the image of God

Virtual Jerusalem : Six-part Series, excellent
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/jewish_holidays/yomhashoa/home.htm
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/jewish_holidays/vjholidays.html
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/

Mark Twain "Concerning the Jews" http://www.csuohio.edu/tagar/twain.htm

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" (from Dante)
Holocaust and Concentration Camps--Trinity College, Western Australia
http://www.trinity.wa.edu.au/plduffyrc/subjects/sose/history/holocaust.htm
http://www.trinity.wa.edu.au/plduffyrc/

The Holocaust Chronicle: Facts and Figures
http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/HolocaustAppendices.html

Some 3,500 people from around the world, including 1,500 youths, will take part in the March of the Living along the three-kilometer route between Birkenau and Auschwitz. They will thus commemorate the Death Marches the Nazis forced Jews to take along the same route in the 1940's. Thousands of Jews perished in three of these Death Marches during the Holocaust years. The March of the Living, a loud proclamation that "Am Yisrael Chai" -" the People of Israel still live" - Arutz 7 --April 27, 2003
\http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=42494
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com

Holocaust Educational http://www.kimel.net/what.html

The Holocaust http://shamash.org/links/Holocaust/

Witnesses : Testimonies of Concentration Camp Survivors http://www.remember.org/witness/

Yad Vashem http://www.yad-vashem.org.il/

Poetry by Eva : " Holocaust "
" Israel Could You Forget ?" (Holocaust poem)
http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/P-004-Israel-Could-You-Forget.html
http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/Poetry.html
http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/index.html

Meditation www.uscj.org/metny/huntinhh/hashoah.html

Simon Wiesenthal Center http://motlc.wiesenthal.com

From Arutz 7 -- 2004
HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY: LONE SURVIVORS
Holocaust Remembrance Day will begin with an official state ceremony at 8 PM this evening in Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. Six Holocaust survivors will light torches, in memory of the more than six million Jews who were massacred in the Nazi Holocaust of 1939-1945. Commemorations will continue tomorrow with a two-minute siren in which almost the entire country will stand in silence or recite a prayer. Yad Vashem is continuing its quest to increase its records of the names of known Holocaust victims. At present, the names of only some three million victims are registered.

The stories of individual survivors whose families were decimated place in bold relief the national catastrophe of the Jewish People. For instance, Nissim Bechar, 84 years old, was sent at the age of 19 from his home in Greece to a concentration camp; his parents Yosef and Esther, as well as his married siblings Rivka, Leon, Jivia, Regina and Yehuda, and their spouses and children, were all murdered. Nissim immigrated to Israel in 1948, where he married Rivka, and is today the father of four children, and has 12 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Similarly, Tziporah Ehrenkrantz Levavi, 77, from a Hassidic home in Stry, Poland (eastern Galicia), was the only one to survive from her family of seven; her parents Hirsch Itche and Miriam, and her siblings Yossele, Sarah, Arele (Aharon) and Rachel, were all killed. Tziporah arrived in Israel in late 1945, completed her studies, went to a religious kibbutz, married Nachum Levavi - himself a lone survivor - and now has four children, 33 grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren. A resident of Masuot Yitzchak, she said,
"I don't know why I am counted among those few who survived, I don't know how I merited it. It's a question that occupies me and I don't have an answer. I would rather phrase the question like this: For what purpose did I remain alive? After I was saved, it was clear to me that there would be a purpose/meaning to my life only if it had significance - and this I found in coming to the Land, in the merit that I received to live during the period of the establishment of the State and to live in it, to live on a kibbutz and settle the Land; I merited to build a family and to live for 20 years with my husband Nachum of blessed memory who was a man of great faith, and in G-d's great kindness I merited having children and grandchildren who walk in the path of Torah and Avodah (Torah and Work), just as I had dreamt. 'I thank You, for You answered me, and You were a salvation for me.'"

Symbols http://www.acs.bg/Tolerance_museum/9_2/Site/files/projects2/projectli.htm

Two days in a row ...

3. Remembrance Day --- Yom Ha Zikaron ( 4 IYAR)
Remembering those who died fighting for Israel

REMEMBRANCE DAY, INDEPENDENCE DAY
Israel begins its annual two-day commemoration ceremonies of Remembrance Day and Independence Day this evening. A one-minute siren will be sounded throughout the country at 8 PM in memory of the fallen soldiers in Israel's wars and those who fell as victims of Arab terrorism.

