Israel Marks Six-Day War's 46th Anniversary

By Tzippe Barrow
CBN News Internet Producer - Jerusalem
Wednesday, June 05, 2013



JERUSALEM, Israel -- Forty-six years ago Wednesday, Israeli pilots carried out a preemptive strike on the Egyptian Air Force, effectively grounding the entire fleet.

For the next six days, the Jewish state would fight a fierce war against Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, which joined two days into what became known as the Six-Day War.

When the fighting ended on June 10, 1967, Israelis had much to be thankful for.

After 2,000 years, Jerusalem was reunited under Jewish sovereignty, along with the Golan Heights and Judea and Samaria -- called the West Bank under Jordanian occupation, a label that persists today.

No longer would Jews be denied access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City. No longer would Syrian snipers target Israeli farmers in the Hula Valley.

Israel also captured the Sinai Peninsula, but despite investing heavily in its development for more than a decade, ceded the peninsula within the framework of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.

The modern nation-state had shown the world it could and would defend its right to exist.

More wars would be fought and won over the next 46 years. Yet today, neighboring Arab countries -- and much of the world for that matter -- harbor seemingly unending resentment against the Jewish homeland.

For many, Zionism has become a dirty word. Israeli towns and cities outside the 1948 armistice lines, along with Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, are called "settlements," as if they were some kind of illegal, transient thing instead of home to 350,000 Jewish residents.

Late last month, Jordan announced it would exclude Israel from its upcoming military drill whose purpose is "to increase the level of coordination among civil, military and humanitarian organizations" as well as boost "cooperation among the participating states…," The Jordan Times reported.

According to Amman, some 15,000 soldiers from "friendly countries," including the United States, Great Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, will take part in "Eager Lion 2013."

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson told CBN News Israel wasn't meant to participate in this exercise. The real question, he said, is why Jordan felt the need to emphasize Israel's exclusion.

"Beyond the rumors, there is security cooperation between the two parties on various issues," Hirschson said. "We were never meant to be part of this drill. We weren't going to be from the beginning."

Nonetheless, many of these "friendly" countries would see Israel return to the pre-1967 borders (1948 armistice lines), which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled "indefensible," and Tourism Minister Uzi Landau called "Auschwitz borders," a concept put forth by the late Abba Eban.

"Before 1967, they [Palestinian Arabs] didn't have Katyusha rockets and missiles to the extent owned today by Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, which constitute a strategic threat to Israel," Landau said in a recent interview.

Meanwhile, Iran is moving toward nuclear weapons capability as it continues to arm, train and fund Islamist groups in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, while vowing to wipe Israel off the map.

While no one wants peace more than Israelis, history has shown that has never come easily.

The Zionist Message Hidden within Antique Pictures of the Holy Land

Journal Article Abstract: The Zionist Message Hidden within Antique Pictures of the Holy Land
By Lenny Ben-David

Abstract reprinted from the Jewish Political Studies Review, May 1, 2013

A 110-year-old trove of pictures taken by the Christian photographers of the American Colony in Jerusalem provides dramatic proof of thriving Jewish communities in Israel.





Hundreds of pictures show the ancient Jewish community of Jerusalem’s Old City and the Jewish pioneers and builders of new towns and settlements in the Galilee and along the Mediterranean coastline. The American Colony photographers recorded Jewish holy sites, holiday scenes and customs, and they had a special reason for focusing their lenses on Yemenite Jews.





The collection, housed in the U.S. Library of Congress, also contains photographs from the 1860s, the first years of photography. These photographs provide a window rarely opened by historians—for several unfortunate reasons—to view the life of the Jews in the Holy Land. The photographs’ display and online publication effectively counters the biased narrative claiming that the Jewish state violently emerged ex novo in the mid-twentieth century.

Read the full article and view the photographs here.

Shmuel from Russia

Shmuel Carmeli and Jerusalem friend

In my opinion, life is about people. I would like to introduce you to Shmuel Carmeli. Born 1934 in Austria. 

In 1944 with the Soviets pushing their offensive on the Nazis eastern front, Shmuel's mother, sisters and extended family were shipped to Aushwitz to be murdered. His father and brother took to the woods and met up with Jewish partisans running illegal "teen immigration" past the British naval blockade of the soon to be formed nation of Israel.

