Jerusalem is a symbol of Ancient Israel and Judaism. Ancient Israel concentrated on moral views that are still anathema to the underground mental savagery of a non-evolved human species. Israel entered history as a new kid on the evolutionary block 3,500 years ago. Humankind , as Homo Sapiens, is also a baby in the chronology of human evolution.What Judaism preached is still undoable for billions of people, deep down. Thus the mental stress and collective madness of Jew-hatred, or " anti-semitism", if you wish.
The Tanakh was written by Israel for Israel. It was never meant to be distributed, Israel had and has no missionary intent, and surely, Hebrew Scriptures were never meant to be vandalised and desecrated with interpretations that always lead to Jew-hatred or contempt.
But God decided otherwise.
So our ID, books, cities, land, lives, were sent to the wide beyond, to found, for example, Christendom.
Both Christendom and Islam diluted and changed Israel's most basic chore elements to suit their agendas and proceeded to try to annihilate us.
But we are still here.
Standing our ground- however subversive to our own Judaism at times, for which we are brought to task- discredits the other religions built on it, religions which provided much simpler solutions to the agony of guilt, blame, conscience and responsibility that Judaism exacted. Thus the projection onto the Jews, the creators, of all manner of defect in other nations.
Our Bible and our religion built a West that still doesn't accept itself, and we, Jews, pay the price for THEM not accepting what we stand for, not so much for US not accepting their delusions. But both play their part, and if there's a paradox somewhere, so be it.
Israel won the Contract to secure Jerusalem militarily for The Christian West. Most of Christendom supports The Jewish People because of this reality. Please get the facts right. Am Yisroel Chai.
I had a Jesuit as a history teacher. In a private conversation with him, he admitted that Israel's success in the 1967 war "rocked" the Catholic theological world. If for two millennium the Jews exile amongst the nations of the world reaffirmed christian theology - the Jewish People are cursed and the Christians are the "new Jews," that truism lost its luster. In light of the reunification of Jerusalem and Israel 's control of the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria, the church would have to find some other way to support it's claim of being the 'one true religion.'
"Christianity claimed to inherit Jerusalem’s covenant, yet lost the city twice — once to the Romans in antiquity, and again to the Jews in 1967."
What on Earth are you talking about?
The Jews lost Jerusalem many times and not just to The Romans in 70 AD. The Christians at that time had moved on and were now in Rome and soon preaching all over the Roman Empire. Jerusalem didn't matter a hill of beans to them any more than Athens or Alexandria.
Actually, the Muslims lost Jerusalem in 1967.
I love that the Jewish people have its homeland back and Jerusalem is its capital once more. I have voted for Trump (3) times and I am overjoyed he moved our embassy to Jerusalem where it belongs. An embassy belongs in the capital of a nation. Foreign countries put their embassies in Washington DC not New York City or Dallas.
There is a world wide Muslim religious war.... America has been invaded by Muslims...the UK Spain Sweden Finland Norway Canada Portugal Belgium are all Muslim controlled countries..... Jerusalem is also the excuse Muslims use to continue to conquer other countries....wake up to this reality.....unless these countries go to war....them the ottoman empire has risen again
The folk in China, Taiwan, India, and Asian nations practicing the Shinto, Buddhist, or Hindu faiths do not care much about Jerusalem. It is only of concern to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Yes that is partially true. It is still amazing to see South Korean education curriculum includes some form of "Talmud." You can travel from one end of Japan to the other and in every village and city there are pro-Israel groups thrilled to meet you. China is a bit different but even there Israel is recognized as a world leader in technology. So yes, I doubt if they care about Jerusalem persee but Jews and Judaism? You might be surprised.
“Secularism, too, has its theology. For the modern liberal West, Jerusalem is an embarrassment — a stubborn remnant of metaphysics in an age that canonizes reason. The Enlightenment’s faith in universality finds Jerusalem’s Jewish particularism offensive. It prefers a world without chosen peoples or places.”
Secularism in the narrower sense of separation of religion from government leaves room for multi-religion nations, favors reasoning with evidence and logic in the government context, and seeks equal standing before the law for all. So this secularism disfavors laws that apply to some people and not others based on religious beliefs. It does not make assertions about metaphysics or religions in non-governmental contexts. Secularism in the sense that you are talking about refers to individuals who both reject religion for themselves and also prefer that people in general reject religion.
