57 years ago this week, Colonel Motta Gur announced into a loudspeaker from a unified Jerusalem “All company commanders, we are sitting right now on the ridge. Shortly we are going into the Old City of Jerusalem that all generations have dreamed about. Eitan’s tanks will advance on the left and enter the Lion’s Gate. The final rendezvous will be on the open square above. Ha’Kotel b’Yadenu! The Temple Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands!”
During this period of wartime exultation, soldiers embraced each other and Jews around the world celebrated the ability to once again pray at the holy site where the Temple once stood. When famed general and JCC regular Moshe Dayan visited the Kotel (the Western Wall) however, he remarked upon seeing rabbis running to kiss the stones “What do we need it for, this Vatican?” Publicly, Dayan was more diplomatic in promising full religious freedom and rights to all who wished to pray at the Old City’s historic houses of worship.
The Six-Day War concluded an especially turbulent period in the revered city of Jerusalem. Between 1948-1967 an uneasy détente had existed. Only clergy, diplomats and UN personnel could pass through the Mandelbaum Gate between the Israeli-controlled West and Jordanian-controlled East. Captured by Jordan during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, the Jewish residents of the aptly named Jewish Quarter of East Jerusalem’s Old City suffered immensely until being expelled by Jordanian legionnaires. Abdullah el Tell, a commander of the Arab Legion, remarked “For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews’ return here impossible.”
Following Jerusalem’s reunification 19 years later, the government commissioned a report on the extent of the Old City’s damage under Jordanian rule. Minister of Religious Affairs Zerach Warhaftig, a Sugihara Jew and former resident of Yokohama, noted the destruction of all but two of the 58 synagogues in the Jewish Quarter and of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in complete violation of the 1949 armistice agreements. In an echo of the Shoah, part of the road to the Intercontinental Hotel was paved with Jewish tombstones. Nevertheless, Dayan relinquished control of the Temple Mount to the Jerusalem Waqf/Religious Council whose members are appointed by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in an arrangement that continues until the present day.
Jerusalem Day coincides with a ceremony held on Mount Herzl to commemorate the 4,000 Ethiopian Jews who perished on the way to Israel. The Beta Israel’s relentless yearning for thousands of years to return to Jerusalem and their extraordinarily difficult journey remind us how fortunate we are nowadays to have the ability to hop a flight and in less than 24 hours place our hands on the sacred stones of the Kotel.
Services
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, June 7th
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by reservation: 7:00pm
Shabbat Parshat Bamidbar
Kiddush sponsored by the Sloyer Family in honor of the birth of daughter (and little sister) Mila Sakura
Saturday, June 8th
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Shavuot Eve – Cheesecake and Class (in that order)
Lecture and discussion on Rabbi Meir Kahane: The enduring legacy of one of the 20th century’s most complicated Jewish leaders
Four kinds of sliced, Cholov Yisroel cheese. Six kinds of non-CY kosher cheesecake.
Tuesday, June 11th
Services: 6:30pm
Dinner: 7:00pm
Class: 8:00pm
Shavuot Morning
Wednesday, June 12th
Services with Yizkor: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, June 14th
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by reservation: 7:00pm
Shabbat Parshat Nasso
Bat Mitzvah of Miya Bavli
Saturday, June 15th
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, June 21st
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by reservation: 7:00pm
Shabbat Parshat Beha’alotcha
Bar Mitzvah of Jeremy Epstein
Saturday, June 22nd
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, June 28th
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by reservation: 7:00pm
Shabbat Parshat Bamidbar
First Anniversary of Théo Daquin’s Bar Mitzvah
Kiddush sponsored the Rosenberg Family in commemoration of the yahrzeits of Jerry’s mother “Bubbie” Babe Rosenberg and Marsha’s father Mickey Blum
Saturday, June 29th
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Friday Night and Shavuot Dinner Reservations can made on our website: https://jccjapan.jp/shabbat-meals-sign-up/
Events
Violins and Hope
From the Holocaust to the Symphony Hall: a photographic journey documenting the man and work of Israeli master luthier (violin maker) Amnon Weinstein who set up a project to restore violins that survived the concentration camps and ghettos of the Holocaust, even when their owners often did not.
Sunday, June 23rd
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Coffee with the Rabbi
Rabbi Andrew will discuss how to address antisemitism, an important issue, even more so in these turbulent times. After the introduction, enjoy a Q&A with the Rabbi while eating Israeli Bamba and sipping award-winning specialty coffee from Saza Coffee.
Tuesday, June 25th
1:00pm – 2:00pm
JCJ Open Mic Night!
WHAT: Spoken word poetry, music, skits, dance, storytelling
WHO: All ages and all skill levels
THEME: Jewish in Japan
Advance sign-ups are required to perform. If you are interested, please fill out this Google form https://forms.gle/ibJgPSzRC6vXfU566 to submit your name, contact, and type of performance.
Sunday, July 7th
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Event Registration Page: https://jccjapan.jp/event-registration/
If you have an idea for an event or a topic you would like to share with others, please visit our website: https://jccjapan.jp/event-committee-inquiry/
Announcements
Mazal Tov to the Alper family of Austin, TX on Ian’s Bar Mitzvah this past Friday night. Walker, Texas Ranger would be proud at the Bar Mitzvah’s ability to dodge candy thrown at him on the bimah.
Thank you to our visiting scholar Rabbi Eliezer Lawrence for his thought-provoking class on the interplay between faith and doubt.
The Jewish world recently lost three giants:
1) David Levy, pioneer of Mizrachi involvement in Ashkenazi-dominated Israeli politics
2) Yael Dayan, daughter of the above-mentioned Moshe Dayan and an accomplished politician/author in her own right
3) Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, a central figure in Chabad’s global expansion
May the Levy, Dayan and Kotlarsky families be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Class in Japanese: Would you like to learn about an archaeological study of Israel? Nihongo-ga wakarimasuka? Prof. Keiji Hirakawa is a rare Japanese who has been digging in Israel over 34 years. His first encounter with Israel was in 1983 when he engaged in ethnographic research about the people’s lives, food, and religions there. He will give his talk “ISRAEL: Over the Sea Galilee (イスラエル―ガリラヤ湖をめぐって―) on June 11th from 1:00pm about the research findings based on his study over the site, Ein Gev and his experiences with the local people near the Sea of Galilee. The lecture is a JIFA event but JCJ members are welcome to attend. Admission is free.
Come help make the minyan on Shavuot morning and get your cheesecake fix. High likelihood of Iced Coffee and Bailey’s. Those with a lactose intolerance, which is to say 60-80% of Jews, please bring copious amounts of Lactaid or its Japanese equivalent ビオラクターゼ.
Yiddish Club with Jack Halpern: Please contact Jack at jack@cjki.org if you are interested to join. All levels are welcome, from beginner to advanced. Much more than just language, the club’s monthly meetings explore Yiddish culture as well.
Shabbat Bamidbar
Candle Lighting: 6:37pm
Havdala: 7:41pm