This 10 year old dodged Austrian Nazi death squads and fearing conscription into the advancing Soviet infantry Shmuel and his brother linked up with what would become Israel's Mossad and boarded a ship to Israel.

Upon arrival, he settled in Tel Aviv and was given an ID number and was placed in a kibbutz for the children from Europe to learn Hebrew and build a new life.

Shmuel witnessed the rebirth of Israel. In 1967, Shmuel was a member of the Jerusalem Brigade that fought the Jordanian army from the UN complex in Jordanian controlled east Jerusalem into the the Abu tor wadi ( now called the Forest of Peace) up the ridges of Mt Zion to recapture the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

When not in uniform Shmuel spent his entire career working as a youth worker for the city of Jerusalem .

Shmuel told me that: "Every Jew has a Hagadah and an Agada. I have just shared a portion of his Agada.

(Hagadah is our Passover story
Agada is our personal story.)

Shabbat Shalom!


לכל יהודי יש הגדה ואגדה

A friend From Jerusalem.
Friday, May 17, 2013

1967: Reunification of Jerusalem

1967: Reunification of Jerusalem

Despite Israel’s appeal to Jordan to stay out of the war, Jordanian forces fired artillery barrages from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Although Israeli forces did not respond initially, not wanting to open up a Jordanian front in the war, Jordan continued to attack and occupied UN headquarters in Jerusalem.   Israeli forces fought back and within two days managed to repulse the Jordanian forces and retake eastern Jerusalem. (For more details, see War: Jordanian Front)   Israeli paratroopers at the Western Wall On June 7, 1967, IDF paratroopers advanced through the Old City toward the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, bringing Jerusalem’s holiest site under Jewish control for the first time in 2000 years.   There are sound recordings of the scene, as the commander of the brigade,Lt. General Mordechai (Motta) Gur, approaches the Old City and announces to his company commanders, “We’re sitting right now on the ridge and we’re seeing the Old City. Shortly we’re going to go in to the Old City of Jerusalem, that all generations have dreamed about. We will be the first to enter the Old City...” and shortly afterwards, “The Temple Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands!”   General Rabbi Shlomo Goren, chief chaplain of the IDF, sounded the Shofar at the Western Wall to signify its liberation. To Israelis and Jews all over the world, this was a joyous and momentous occasion. Many considered it a gift from God.     Israeli Reaction to the Recapture of the Western Wall and the Old City of Jerusalem “For some two thousand years the Temple Mount was forbidden to the Jews. Until you came — you, the paratroopers — and returned it to the bosom of the nation. The Western Wall, for which every heart beats, is ours once again. Many Jews have taken their lives into their hands throughout our long history, in order to reach Jerusalem and live here. Endless words of longing have expressed the deep yearning for Jerusalem that beats within the Jewish heart..You have been given the great privilege of completing the circle, of returning to the nation its capital and its holy center...Jerusalem is yours forever.” –Commander Motta Gur to his brigade upon their recapture of Jerusalem’s Old City and holy sites “We have returned to all that is holy in our land. We have returned never to be parted from it again.” –Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, upon reaching the Western Wall “The Wall was before us. I trembled. There it was as I had known it—immense, mighty, in all its splendor...overcome, I bowed my head in silence.” –General Uzi Narkiss, Head of Central Command during the Six Day War “I felt truly shaken and stood there murmuring a prayer for peace. Motta Gur’s paratroopers were struggling to reach the Wall and toudh it. We stood among a tangle of rugged, battle-weary men who were unable to believe their eyes or restrain their emotions. Their eyes were moist with tears, their speech incoherent. The overwhelming desire was to cling to the Wall, to hold on to that great moment as long as possible.” –Chief of Staff Yitzchak Rabin “I am speaking to you from the plaza of the Western Wall, the remnant of our Holy Temple. ‘Comfort my people, comfort them, says the Lord your God.’ This is the day we have hoped for, let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation. The vision of all generations is being realized before our eyes: The city of God, the site of the Temple, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, the symbol of the nation’s redemption, have been redeemed today by you, heroes of the Israel Defense Forces. By doing so you have fulfilled the oath of generations, ‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning.’ Indeed, we have not forgotten you, Jerusalem, our holy city, our glory. In the name of the entire Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora, I hereby recite with supreme joy, Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has kept us in life, who has preserved us, and enabled us to reach this day. This year in Jerusalem – rebuilt! “ –General Shlomo Goren, Chaplain of the Israeli Defense Forces, at the Western Wall       In a statement at the Western Wall, Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan indicated Israel’s peaceful intent and pledged to preserve religious freedom for all faiths in Jerusalem: To our Arab neighbors we extend, especially at this hour, the hand of peace. To members of the other religions, Christians and Muslims, I hereby promise faithfully that their full freedom and all their religious rights will be preserved. We did not come to Jerusalem to conquer the Holy Places of others. Before visiting the Western Wall, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol met with the spiritual leaders of different faiths in his office and issued a declaration of peace, assuring that all holy sites would be protected and that all faiths would be free to worship at their holy sites in Jerusalem.   He declared his intention to give the spiritual leaders of the various religions internal management of their own Holy Sites. Defense Minister Dayan immediately ceded internal administrative control of the Temple Mount compound to the Jordanian Waqf (Islamic trust) while overall security control of the area was maintained by Israel. Dayan announced that Jews would be allowed to visit the Temple Mount, but not to hold religious services there.   Dayan also gave immediate orders to demolish the anti-sniping walls, clear the minefields and removed the barbed-wire barriers which marked the partition of Jerusalem. Within weeks, free movement through Jerusalem became possible and hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews flocked to the Old City to glimpse the Western Wall and touch its stones.   Israeli Muslims were permitted to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock for the first time since 1948. And Israeli Christians came to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.   On June 27, 1967, the Israeli Knesset extended Israel’s legal and administrative jurisdiction to all of Jerusalem, and expanded the city’s municipal borders. Eshkol again assured the spiritual leaders of all faiths that Israel was determined to protect the Holy Places.   The Knesset passed the Protection of Holy Places Law granting special legal status to the Holy Sites and making it a criminal offence to desecrate or violate them, or to impede freedom of access to them. Jerusalem became a reunified city that ensured freedom of religion and access to holy sites for all.   The religious freedoms enjoyed by Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the reunified Jerusalem had been un heard of during Jordanian occupation of the city, prompting even a former Jordanian ambassador to the United Nations, Adnan Abu Odeh, to acknowledge that "the situation in Jerusalem prior to 1967 [under Jordanian rule] was one of ... religious exclusion" whereas post-1967, Israel seeks "to reach a point of religious inclusion ..." (The Catholic University of America Law Review, Spring 1996).   http://www.sixdaywar.org/content/ReunificationJerusalem.asp