Love the essay but please do not mix up facts. Christianity did not lose Jerusalem to the Roman's.
AI clearly says that historical documents show ...
In 70 AD, the ruling powers in Jerusalem were:
Political/Military Power
• Roman Empire — ultimate authority
• Jewish rebel factions — temporary local control during the revolt
Not in power
• Christianity
→ It was a small, persecuted, non-political Jewish sect, not a ruling entity
Who were the Crusaders?
European Christian knights and armies (mostly from France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire) who went to the Middle East starting in 1096 AD.
Why did they fight in Jerusalem?
They said they were responding to:
• Attacks on Christian pilgrims and churches
• The Seljuk Turks taking control of Jerusalem (1070s)
• A call from the Byzantine Empire for help
• A religious goal: retake Jerusalem and protect Christian holy sites
What did they accomplish?
In 1099, the First Crusade captured Jerusalem and created Crusader states across the region.
When did they lose Jerusalem?
• 1187 AD — Saladin (Muslim general) retook Jerusalem.
• Small Crusader fortresses survived until 1291, when the last one (Acre) fell. After that, Crusader rule in the Holy Land ended.
The Crusaders went on behalf of the Christians and Christian holy sites and were not helpful to the Jews. In fact killed many on the way and while there. It is a blight on the Christian Church of the time. The Roman Catholic Church was never friendly towards the Jewish people
AI -There is zero evidence of early Christians killing Jews before the Roman Empire adopted Christianity.
The early church did not support killing Jews.
Violence began after Christianity became the Roman state religion, and peaked in medieval Catholic Europe, especially during the Crusades and under local church authorities.
Popes sometimes condemned the killings, but popular Christian mobs, crusaders, and local bishops ignored them.
Protestants later inherited some of these anti-Jewish attitudes, though not always violently.
So the massacres were not commanded from the top, but were a broad, deeply embedded European Christian culture, not rooted in the teachings of the early Jesus movement.
Love the essay but please do not mix up facts. Christianity did not lose Jerusalem to the Roman's.
AI clearly says that historical documents show ...
In 70 AD, the ruling powers in Jerusalem were:
Political/Military Power
• Roman Empire — ultimate authority
• Jewish rebel factions — temporary local control during the revolt
Not in power
• Christianity
→ It was a small, persecuted, non-political Jewish sect, not a ruling entity
Who were the Crusaders?
European Christian knights and armies (mostly from France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire) who went to the Middle East starting in 1096 AD.
Why did they fight in Jerusalem?
They said they were responding to:
• Attacks on Christian pilgrims and churches
• The Seljuk Turks taking control of Jerusalem (1070s)
• A call from the Byzantine Empire for help
• A religious goal: retake Jerusalem and protect Christian holy sites
What did they accomplish?
In 1099, the First Crusade captured Jerusalem and created Crusader states across the region.
When did they lose Jerusalem?
• 1187 AD — Saladin (Muslim general) retook Jerusalem.
• Small Crusader fortresses survived until 1291, when the last one (Acre) fell. After that, Crusader rule in the Holy Land ended.
( my thoughts-The Crusaders went on behalf of the Christians and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem but were not helpful to the Jews. In fact killed many on the way and while there. It is a blight on the Christian Church of the time. The Roman Catholic Church was never friendly towards the Jewish people
Chatgbt. Here’s a clear, historically grounded, non-left, non-mainstream-media explanation — concise but still accurate.
This focuses strictly on historical Christianity, not theology.There is zero evidence of early Christians killing Jews before the Roman Empire adopted Christianity.
The early church did not support killing Jews.
Violence began after Christianity became the Roman state religion, and peaked in medieval Catholic Europe, especially during the Crusades and under local church authorities.
Popes sometimes condemned the killings, but popular Christian mobs, crusaders, and local bishops ignored them.
Protestants later inherited some of these anti-Jewish attitudes, though not always violently.
So the massacres were not commanded from the top, but were a broad, deeply embedded European Christian culture, not rooted in the teachings of the early Jesus movement.
