August 6
Kotel Under Jordanian Rule
Bob prayed “at Mt. Zion overlooking Wailing Wall. What a pity it’s not in our hands.”
What a Pity the Kotel is not in our Hands
Tuesday Afternoon August 6, 1957
Dear Mom Dad and Alan,
It’s in the afternoon now and I’m taking it easy being its Tisha B’av and I’m fasting. I hope Daddy’s fast is as easy as mine. The weather so far has been delightful with the evenings cool enough to require a blanket and the days are pretty hot but since it’s not humid it’s very comfortable. Of course it still hasn’t rained since I’m here. As for clothes the most useful items I have are the short pants which I have from last year. I still haven’t seen a person wearing a suit.
This morning I visited a farm and saw how the irrigation system works. It is composed of aluminum pipes which have a gummed part at the end. One pipe fits into the other and a slight push forming a water tight joint. It takes about a 1/10 of a second. Sprinkler attach at the joints the same way. All parts and pipes are Israeli produced.
Last night we read ” Kinnot” on a lawn in the dark by means of a flashlight. I never knew that Kinnot should be read in a semi darkness. It really made it a touching scene. This afternoon mass services are held at Mt Zion overlooking the Wailing Wall. What a pity it’s not in our hands.
I am getting very sunburned and it is possible for me to pass as a “MaLato” already not quite.
Love
Bob
David’s Comments:
August 6, 1957
“It’s …. Tisha B’Av and I am fasting. I hope Daddy’s fast is as easy as mine.”
My grandfather passed away in 1973 when I was 9 years old. I was not aware that he fasted on the 9th day of Av until reading my father’s letters.
The Jewish People fast on Tisha B’av to remember the destruction of the holy temple and other sad things in Jewish history.
“of course, it still has not rained”
It was summer time in Israel and it almost never rains in Israel in the summer.
“This afternoon mass services are held at Mt. Zion overlooking the Wailing Wall. What a pity it’s not in our hands.”
In 1957, the Wailing Wall, also known as the Kotel or Western Wall was under Jordanian rule. Under Jordanian rule, Jews were not allowed to pray at the Kotel. (Parts of the area of the Kotel were used by the Jordanians as a latrine) Nine years after this letter was written, Bob got his wish: The Kotel was liberated from Jordan by Israel in June 1967 during the Six Day War.
US Ambassador David Friedman, in his May 21, 2020 Jerusalem Day speech, expresses similar sentiments as Bob did in 1957:
“As a child, I remember my parents returning from a trip to Israel in the early 1960’s and lamenting how they were prohibited from visiting the Kotel, the Western Wall.”
“I remember their tears of joy in June of 1967 when they saw and heard that Jerusalem had been reunified. And I remember their pride in seeing their son have his bar mitzvah at the kotel just a few years later.”
“Today we are all Jerusalemites thanking God that we have lived to see the restoration of this ancient city, established by King David some 3000 years ago as the capital of Israel.
As King David wrote in Psalm 122: Pray for the Peace for the peace of Jerusalem.”
Moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem: The culmination of a long, hard struggle:
When President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the embassy there in 2018, it was actually the culmination of a long and hard fought struggle.
Back in the early `1980’s Bob was already fighting for Jerusalem. He befriended the influential Senator Jesse Helms and expressed to him the importance of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Senator Helms was close to President Reagan and in a letter dated May 16, 1984 (p.1, p.2) Helms urged Reagan to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem: “An undivided Jerusalem is the indispensable basis of a Solomonic solution for the problems which face us in the Middle East. The U.S., as a nation should recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”
In 1995, the Senate and Congress passed a resolution to move the embassy in a bi-partisan vote with a solid majority, but the U.S. President had a authority to veto it. Out of a fear of the Moslem reaction to such a move, the American embassy remained in Tel Aviv, despite the continued efforts by Helms and other politicians to change the status quo.
For decades, appeals to U.S. Presidents to move the embassy were for naught due to the “sensitivities” of the region. This all changed when President Trump was elected in 2016. Like many other past Presidents, he pledged to relocate the embassy to Jerusalem, but Trump really meant it, and he nominated a U.S. ambassador, David Freidman, who shared that view. The embassy was finally moved to Jerusalem in May 18, 10`