HisStory

He came among us.

He expressed His Love 

for us.

He died on our behalf...

...and showed that
HE IS
the Lamb of God,  

the Lion of the Tribe
of Judah.

He rose from the dead, 

to fulfill the Messianic prophecies.

HE IS ALIVE!

When He returns, 

He will come through 

the Golden Gate of Jerusalem. 

Nothing will stop Him.

Be blessed 

in your believing.

Yeshua HaMashiach

Jesus the Messiah

Tourists Flock to Israel on Good Friday - Inside Israel - CBN News - Christian News 24-7 - CBN.com

Tourists Flock to Israel on Good Friday - Inside Israel - CBN News - Christian News 24-7 - CBN.com

Photos: Old City of Hevron Attracts 15,000 Visitors

Photos: Old City of Hevron Attracts 15,000 Visitors

Over 15,000 people visited Hevron on Wednesday and more are expected on Thursday.

 

Israel National News,  3/28/2013

מערת המכפלה

דוברות היישוב היהודי בחברון

Hebron's Jewish community hosted over 15,000 people  on Wednesday and more are expected on Thursday. Ohel Yitzhak, the Isaac and Rebecca Hall is open to the public.

The hall is located in the ancient Cave of Machpelah complex. Visitors took part in sightseeing tours of the historic city including the Cave of Otniel ben Knaz and the Tomb of Avner ben Ner, and modern sites such as the Hebron Heritage Museum at Beit Hadassah, the Avraham Avinu synagogue,  and other places.

