While Americans observe Memorial Day this coming weekend, we in Israel will celebrate Jerusalem Reunification Day. Tens of thousands will march through the streets of Jerusalem, waving flags and singing songs, on their way to the Kosel HaMaaravi – the Western Wall. We will be commemorating the 58th anniversary of the greatest Jewish historical event of our lifetime: the reunification of Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty, after 1,900 years of foreign rule in the Holy City.
On May 15, 1967, as Israel celebrated the 19th anniversary of its independence, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser sent Egyptian tanks into Sinai. At the time, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza were all in Arab hands. On May 16, Nasser expelled the UN peacekeeping force, which had been in place since 1956, proclaiming his determination to wipe Israel off the map. Israel called up 300,000 citizen soldiers from the reserves. Tens of thousands of volunteers on the home front kept the economy going, helping with transportation, the distribution of food, and the preparation of bomb shelters. The Soviet Union backed Nasser all the way. US President Lyndon B. Johnson urged both sides to show restraint. In the Knesset, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol announced that Israel did not seek war and was ready to promote peace and stability in the region.
Nasser responded by closing the Straits of Tiran, blocking access to Israel’s critical port of Eilat. On May 30, King Hussein of Jordan arrived in Cairo to sign a mutual defense pact placing the Egyptian and Jordanian Armies under joint command. Around the world, people thought that the country that had just celebrated the 19th anniversary of its independence might never celebrate its 20th year. In Israel, public confidence was bolstered by the formation of a national unity government with Moshe Dayan, the hero of the 1956 Sinai War, as Minister of Defense, and Menachem Begin, the longtime Opposition Leader, as Minister Without Portfolio.
On the morning of June 5, Israel responded to the threat to its existence by launching a preemptive strike that destroyed the Egyptian Air Force. At the same time, Israel contacted King Hussein to encourage him to stay out of the war. Hussein answered by shelling civilian neighborhoods in Jerusalem and the Gush Dan–Tel Aviv area. Israel was particularly concerned for the safety of forces on Mount Scopus, an Israeli-held enclave within Jordan. Israeli paratroopers moved to relieve Mount Scopus. On the way, they fought a bloody battle at Ammunition Hill, a fortified Jordanian post on the road connecting West Jerusalem to Mount Scopus.
On the morning of June 7, Motta [Mordechai] Gur addressed his troops on a ridge overlooking the Old City: “We will be going into the Old City of Jerusalem, that all generations have dreamed for.” At 10:00 a.m., the soldiers of the IDF, borne on the wings of 2,000 years of hopes, dreams, and prayers, broke through the Lions Gate and entered the Old City. Soon after came the famous words, “The Har HaBayis – the Temple Mount – is in our hands.” As great as the emotion was on Har HaBayis, it was even greater as the soldiers reached the Kosel. Many recited She’hecheyanu. Others sang Naomi Shemer’s song that had first been sung publicly at the annual Independence Day Song Festival a few weeks before, “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav.” The Chief Chaplain of the Israel Defense Forces, Rav Shlomo Goren, blew the shofar, recited the Memorial Prayer, and led all in proclaiming, “This year in the rebuilt Jerusalem.”
For years, the Kosel was known as the Wailing Wall, a symbol of mourning for the loss of the two Batei Mikdash and the suffering of the Jewish people in the Diaspora. As the battle-hardened soldiers reached the Kosel, many broke down in a different kind of tears: tears for their fallen and wounded comrades, of course. But also tears of joy. The dream of the ages had become a reality.
While the Kosel has often been called the last remnant of the Beis HaMikdash, it is actually not a part of the Beis HaMikdash itself. When Herod, a Roman puppet who ruled Judea in the last century Before the Common Era, sought to build a magnificent, renovated –––Temple with a grand plaza, Mount Moriah was too small to accommodate his vision. He leveled off the mountain, built arches and vaults, and constructed four huge retaining walls. The western retaining wall is our Western Wall of today.
Herodian stone can be easily recognized by the frame, the raised area known as the boss. Each stone is slightly set back from the one below it for the stability of the structure. No cement or mortar was used to connect the stones to each other. The stones are huge, with some weighing several hundred tons. Only the bottom half of the Western Wall is Herodian stone. The upper layers of stones are from later periods.
