Copyright (c) 2014 Phyllis Zimbler Miller
All rights reserved.
Nineteen U.S. troops are lost in Indochinese war combat, the lowest weekly total since October 1965. –June 5, 1971
“Thy will, O Lord Our Good and God of our fathers, to conduct us in peace, to direct our steps in peace, to uphold us in peace, and to lead us in life, joy and peace unto the haven of our desire. O deliver us from every enemy, ambush and hurt by the way, and from all afflictions that visit and trouble the world.” Prayer When Going on a Voyage, El Al Israel Airlines
The words in the tiny El Al pamphlet of the prayer for going on a voyage stared up at me: “O delivery us from every enemy.”
I crushed the pamphlet in my hand and glanced behind me – Mitch still occupied the bathroom. Opening the hotel room’s sliding glass door, I stepped out onto the balcony.
Below me spread the old city of Jerusalem.
While in the Hebrew calendar because it was after sundown it was already a new day, by the secular calendar it was still June 5. The anniversary of the first day of the Six Day War.
At Michigan State University when Mitch heard the news of war breaking out between Israel and its Arab neighbors, he wanted to fly to Israel and volunteer to fight. But by the time he finished his spring quarter finals, the war had ended.
And here wewere in Jerusalem on this day, only four years later. This afternoon, with my parents, sister, and youngest brother, we had gone to the Western Wall – sometimes known as the Wailing Wall –- in the old city of Jerusalem, our guide leading us on foot through the tangle of the narrow shouk – marketplace. Here Arab tradesmen hawked their wares – “Lady, come see! Very good price for you.”
The guide had shooed the hawkers away and led us deeper into the confusion.
When I watched the guide shoo the hawkers away I had smiled. Here was a man who had escaped Germany and death at the hands of the Nazis. Yet now the big subject on his mind was whether he could afford to send his teenage son on a tour to Germany to see the old “homeland.” It appeared that German Jews who had gotten out in time had “fonder” feelings towards Germany than did Polish, Russian and other countries’ Jews who survived the death camps.
At the Western Wall my mother, sisterand I stood on the women’s side, while my father, brother, Mitch and the guide stood on the men’s side, swallowed up from sight by a sea of men in dark suits and dark hats.
I had learned from Mitch’s and my honeymoon trip to Israel the need to dress appropriately – modestly – at such places in Israel. My mother, sister and I wore blouses with sleeves and skirts that came to our knees. We had also brought scarves with which to cover our heads. Mitch, my father, brother and the guide wore yarmulkes on their heads.
Dating from the first exile to Babylon in 597 B.C.E., the Jews in exile prayed for their return to Jerusalem, reciting in Psalm 137 “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning” and later singing “Next year in Jerusalem” at the end of each Pesach seder.
From 1948 to 1967 Jews had been unable to visit the Western Wall, the sole remaining edifice of the Second Temple built to replace the First Temple destroyed by the Babylonians.
And although, after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E., Jews had been scattered to the four winds, there had always been some Jews in Jerusalem over the following almost 2,000 years.