On Thursday the the Hebron community will hosts tens of thousands at the annual Passover music festival, with  performances from top name acts. New York based singer Lipa Schmeltzer will headline the concert along with local musicians Haim Israel, Udi Davidi, the Kinderlach, Yishai Lapidot, Amiran Dvir, Benyamin Landau, Nadav Gilad, Ohad Mashiach and more.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/166618

 

 

Solomon's Quarry

Beneath the Old City of Jerusalem Lies a Huge Cave. Does It Date Back To King Solomon or King Zedekiah?

 

Five men in "Solomon's Quarry," circa 1910. Another picture
of the group can be found here

 

Beneath the Old City of Jerusalem, not far from the Damascus Gate, is the entrance to an enormous cavern, one of the largest man-made caves in Israel. The American Colony photographers visited the cavern 100 years ago.

From the cave's entrance to the end is 300 meters; its width is 100 meters, and its height in some parts is 15 meters tall. The total size is estimated to be five acres.

Solomon's Quarry tourists (circa 1910)

And the cavern, which was used to quarry limestone blocks, dates back 3,000 years.

According to legend, King Solomon may have taken blocks from the cave to build the First Temple (circa 950 BCE). While archaeologists are sceptical, there is little doubt that King Herod (circa 50 BCE) quarried stone for building his massive expansion of the Second Temple, including what we call today the Western Wall.


"Hanging pillar" in Solomon's
Quarry (circa 1910)


Another legend claims that King Zedekiah of Judah (circa 586 BCE) fled from the Babylonian conquerors through the cave. Talmudic literature dating back to the 2nd - 3rd century CE refers to Zedekiah's Cave.

The quarry was used throughout the Middle Ages, but it was sealed in the 16th century by Suleiman the Magnificent to prevent enemy infiltration under the Old City.

Open & Shut, Open & Shut...

The cave remained sealed and undiscovered until 1854 when, according to another legend, missionary Dr. J. T. Barclay was walking his dog outside of Damascus Gate. The dog ran down a hole that had been opened after heavy rains. Barclay followed him in and discovered the massive cavern.

Entrance to Solomon's Quarry
(circa 1900)

In the 1880s a German cult took over the cave until they were removed by Turkish authorities. In 1893 the Turks sealed the entrance once again.

To secure stones for a clock tower the Turks were building at Jaffa Gate they reopened the quarry in 1907. Presumably, the American Colony photos are from that period because the cave was sealed again in 1914 during World War I. 

Ad: "Entrance to Zedekiah's Cave
From now residents of Jerusalem will
pay 3 grush per person. Groups of 10
pay 25 ..."

An advertisement announcing tours and admission rates to the Cave appeared in a Hebrew paper Hatzvi during this period, in April 1909.



The Quarry as a bomb shelter (1940s)

During the British Mandate Zedekiah's Cave was reopened and actually converted to a bomb shelter during World War II. The cavern was closed again in 1948 by the Jordanian authorities because of its location along the Jordan-Israel armistice line.
In 1967, after the reunification of Jerusalem, Israel reopened the cavern.

Read this excellent description of the cave written by Thomas Friedman when he was serving as The New York Times' Jerusalem bureau chief in 1985.

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2012/09/beneath-old-city-of-jerusalem-lies-huge.html

 

 

Pictures Beneath the Temple Mount Now Online

Pictures Beneath the Temple Mount Now Online
The Israel Antiquities Authority Pictures Taken after the 1927 Earthquake
Israel's History - A Picture A Day

Library of Congress caption from the American Colony
Collection: "The Temple area. The Double Gate.
Ancient entrance to Temple beneath al Aqsa." Note the
staircase that apparently led to the surface and the
Temple plaza

In October 2012, we published here "What Is behind the Mysterious Sealed Gates of Jerusalem's Old City?" 

The essay showed two incredible 85-year old photographs of columns and chambers under the Temple Mount from the archives of the Library of Congress/American Colony collection of photographs. The captions under the pictures read "The Temple area, the Double Gate. Ancient entrance to Temple beneath al Aqsa." The pictures were taken between 1920 and 1933, according to the caption.

We theorized in October that the American Colony photographer gained access to the area under the al Aqsa Mosque, partially destroyed in the 1927 earthquake. 

Nadav Shragai, a scholar on Jerusalem sites, reported in a Yisrael HaYom article last year, that Robert Hamilton, director of the British Mandate Antiquities Authority, had explored under the mosque at the time. He "photographed, sketched, excavated and analyzed" what he saw. But he promised the Islamic Authorities, the Waqf, that he would make "no mention of any findings that the Muslims would have found inconvenient" such as findings from the time of the Jewish Temples. 