After the destruction by the Romans of the Beis HaMikdash and the later crushing of the Bar Kochba Revolt, Jews were barred from Jerusalem under pain of death, except for one day a year, Tish’ah B’Av, the anniversary of the Churban, when we could pay for the right to come into the city to mourn. But the Roman legions who drove our ancestors out of the city could never drive the city out of our hearts. For two thousand years, wherever Jews were in the world, we would pray to return to Jerusalem.
While we have long prayed near the Temple Mount, it has not always been at the same spot. At times it was at the Mount of Olives or the Shaar HaRachamim – the Mercy Gate along the Eastern Wall. When the Muslims conquered Jerusalem in the sixth century, they allowed Jews to return. There was a synagogue alongside the Western Wall, known as the Synagogue of the Cave. It was destroyed by the Crusaders in 1099.
In the 13th century, the Mamluks conquered Jerusalem. Rather than remove the rubble from the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash more than a thousand years earlier, they built arches and vaults and a platform over the ruins. They then built their homes, often using the Kosel as one of the walls of their houses. Virtually the entire Kosel was covered. An earthquake in 1546 destroyed the homes alongside the Wall, exposing a narrow strip alongside the wall, which became an area for Jewish prayer. Jews going to daven at the Kosel were often harassed by residents of the Muslim Mughrabi neighborhood that bordered on the Kosel.
Muslims referred to the Western Wall as El Buraq Wall, the place where Muhammad tied his magical horse before ascending to heaven from the Foundation Stone. They claimed ownership based on its being part of the Temple Mount. Ottoman and British authorities ruled that the Muslims owned the Wall but that Jews were allowed to pray there. They forbade permanent structures such as chairs or a mechitzah. Haj Amin Al Husseini, the Mufti, or chief religious leader, of Jerusalem incited the Muslim masses with claims that the Jews were seeking to destroy the Al Aqsa compound. Disputes over the Kosel led to the Arab riots of 1929 and to massacres of Jews in Chevron and Tzfas.
In 1948, Israel regained independence, but the Old City was conquered by the Jordanian Arab Legion. With the reunification of the city in 1967, residents of the Mughrabi neighborhood were resettled elsewhere and the large Western Wall Plaza that we know today was created.
Today, the Western Wall Heritage Center runs a number of attractions that can enhance your understanding of the Kosel:
Gateway to Heaven Visitor Center – A highly moving immersive film describes the history of the Kosel and explains its meaning and importance. It can be seen in Hebrew or English.
The Great Stone Tour – This is the classic tour of the Kosel Tunnels. Stops include:
The largest stone in the Kosel, weighing several hundred tons
Warren’s Gate, a gate to the Har HaBayis discovered by the British archaeologist Charles Warren in 1867
The closest we can get to the Kodesh HaKodashim – the Holy of Holies
The street alongside the Kosel on which our ancestors walked to the Beis HaMikdash
A brief animated film showing how the Kosel was built
The Struthion Pool, originally a moat dug by Herod, which became a reservoir during the late Second Temple era
The Great Bridge Tour – This new tour features:
The base of the Great Bridge built by the Chashmona’im to connect the Upper City to the Har HaBayis
The inside of a 2,000-year-old building from the late Second Temple era
A kosher mikvah from the time of the Beis HaMikdash
Ruins of the Roman city
A part of the Kosel that was covered for 1,700 years
A model of the Beis HaMikdash
The modern Shaarei Teshuvah synagogue
A Look into the Past – A virtual reality tour of the Second Beis HaMikdash
The Chain of the Generations Center – A walk through the journey of the Jewish people through the generations using state-of-the-art technology and emphasizing your connection to the history of the Jewish people.
The Journey to Jerusalem – At this interactive attraction, you sit at a personal computer and every visitor gets to create his or her own unique experience. You will follow a family on their journey from the Churban to their return to Israel in modern times. You will have several chances to choose where the family goes and see what happens to them.
Admission to all of these sites is by reservation only. You can make reservations and purchase tickets online at www.thekotel.org.
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For private walking tours of these and other sites in Jerusalem, please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Manny Behar is a licensed Israel tour guide and is affiliated with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. Before making aliyah, Manny lived in Queens for 68 years and was Executive Director of the Queens Jewish Community Council and Special Assistant to two Queens Borough Presidents. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