A two-minute siren will be sounded nationwide tomorrow at 11 AM, at which time memorial ceremonies will take place at the country's 42 military cemeteries. Following the state ceremony for fallen IDF veterans at Mt.
Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, a ceremony for terrorism victims will be held there at 1 PM. The Kaddish prayer will be recited by Pinchas Elbaz, whose son Rafael fell in the line of military duty in 1981, and by
Tzvi Yehuda Dickstein, who lost his parents Yosef and Chanah and brother Shuva'el in a pre-Sabbath terror attack south of Hevron last July.

The number of terrorism victims in this past year, since last Independence Day, is 218, and over 5,500 people were wounded. The National Insurance Institute reports that some 3,000 people have been murdered in terrorist
attacks since 1948. The total number of fallen soldiers: 21,540.

Independence Day celebrations will begin tomorrow night throughout the country. A religious and national
holiday, it is a celebration of the renewal of the Jewish state in the Land of Israel, the birthplace of the
Jewish people. from Arutz 7

Excellent History Time Line www.centuryone.com/hstjrslm.html

Virtual Jerusalem
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/jewish_holidays/memorial/index.htm
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/jewish_holidays/vjholidays.html
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/

1948: The War for Independence http://www.adl.org/ISRAEL/Record/48war.asp

1973 : The Yom-Kippur War ...Poetry by Eva
http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/P-055-The-Yom-Kippur-War.html

Remembrance day http://www.israel-embassy.org.uk/web/pages/yomhaz.htm

1976: Victory at Entebbe : Operation Johnathan ( Netanyahu)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2786000/2786967.stm
http://glory.2him4him.com/html/body_operation_jonathan_.html

The Ideal in Special Forces Operations http://www.specwarnet.com/miscinfo/entebbe.htm

WHAT TO THINK WHILE THE SIREN WAILS
"There is great holiness to standing during the memorial siren... It is a mitzvah [religious obligation] to stand during the siren, as it shows gratefulness to - and appreciation for - the holy victims." So writes
Rabbi David Lachyani, Rabbi of the Ziv Hospital in Tzfat. Rabbi Lachyani explained to Arutz-7 today that there are those who feel that standing silently during the siren is a non-Jewish custom,
"but in fact it is rooted in the Torah, when Aharon 'stood in silence" [Leviticus 10,3] when two of his sons died. Aharon teaches that the proper Jewish reaction to loss and death is silence, and therefore this is what we
should do today as well. The minute-long siren, or two minutes, unites all of Israel in one action and one thought. I do not know of any other action that unites us to this extent."

Rabbi Lachyani said that he could understand the hesitations of those who fear this relatively new custom, or who fear that it is a mis-use of Torah-study time - but has constructive ideas on the topic:
"First of all, however, everyone can think his own thoughts during that minute, including a chapter of Psalms. But what we can truly do is to fill this minute with content. We know that the Ari Zal [the revered Kabbalist
teacher of 16th-century Safed] said that one should say, before the daily prayers, that he accepts upon himself to fulfill the commandment of loving his fellow neighbor. We can do the same here, and I in fact wrote up a
small prayer that I say before the siren. The prayer states that I commit to take upon myself, during the coming minute of silence, the Biblical commandments of loving my neighbor, of remembering what Amalek did, of
remembering 'the L-rd your G-d, [who] gives you the power to act...'

"...and there are other commandments that we can observe during those two
minutes: that of not speaking ill of anyone - just imagine that at that minute no one in Israel is speaking bad of anyone! - and the commandment of accepting G-d's justice, and of not separating ourselves from the public...
We are always searching for an opportunity for all of us to unite in something very positive - and here it is!"