IAA Hamilton collection. Inside the
"Double Gate Pendenture"



From the IAA Hamilton collection. Inside the "Double Gate" of
the southern wall of the Temple Mount. It is clearly the same arch
in the picture taken by the American Colony photographer.

















After 1948 the British Mandate Antiquities Authority became the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and after the 1967 war the old archives in the Rockefeller Museum also came under Israeli control.

Flight of stairs (on the right side) leading into a rock-cut passage

This week, the IAA posted hundreds of photographs online, apparently from Hamilton's collection.  The pictures lack the notations and captions available on the Library of Congress photos, but it is clear that some of the pictures were taken at the same time.  The IAA undertook a painstaking task of digitalizing tens of thousands of documents, maps and photographs from the 1919-1948 period.

More study of the IAA photographs is required, especially to identify some of Hamilton's reported finds, including a Jewish mikve, a ritual bath, under al Aqsa.  The photos show columns, cisterns, passageways, mosaics, arches, timbers, and layers of ruins beneath the al Aqsa flooring.

We anxiously await the commentary of Israeli archaeologists, but we share with readers now some of the amazing pictures.

Click on pictures to enlarge.  Click on caption to see the original.


Vault found. Note pier on left





Cistern



Trench dug in the flooring. Note levels beneath it




Note the levels

  

Remains of a mosaic found



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Jerusalem's First Photographer

Who Was the 19th Century American Preacher Mendenhall John Dennis?

Actually, He Was a Jerusalem Watchmaker Named Mendel Deniss, Jerusalem's First Photographer

Mendenhall John Dennis in the center surrounded by his family in 1885. After 1860
he lived in Ohio, Massachusetts and Washington. Before 1860 he was Mendel
Diness of Jerusalem  (With permission of Special Collections, Fine
Arts Library, Harvard University)

A version of this article appeared in the Times of Israel on December 26, 2012

In 1988, John Barnier visited a garage sale in St. Paul, Minnesota.  There he found and purchased eight boxes of old photographic glass plates.  Fortunately, Barnier is an expert in the history of photographic printing.

He had little idea that he had uncovered a historic treasure. Later, he viewed the plates and saw that they included old pictures of Jerusalem.  He contacted the Harvard Semitic Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for its large collection of old photographs from the Middle East.

On some of the plates they found the initials MJD. Until then the name Mendel Diness was barely known by scholars.  It was assumed that with the exception of one or two photos his collection was lost.


The Western Wall, photographed by Diness. Unlike most early
photographers of the Wall, Diness pointed his camera to the south
 and not to the north. (With permission of Special Collections,
 Fine Arts Library, Harvard University. 1859)



 

 

Thanks to the research of historians and curators Dror Wahrman, Nitza Rosovsky and Carney Gavin, the Diness collection was saved from obscurity, and an amazing tale was revealed:  American Christian preacher Mendenhall John Dennis and Jerusalemite yeshiva student and watchmaker Mendel Diness were one and the same. 

Diness was born in Odessa in 1827 into a religious Jewish family. As a boy he apprenticed as a watchmaker; as a teen he went to study in Heidelberg and was influenced by the anti-religious "enlightenment movement."  His concerned father sent him to Palestine in 1848 to a yeshiva to strengthen his Jewish faith.

But in 1849 he met a Christian missionary who started him on his path to Christianity. His conversion caused a major controversy in the Old City of Jerusalem.  Diness was excommunicated from the Jewish community, lost his business, and was forced to divorce his wife, Shayndel Reisa, who was from a hassidic Chabad family in Hebron.

Enlargement of Jews at the Wall



Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem under construction, beneath
Moshe Montifiore's windmill. The building project was the first
Jewish neighborhood built outside of the Old City (1860,
Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University.)










Diness was taken in by Christian missionaries and families, including the British Consul, James Finn, who baptized the new convert.  His wife, Elizabeth Finn, a fan of the new photography art, was close to a Scottish missionary, James Graham, who taught Diness the new field of photography.  It was not simply a question of learning to press a button on a camera, but it involved a lengthy and difficult process of preparing emulsions and plates (not film), mastering light, exposures and the science of developing the pictures.