Jerusalem is sovereign Jewish land bestowed upon the Jewish people by God, period, not up for discussion. The failure of Israeli policy since 1967 has not been to solidify that standard by purging and purifying Jerusalem of her latest foreign occupation, the Muslims, and destroying their blasphemous colonialist temple placed on the holiest of Jewish lands in order to subjugate the Jewish people. The Dome of the Rock should have been blown-up in 1967, it should and can be blown up today in the first measure of reconsecrating and building the Third Temple. That Jews in our own homeland are constrained to pray on our holiest God ordained land to one wall of our own historical temple to assuage the feelings of our Islamic enemies is blasphemous. That our fellow Jews have instituted these blasphemous restrictions, is treason. Israelis as stewards of the Jewish people’s holiest sites have unforgivingly failed in their chosen responsibility. If God were looking for a reason to abandon the Jewish people, the way the Israelis have failed to honor God through the protection and preservation of his gifts once they regained that ability is as good a reason as any. I for one can never forgive Israelis for their refusal to act and not only did they choose Dhimmi status for themselves but for the entire Jewish people; that’s their treason against us. Jerusalem is united under Jewish control in name only, it must be united under Jewish control in name and in act completely. The Jewish people owe that to themselves, their ancestors and their progeny for Passover’s Next year in Jerusalem to carry its true meaning.
In the words of the Psalmist, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.” (Psa. 122:6-7)
And the prophet Jeremiah wrote of the time when “…they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD…”
I pray for the day when her warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned, and the son of David is sitting upon his throne so that “out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”
More than half of the world? Are you forgetting the continents of Asia and Africa - and of southern Europe? Islamization has risen in much of what you say doesn't care. Don't forget the 21 million Muslims in China.
If the rest of the world doesn't care about Jerusalem,then there is no need for them to mentioned in an article about Jerusalem. But I would say that most of the world does in fact care. That care is seen in the vast majority votes in the UN against Israel.
Nachum nailed it.
Jerusalem is a symbol of Ancient Israel and Judaism. Ancient Israel concentrated on moral views that are still anathema to the underground mental savagery of a non-evolved human species. Israel entered history as a new kid on the evolutionary block 3,500 years ago. Humankind , as Homo Sapiens, is also a baby in the chronology of human evolution.What Judaism preached is still undoable for billions of people, deep down. Thus the mental stress and collective madness of Jew-hatred, or " anti-semitism", if you wish.
The Tanakh was written by Israel for Israel. It was never meant to be distributed, Israel had and has no missionary intent, and surely, Hebrew Scriptures were never meant to be vandalised and desecrated with interpretations that always lead to Jew-hatred or contempt.
But God decided otherwise.
So our ID, books, cities, land, lives, were sent to the wide beyond, to found, for example, Christendom.
Both Christendom and Islam diluted and changed Israel's most basic chore elements to suit their agendas and proceeded to try to annihilate us.
But we are still here.
Standing our ground- however subversive to our own Judaism at times, for which we are brought to task- discredits the other religions built on it, religions which provided much simpler solutions to the agony of guilt, blame, conscience and responsibility that Judaism exacted. Thus the projection onto the Jews, the creators, of all manner of defect in other nations.
Our Bible and our religion built a West that still doesn't accept itself, and we, Jews, pay the price for THEM not accepting what we stand for, not so much for US not accepting their delusions. But both play their part, and if there's a paradox somewhere, so be it.
Jerusalem symbolises all that and more.
Israel won the Contract to secure Jerusalem militarily for The Christian West. Most of Christendom supports The Jewish People because of this reality. Please get the facts right. Am Yisroel Chai.
Today, the support you asserted is not the majority view when it comes to possible military conflict.
Indeed, Peace must come first.
How was 1967 a loss for “Christians”?
I had a Jesuit as a history teacher. In a private conversation with him, he admitted that Israel's success in the 1967 war "rocked" the Catholic theological world. If for two millennium the Jews exile amongst the nations of the world reaffirmed christian theology - the Jewish People are cursed and the Christians are the "new Jews," that truism lost its luster. In light of the reunification of Jerusalem and Israel 's control of the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria, the church would have to find some other way to support it's claim of being the 'one true religion.'
Except that Christians did not lose Jerusalem in ‘67 - Jordan did.
"Christianity claimed to inherit Jerusalem’s covenant, yet lost the city twice — once to the Romans in antiquity, and again to the Jews in 1967."
What on Earth are you talking about?
The Jews lost Jerusalem many times and not just to The Romans in 70 AD. The Christians at that time had moved on and were now in Rome and soon preaching all over the Roman Empire. Jerusalem didn't matter a hill of beans to them any more than Athens or Alexandria.