4. Independence Day -- Yom HaAtzmaut (5 IYAR)
Isaiah 66:8 " a nation born in a day"

Virtual Jerusalem
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/jewish_holidays/independence/index.html
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/jewish_holidays/vjholidays.html
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/

Good Articles
http://www.aish.com/holidays/Israel_Independence_Day/holiday_page.asp

Israel--- A Miracle .... by Eva
http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/P-007-Israel-A-Miracle.html

The Rebirth of a Nation --Eva
http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/P-061-The-Rebirth-of-A-Nation.html

Israel's Dream Come True---Eva
http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/P-011-Israels-Dream-Come-True.html

Days Honored in Israel
www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/rz3a035/jew_fest.html

Many articles
http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00yf0

Independence Day : including a midi of "Hatikva" our HOPE ( National Anthem )
http://www.knesset.gov.il/holidays/eng/independence_day.htm

5.Jerusalem Day -- Yom Yerushalayim (28 IYAR)
"If I ever forget the thought of thee" Psalm 137: 5, 6

6-7-67 On June 7, 1967 - the 28th of Iyar, 5727, an IDF paratroopers force -- led by the late
Col. Motta Gur--- entered theTemple Mount, via Lions Gate on the eastern side, bringing the holy site under Jewish sovereignty for the first time in some 1,850 years.
"Har HaBayit b'yadeinu! - The Temple Mount is in our hands!"
Gur announced, in what was to become a famous and historic declaration.

Hear the famous declaration http://www.inn.co.il/metafiles/asx/jerusalem/liberationofjerusalem.asx
"Har HaBayit b'yadeinu! - The Temple Mount is in our hands!" can be heard at 3:33 minutes into the recording.
The shofar blasts by Rabbi Shlomo Goren can be heard at 5:40, as Motta Gur begins describing his feelings and the first Jewish entry to a radio reporter. Soldiers led by Rabbi Goren reciting the She'hecheyanu blessing can be heard at 7:35. Rabbi Goren recites the memorial prayer for the soldiers who fell at 8:50.

Arutz Sheva 2005 ....
Prof. Shalom Rosenberg: "I was in Argentina then, and the concern for the State of Israel encompassed the entire Jewish community there. There was great tension and fear, and suddenly we hear, 'The Temple Mount is in our hands!'
I think that the so-great excitement that we felt then was not only for the conquest of Jerusalem but also because
of the great salvation of all of Israel, and the amazing transformation from subjugation to redemption
On ..., Jerusalem Reunification Day, Jews around the world will be celebrating the
miraculous liberation of the entire eternal capital of Israel during the 1967 Six Day War.

The Shavuot[ Pentecost ] holiday of 1967 (5727), which followed the Six-Day War and the liberation of Jerusalem by only a few days, was the first holiday in 1,900 years in which masses of Jews congregated at the Western Wall. Arutz Sheva June 1-2006.

Virtual Jerusalem
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/jewish_holidays/JerusalemDay/index.htm
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/jewish_holidays/vjholidays.html
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/

An Explanation with Psalms
http://www.wujs.org.il/activist/learning/festivals/yom_yerushalayim/index.shtml

Jerusalem the Golden...Naomi Shemer
Beautiful Song ! Beautiful pictures ! Be blest !
www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/5493/jerusalem.html
In English: http://www.jerusalemofgold.co.il/translations.html

The Southern Wall: Beautiful Photo
Includes a midi of Naomi singing the words to Yerushalayim in Hebrew
http://members.cox.net/rss1910/southernwall.html

Pictures and Song http://www.coseti.org/www.oldsynagogues.org/jerusalem.htm

How "Jerusalem of Gold" came to be written http://www.jerusalemofgold.co.il

Arutz 7 Photo tour of unusual holy places in Jerusalem 2006... be blest
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=104436

Highlights of Jerusalem : Many, many photos and links
http://www.geocities.com/josephnow/

Jerusalem -- June, 1967 www.torah.org/learning/yomtov/jerusalem

To Jerusalem, City of the Great King, with Love by EVA, .... plus many more excellent selections of poetry
www.messianic-literary.com/eva.htm

Messianic Prophecy http://www.messianic-literary.com/prophecy.htm

Messianic Poetry http://www.messianic-literary.com/showcase.htm# ( note sidebar to left )

Yesterday and Today http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jerusalem/

Places in Jerusalem http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/festivls/jerusalem/jertour.html

Jerusalem was declared a united capitol on July 30, 1980
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Peace/Basic_Law_Jerusalem.html

There's A Better day Coming ! --Eva
http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/P-067-Theres-A-Better-Day-A-Coming.html

* * * *
Arutz Sheva 2005 :
Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen, Chief Rabbi of Haifa: "I was the last Jew to leave the Old City - wounded, on a stretcher, to Jordanian captivity. In 1967, when the war broke out, I requested of Gen. Rafael Vardi that if Jerusalem is re-conquered,
I would like to be the first citizen to return to it. As soon as they conquered the city, Gen. Vardi sent a jeep to the City Hall where I was at the time, and it brought me to the Old City. On the radio in the jeep I heard the recording of Motta Gur saying 'The Temple Mount is in our hands!', and then we entered the Old City, where I met my father-and-teacher the
Nazir [Rabbi David Cohen] and my teacher Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook, who had entered a few minutes before me."