A portrait of missionary James
Graham taken by Diness. It is
not a portrait of Diness as
claimed by some collections
(1857)

By 1856, Mendel Diness was photographing on his own.  By the end of the decade, however, other photographers had flocked to Jerusalem, and Diness found the competition daunting.  In 1861, he moved to the United States with his new wife, the daughter of a Jewish doctor who had converted to Christianity.  Diness was unsuccessful as a photographer in Cincinnati, Ohio and became a peripatetic preacher, renamed as Mendenhall John Dennis.

How did the Dennis/Diness' collection end up in St. Paul?  When he died in 1900 his belongings were apparently sent to his daughter in New Jersey. When her daughter died, a grandson cleaned out her attic and took the crates to Minnesota.  The family was unaware of Dennis/Diness' Jerusalem photography background.


The Damascus Gate photographed by Diness (Special
Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, circa 1856)


A footnote: Diness was not the only Jewish photographer in the Holy Land who converted to Christianity.  Peter Bergheim, a German Jew who converted in the 1830s in England, arrived in Palestine in 1838. He worked as pharmacist and then opened a bank. In 1859 he became an accomplished photographer, apparently working for the British Ordnance Survey team. (His works appear frequently in these pages.) 

Elijah Meyers
(circa 1910)

 

 

 

 

 

Several years later Elijah Meyers, a Bombay, India Jew who converted to Christianity, appeared on the scene.  He was the founder and director of the American Colony Photo Department in 1898, but "he had been taking photographs before he became connected to the American Colony," according to a Colony publication.  He trained a team in the art of photography and documented the visit of the German Kaiser in 1898 with pictures sold around the world.  According to sources at the Library of Congress, Meyers was hired by Theodor Herzl to photograph Jewish settlements prior to the 1899 Zionist Congress in Basel.

 

 

 

 

 

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Celebrating Jesus and Israel’s restoration on Mount Zion

Wednesday, December 26, 2012 |  David Lazarus, Israel Today  

 

 

Jewish followers of Jesus in a community on Mount Zion celebrated their silver anniversary this week behind the closed doors of a 200-year-old chapel nestled within Jerusalem’s Old City walls.

Some 300 worshippers gathered in prayer, scripture and song to retell the story of Israel’s restoration to her city and to her Messiah King.

The Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem. Zechariah 1:17

As with most Messianic congregations in Israel, the story of the Community of the Lamb on Mount Zion began when a Jew had a divine encounter with Jesus. Only this time there were two Jews, brothers Reuven and Benjamin Berger, the sons of an Orthodox religious family of Holocaust survivors from New York.

After coming to faith, the Berger brothers left their yeshiva, bid farewell to family and friends, and followed Jesus’ calling back home to Israel.

“It was like the children of Jacob carrying the bones of Joseph back to the land,” said Reuven. “It was a homecoming for us back to our land, our people and our God.”

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem... Psalm 137:5

“Our lives and our Community are the fruit of the devotion and prayers of all those who went before us,” declared Reuven to the attentive crowd. The story of the Community of the Lamb on Mount Zion includes people like Theodore Hertzl and his vision and work for the restoration of Israel in the 1800s, 19th century Messianic Rabbi Michael Solomon Alexander who founded the Jerusalem sanctuary now serving the Community, and Alfred Sawyer, the Anglican minister who invited the Berger brothers “to begin a Messianic Jewish congregation in Jerusalem in order to fulfill the vision of this church.”

Those who sow in tears will reap with joy bringing in the sheaves. Psalm 126:5

Those hopes and dreams for a Messianic community in Jerusalem also brought many hard times. “There were years of distress, turmoil and dismay,” Reuven shared. “There were times when we felt crushed. But we know that even this was all part of God’s pruning, purifying and preparing us,” he continued. “We never lost hope over the years, nor our sense of calling to be part of the restoration of Israel. God must do a deep work in all of us who serve him here in Jerusalem.”

Benjamin Berger added: “It is a miracle that there is a Messianic Jewish congregation here in the Old City of Jerusalem. Right over there is the place where the Apostles gathered on Mount Zion,” he pointed out. “God has raised us up from the dead to continue the work for the salvation of Israel and to bring the glory of God back to Zion.”

