Where Every Jew Comes Home

5/14/2026

We landed at Ben Gurion Airport on a peaceful, breezy morning. It was a year after October 7, and a group of us from Martha’s Vineyard traveled for a weeklong visit to Israel.

On our first night in the holy land, we headed to Jerusalem. Referred to in our literature as “G-d’s capital city,” the drive to this ancient and vibrant center of Jewish life is surrounded by the most gorgeous scenic views.

As we walked down the narrow and winding streets of the Old City, we felt a tangible warmth and familiarity, like we were coming back to our childhood home.

It was, after all, on these same streets that our ancestors lived thousands of years ago. It was here that King David composed the Book of Psalms. And it was here that Jews journeyed to visit and pray at the Temple.

And we came to do the same. While the Temple no longer stands today, the Western Wall, the sacred surviving remnant of the Temple, still stands. And just as our ancestors did thousands of years ago, we came too, to pray at that same holy site.

We approached the large stones.

Soaked with the tears of millions of Jews throughout the millennia, these holy stones knew so much about our people. They had witnessed Jews suffering, and they had witnessed Jews celebrating. They were a shoulder to lean on under persecution, and they were a comfort and guide in times of uncertainty.

As we touched the Wall and prayed, I handed a prayer book to a gentleman from our group beside me. And as he said the Shema, tears flowed freely down his face. Like our ancestors before him, he too had come back home.

But Jews were not always able to stand before these stones.

For almost twenty years, from the founding of the State of Israel until 1967, the Western Wall remained inaccessible to Jews. After the Arab rejection of the UN partition plan in 1947 and the war that followed, Jordan gained control of the Old City of Jerusalem. Though the nascent Jewish state won the war, Jews lost access to the Old City and were barred from praying at the Western Wall for nearly two decades.

But fifty-nine years ago today, at the cusp of what many feared could become the annihilation of the Jews in Israel, when neighboring Arab nations threatened war, Israel won a decisive and miraculous victory. In only six days, the threat was removed, Jerusalem was reunified, and the Western Wall was brought back to its people.

When the Israeli fighters entered Jerusalem and gained control of the Temple Mount, they famously shouted, “Har Habayit Beyadeinu,” “The Temple Mount is in our hands,” words that were recorded at the time and echo to this day.

The soldiers then stood before the Wall, sobbed, and blasted the Shofar sound of victory.

And so today, I am filled with joy.

For it was today in 1967 when the Western Wall came back home.

And it was today, in 1967, that allowed a Jew from Martha’s Vineyard to touch those holy stones and also come back home. And weep like a baby.