JERUSALEM DAY --from Arutz Sheva 2003
Jerusalem Day commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem, Israel's capital, following the division of the city between 1948 and 1967. The Jerusalem Municipality's website states, "For three millennia Jerusalem has
been the heart of the Jewish people. Although throughout the years the city was under the rule of many nations, including the Assyrians, Persians and Romans, Jerusalem is the enduring center of Jewish belief and identity.
It has only ever been a capital city under Jewish rule. More recently, the Ottoman Turks ruled Jerusalem until December 1917, when it came under the control of the British.

"On November 29, 1947, the United Nations decided that the Land of Israel would be divided into two separate countries - one Jewish and one Arab. Jerusalem would belong to neither, holding special standing under the auspices of the U.N. The British mandate ended on May 15, 1948, at which time 7 Arab states declared war on the newly created Jewish State. The
cease-fire ending Israel's War of Independence left Jerusalem a divided city, with Jordan retaining control of the eastern portion encompassing the Old City and the Western Wall and Israel retaining the western side. The resulting border was 7 kilometers long from north to south, dividing neighborhoods and even private property. A concrete wall was erected on the
Israeli side against snipers.

"The Six Day War began on June 6, 1967. On June 8 - the 28th of the month of Iyar, according to the Hebrew calendar - Israeli forces broke through Lions' Gate to the Old City. On June 28, the Government of Israel
proclaimed the Reunification of Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel." The Chief Rabbinate recognized the 28th of Iyar as a religious holiday of thanksgiving.

The Central Bureau of Statistics announced today that there are 683,000 residents in the capital, representing over 10% of the national population. The average monthly household income is NIS 9,300, more than 2,000 shekels
less than the national average. One-third of the population is Arab. The average household has four children - 7 in hareidi families, and 4.5 children in Muslim households. 35% of the capital's residents are children under 15. In 2002, over 18,000 babies were born - 13% of the total number of babies born in Israel.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

SHARON ON JERUSALEM from Arutz Sheva May 30, 2003

Addressing a Jerusalem Day event at Ammunition Hill yesterday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stated that Jerusalem would never be compromised and the capital would remain undivided and under Israeli control, forever.

The following is a translation of the Prime Minister's speech: 2004

"It has been thirty-six years since there were barbed-wire fences in Jerusalem. The city is no longer strewn with minefields. No longer does the enemy watch us and spew fire from behind the city's walls and towers. Rather
than a threatened and divided city, Jerusalem is a united, splendidly built, lively and vibrant metropolis, which has regained its glory. The State of Israel owes this all to its heroic warriors. The price was heavy and extremely painful. However, the Jewish people can marvel at the wondrous fulfillment of the prophetic vision - dream and prayer - yearned for, for generations.

"This fortified hill on which we stand is soaked with blood. In the late hours of that terrible night, the ditches and crevices of this battlefield were engraved into the glorious history of Israel. Ever since then, and forevermore, shall this place be a blossoming garden, an oasis of memory.
Never again shall it know fire. Never again shall the enemy set foot in it.

"The State of Israel had no desire for war. The Government of Israel spared no effort in attempting to resolve the crisis by political means. The Arabs' fervor, arrogance and inflamed passions prevented any such resolution.
Israel's destruction was their heart's desire. Israel was forced into an inescapable war - a war of salvation.

"The liberation and unification of Jerusalem was the historic, crowning achievement of the entire campaign. On that day, the signal was given. The paratroopers and soldiers of the Jerusalem Brigade stormed the Old City,
scaled the Temple Mount and placed their hands on the stones of the Kotel. It was a time of release and elation, almost unparalleled in the history of Israel, and resonated in every Jewish heart. It was a time which will never be forgotten.