Actually, the Muslims lost Jerusalem in 1967.
I love that the Jewish people have its homeland back and Jerusalem is its capital once more. I have voted for Trump (3) times and I am overjoyed he moved our embassy to Jerusalem where it belongs. An embassy belongs in the capital of a nation. Foreign countries put their embassies in Washington DC not New York City or Dallas.
Mr. Kaplan, I see from your biography that you have much experience in finance. However, I believe you are a poet. What a moving piece on Jerusalem!
Beautifully written Nachum! You brought me to tears with your stirring article. Yerushalyim belongs to Israel forever. Am Israel Chai!
There is a world wide Muslim religious war.... America has been invaded by Muslims...the UK Spain Sweden Finland Norway Canada Portugal Belgium are all Muslim controlled countries..... Jerusalem is also the excuse Muslims use to continue to conquer other countries....wake up to this reality.....unless these countries go to war....them the ottoman empire has risen again
The folk in China, Taiwan, India, and Asian nations practicing the Shinto, Buddhist, or Hindu faiths do not care much about Jerusalem. It is only of concern to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Yes that is partially true. It is still amazing to see South Korean education curriculum includes some form of "Talmud." You can travel from one end of Japan to the other and in every village and city there are pro-Israel groups thrilled to meet you. China is a bit different but even there Israel is recognized as a world leader in technology. So yes, I doubt if they care about Jerusalem persee but Jews and Judaism? You might be surprised.
Jerusalem is the face of everything that's happening now: invade, erase, put your mosque on top and proclaim you are indigenous.
“Secularism, too, has its theology. For the modern liberal West, Jerusalem is an embarrassment — a stubborn remnant of metaphysics in an age that canonizes reason. The Enlightenment’s faith in universality finds Jerusalem’s Jewish particularism offensive. It prefers a world without chosen peoples or places.”
Secularism in the narrower sense of separation of religion from government leaves room for multi-religion nations, favors reasoning with evidence and logic in the government context, and seeks equal standing before the law for all. So this secularism disfavors laws that apply to some people and not others based on religious beliefs. It does not make assertions about metaphysics or religions in non-governmental contexts. Secularism in the sense that you are talking about refers to individuals who both reject religion for themselves and also prefer that people in general reject religion.
Love the essay but please do not mix up facts. Christianity did not lose Jerusalem to the Roman's.
AI clearly says that historical documents show ...
In 70 AD, the ruling powers in Jerusalem were:
Political/Military Power
• Roman Empire — ultimate authority
• Jewish rebel factions — temporary local control during the revolt
Not in power
• Christianity
→ It was a small, persecuted, non-political Jewish sect, not a ruling entity
Who were the Crusaders?
European Christian knights and armies (mostly from France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire) who went to the Middle East starting in 1096 AD.
Why did they fight in Jerusalem?
They said they were responding to:
• Attacks on Christian pilgrims and churches
• The Seljuk Turks taking control of Jerusalem (1070s)
• A call from the Byzantine Empire for help
• A religious goal: retake Jerusalem and protect Christian holy sites
What did they accomplish?
In 1099, the First Crusade captured Jerusalem and created Crusader states across the region.
When did they lose Jerusalem?
• 1187 AD — Saladin (Muslim general) retook Jerusalem.
• Small Crusader fortresses survived until 1291, when the last one (Acre) fell. After that, Crusader rule in the Holy Land ended.
The Crusaders went on behalf of the Christians and Christian holy sites and were not helpful to the Jews. In fact killed many on the way and while there. It is a blight on the Christian Church of the time. The Roman Catholic Church was never friendly towards the Jewish people
AI -There is zero evidence of early Christians killing Jews before the Roman Empire adopted Christianity.
The early church did not support killing Jews.
Violence began after Christianity became the Roman state religion, and peaked in medieval Catholic Europe, especially during the Crusades and under local church authorities.
Popes sometimes condemned the killings, but popular Christian mobs, crusaders, and local bishops ignored them.
Protestants later inherited some of these anti-Jewish attitudes, though not always violently.
So the massacres were not commanded from the top, but were a broad, deeply embedded European Christian culture, not rooted in the teachings of the early Jesus movement.
Love the essay but please do not mix up facts. Christianity did not lose Jerusalem to the Roman's.
AI clearly says that historical documents show ...