Local Messianic Jews have their work cut out for them, said Benjamin. “We need much more power and grace from God to show our people the true face of Yeshua. The city of Jerusalem is becoming more and more religious,” he explained.

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion... Psalm 126:1

One clear demonstration of God’s power and grace at work in the Community was the moving testimony of a young Israeli man.

“I was homeless, living on the streets of the Old City,” he said. “Drugs, alcohol, crime and prison had ruined my life. I was paranoid and desolate.”

Some of the members from the Community of the Lamb picked him up and brought him into the fellowship.

 “Reuven would sit next to me and hold me so I couldn’t leave until the end of the message,” he recalled.

“The love I felt in this community touched me so much. It was the love of God that changed my life.”

The Community sent the new Messianic Jew to a rehabilitation center where he learned to live without drugs and alcohol. He even spent a year in a local Bible school. “Everyone in this Community prayed for me,” he said. “I owe my life to the dedicated people that picked me up from the streets and believed I could be saved. This is my family.”

That family atmosphere was evident with children’s songs and activities during the evening. But more surprising was watching as Jews and Arabs, Gentile expatriates and Orthodox Christian clergy all worshiped together in Hebrew in this unique place.

“The Lord is reconnecting all the branches of his olive tree,” said Benjamin. “He is breaking down walls that have been between us for generations. All believers from all traditions are part of one communion,” he said. “If they belong to the Messiah, they are my brother.”

Forgetting those things which are behind... Phil. 3:13

Towards the end of the evening the Community rose to their feet to renew their covenant with God. “We proclaim here today that we are closing the book on all that has gone before so that we might now open a new book in the life of our community,” proclaimed Benjamin. “We rededicate our lives and this community to you Lord,” Reuven prayed. “That you might do with us as you please, that we together, Jew and Arab, and all those who love you, might be a blessing to your people Israel. Amen!”

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23590/Default.aspx

A Collection of 150-Year-Old Pictures of Jerusalem

A Collection of 150-Year-Old Pictures of Jerusalem
Thanks to British Explorers and the New York Public Library

Cover of the Ordinance Survey
(1865)

The photographic archives in the New York Public Library is the surprising repository for hundreds of historic photographs of Palestine. Some of the pictures date back to the 1850s and 1860s.

We provide here a selection of some of the amazing photographs. Future postings will focus on particular pictures and the photographers.


Survey photo of the "Wailing Place of the Jews"
(1865). The photo was taken by Peter Bergheim who
established a photographic studio in the Christian
Quarter of the Old City. The Survey team had its
own photographer, but, apparently, Bergheim was
subcontracted by the Survey team. (Source: New
York Public Library) See here for similar photos.

Many of the photos were taken from the British Ordinance Survey of Jerusalem of 1865 led by Captain Charles W. Wilson. He and Captain Charles Warren led extensive archaeological excavations near the Temple Mount ("Wilson's Arch" and "Warren's Shaft" are well-known to visitors to Jerusalem). Warren would go on to become the head of London's police during the "Jack the Ripper" murder spree.

We thank staffers at the Library of Congress who steered us to the Survey and officials at the New York Public Library who granted permission to publish the photos.

The sealed Golden Gate, also known as Shaar
Harachamim (1865), is located on the eastern wall
of the Old City and closest to the site of the Jewish
Temple and the Dome of the Rock. The photo was
taken by the Survey's official photographer, James
McDonald. (Source: New York Public Library)
See here for similar photos.

The 1865 Survey contained measurements, maps and descriptions of the city of Jerusalem which was almost all contained within the Old City walls. The explorers sank shafts along the Old City walls, explored underground tunnels, cisterns and caverns, and recorded their findings.

In 1871,Wilson and Warren published The Recovery of Jerusalem, a Narrative of Exploration and Discovery in the City and the Holy Land, a memoir of their experiences in Jerusalem, including dealing with rapacious Ottoman officials, impassible roads, and local workers.

Interestingly, the Wilson-Warren book did not include photographs; it was illustrated with woodcuts such as this one possibly copied from the Bergheim photo above. And note how similar the woodcut is to the one illustrating William Seward's travelogue. Seward was Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State who visited the Holy Land in 1859 and 1871. Both books, both published in 1871, describe Jewish prayer at the Western Wall as restricted to Friday evening.

Woodcut in Seward's book

The woodcut in Wilson's book


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