"Thirty-six years have gone by, and still, we must guard Jerusalem. We are engaged in an unrelenting battle against cruel terror, the purpose of which is to undermine our hold on the city. However, Jerusalem is more protected
now than it has ever been. Jerusalem is protected by a wall of love -built by the People of Israel over generations, wherever they may be. It is protected by the dedicated I.D.F. soldiers and commanders, police, border police and members of the security forces. It is protected by the clear and unequivocal commitment and policy of the Israeli Government. It is protected
by the full force and power of the free and sovereign State of Israel, of which Jerusalem is the beating heart and eternal capital. We will never relinquish Jerusalem. Ever.

"Today, on Yom Yerushalyim, as we stand on this site of heroism, we remember and cherish the soldiers and liberators of Jerusalem, the chain of leadership and command who directed the campaign to victory and the soldiers who fought on all fronts. Jerusalem was in all their hearts. Jerusalem was the secret of their victory.

"'Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, have I posted guardians; all the day and all the night, continuously, they will never be silent,' said the prophet. As Prime Minister of Israel, I am proud to have the privilege of being the
keeper of the unique, united and eternal Jerusalem. I intend to uphold the sanctity of this commitment, and I am certain that this sacred commitment will forever be upheld by the People of Israel."

* * * * * * * * *
CELEBRATING THE UNIFICATION OF JERUSALEM -- 2004, Arutz Sheva
Today is Jerusalem Day, commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem, Israel's capital, and bringing it under full Jewish sovereignty for the first time in almost precisely 1,900 years.

The Jerusalem Municipality's website www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_main/f1_main.asp?lng=2

A memorial ceremony for the 776 soldiers who fell during the Six Day War in 1967 was held this afternoon at the Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem. 182 soldiers were killed in the battle for Jerusalem.

Close to 500 people commemorated the special day at the Yeshivat Beit Orot www.beitorot.org neighborhood
on the Mt. of Olives with singing, dancing and an elaborate thanksgiving dinner. Yeshiva founder Rabbi Benny Elon, who is now Israel's Tourism Minister, spoke about the significance of the day not only as Jerusalem Day, but also as the day on which Jewish sovereignty returned to Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Beit Orot, the first living Jewish presence in 2,000 years on Mt. of Olives, is at the forefront of practical efforts to secure historic Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel and the Jewish people.

Yeshiva students from all around the country converged on different Jerusalem yeshivot to celebrate the day. Students from Torah HaChaim in N'vei Dekalim, the Atzmonah pre-military academy, the Ramat Gan hesder yeshiva and elsewhere heard lectures and danced at Yeshivat HaKotel, for example, while students of Ohr Etzion, Shadmot Mechola, Nahariya and Har Bracha were hosted at Beit Orot. Junior high school and high school students from all over Israel also visited the capital in honor of the occasion.

________________________________________________________

In addition, the 28th of Iyar is the traditional date of the death of the prophet Samuel. His gravesite, known as
"Nebi Samuel", lies just north of Jerusalem, and was also liberated during the Six Day War. Arutz-7's Adir Zyk writes in B'Sheva that until 1730, the gravesite was under Jewish ownership, and that each year on this day, thousands of Jews would hold a Lag BaOmer/Meiron-type event there.

In 1730, however, "Jerusalem Mufti Muhammad Al-Halili managed to steal the site's ownership, closed the grave, and forbade Jews from entering the area. The traditional commemorations stopped, and [after a while] the individual Jews who arrived had to pay the Arab guard to let them in. Because of the strategic importance of the site, fierce battles were waged there during World War I and the War of Independence. The Six Day War conquest of Nebi Samuel restored us the ownership of the site." Arutz Sheva, 2004

Jerusalem: The Christian Perspective
Majestic Song: "The Holy City" (Jerusalem, Jerusalem...lift up your gates and sing)
http://junior.apk.net/~bmames/ht0239_.htm

Marching Upwards to Zion
www.tagnet.org/digitalhymnal/en/dh422.html

Jerusalem, Jerusalem
http://rockhay.tripod.com/sermons/2001/01-03-11.htm

Heavenly Jerusalem
www.thehope.org/RHJ4.htm

Bonus: Israeli Flowers
http://www.web2000.com/flowers-israel/default.htm

Salvation www.cybertime.net/~ajgood/sal.htm

Bible www.blueletterbible.org