In 70 AD, the ruling powers in Jerusalem were:
Political/Military Power
• Roman Empire — ultimate authority
• Jewish rebel factions — temporary local control during the revolt
Not in power
• Christianity
→ It was a small, persecuted, non-political Jewish sect, not a ruling entity
Who were the Crusaders?
European Christian knights and armies (mostly from France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire) who went to the Middle East starting in 1096 AD.
Why did they fight in Jerusalem?
They said they were responding to:
• Attacks on Christian pilgrims and churches
• The Seljuk Turks taking control of Jerusalem (1070s)
• A call from the Byzantine Empire for help
• A religious goal: retake Jerusalem and protect Christian holy sites
What did they accomplish?
In 1099, the First Crusade captured Jerusalem and created Crusader states across the region.
When did they lose Jerusalem?
• 1187 AD — Saladin (Muslim general) retook Jerusalem.
• Small Crusader fortresses survived until 1291, when the last one (Acre) fell. After that, Crusader rule in the Holy Land ended.
( my thoughts-The Crusaders went on behalf of the Christians and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem but were not helpful to the Jews. In fact killed many on the way and while there. It is a blight on the Christian Church of the time. The Roman Catholic Church was never friendly towards the Jewish people
Chatgbt. Here’s a clear, historically grounded, non-left, non-mainstream-media explanation — concise but still accurate.
This focuses strictly on historical Christianity, not theology.There is zero evidence of early Christians killing Jews before the Roman Empire adopted Christianity.
The early church did not support killing Jews.
Violence began after Christianity became the Roman state religion, and peaked in medieval Catholic Europe, especially during the Crusades and under local church authorities.
Popes sometimes condemned the killings, but popular Christian mobs, crusaders, and local bishops ignored them.
Protestants later inherited some of these anti-Jewish attitudes, though not always violently.
So the massacres were not commanded from the top, but were a broad, deeply embedded European Christian culture, not rooted in the teachings of the early Jesus movement.
Jerusalem is sovereign Jewish land bestowed upon the Jewish people by God, period, not up for discussion. The failure of Israeli policy since 1967 has not been to solidify that standard by purging and purifying Jerusalem of her latest foreign occupation, the Muslims, and destroying their blasphemous colonialist temple placed on the holiest of Jewish lands in order to subjugate the Jewish people. The Dome of the Rock should have been blown-up in 1967, it should and can be blown up today in the first measure of reconsecrating and building the Third Temple. That Jews in our own homeland are constrained to pray on our holiest God ordained land to one wall of our own historical temple to assuage the feelings of our Islamic enemies is blasphemous. That our fellow Jews have instituted these blasphemous restrictions, is treason. Israelis as stewards of the Jewish people’s holiest sites have unforgivingly failed in their chosen responsibility. If God were looking for a reason to abandon the Jewish people, the way the Israelis have failed to honor God through the protection and preservation of his gifts once they regained that ability is as good a reason as any. I for one can never forgive Israelis for their refusal to act and not only did they choose Dhimmi status for themselves but for the entire Jewish people; that’s their treason against us. Jerusalem is united under Jewish control in name only, it must be united under Jewish control in name and in act completely. The Jewish people owe that to themselves, their ancestors and their progeny for Passover’s Next year in Jerusalem to carry its true meaning.
A terrifically written piece, thank you.
In the words of the Psalmist, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.” (Psa. 122:6-7)
And the prophet Jeremiah wrote of the time when “…they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD…”
I pray for the day when her warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned, and the son of David is sitting upon his throne so that “out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”
One of your very best. Thanks for writing this, Nachum.
Thanks Alan
What an fascinating, well-written essay. This really ties all the various angles of Jew Hate together.
More than half of the world? Are you forgetting the continents of Asia and Africa - and of southern Europe? Islamization has risen in much of what you say doesn't care. Don't forget the 21 million Muslims in China.
If the rest of the world doesn't care about Jerusalem,then there is no need for them to mentioned in an article about Jerusalem. But I would say that most of the world does in fact care. That care is seen in the vast majority votes in the UN against Israel.
None of your points stand up in the slightest.
I'll just assume you agree with my first point.
I made 2 points. Here is the first, to refresh your memory.
If the rest of the world doesn't care about Jerusalem,then there is no need for them to mentioned in an article about Jerusalem.
Another Jew hater wanting to erase us. The author is 100% correct. You goyim just can’t handle the truth