Hope for the Holy City

On Monday and Tuesday evenings, March 28 and 29, Jews will celebrate Passover by holding a Seder each of those nights. A Seder is more than a meal and a family gathering. It is also a religious program, containing 14 steps. These steps direct us through the evening, make sure that we say the appropriate blessings and prayers at the appropriate times and guide us as we share with our families the story of the Exodus and the lessons of that story.

Interestingly, we end our Seder with the words “L’shana habaah b’Yerushalayim — Next year in Jerusalem.” Why do we say this particular phrase? Once, at a community Seder, a young boy asked me if it meant that I was taking everyone to Israel next year. As I explained to him, the statement is not one about planning a trip; it’s about our hopes for future of the Jewish people. Our ancestors added the phrase to the Passover Seder almost 2,000 ago when the Romans destroyed the Jewish city of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. When we say, “Next year in Jerusalem,” we are recalling how Jerusalem was the capital of Jewish nation and the center of the Jewish world since 1100 BCE when King David founded the city as the capital of Israel. We are recalling how we were forcibly exiled from our land in the first century CE and how, despite our being dispersed to the four corners of the Earth, we never gave up hope of returning to our land and fulfilling our destiny as a light unto the nations.

The United States government itself recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and its importance to the Jewish people in the April 24, 1990 House Resolution Expressing Support for Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital, the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-45), and in House Resolution 60, Commemorating 30th Anniversary of Reunification Jerusalem (June 10, 1997). The first resolution states: “Whereas since 1967 Jerusalem has been a united city administered by Israel and persons of all religious faiths have been guaranteed full access to holy sites within the city; Whereas the President and the Secretary of State have demonstrated their strong desire to achieve a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and have worked diligently toward that end;

Whereas ambiguous statements by the Government of the United States concerning the right of Jews to live in all parts of Jerusalem raise concerns in Israel that Jerusalem might one day be re-divided and access to religious sites in Jerusalem denied to Israeli citizens; and the search for a lasting peace in the region: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Congress (1) acknowledges that Jerusalem is and should remain the capital of the State of Israel; (2) strongly believes that Jerusalem must remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic religious group are protected; and (3) calls upon all parties involved in the search for peace to maintain their strong efforts to bring about negotiations between Israel and Palestinian representatives.”

The present administration has taken American policy and turned it on its head, calling construction in Jerusalem an obstacle to peace and an impediment to the possible future division of Jerusalem. I believe it is not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who broke with American policy, but rather Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who have ignored three laws passed by the House of Representatives.

This year when we say “L’shana habaah b’Yerushalayim — Next year in Jerusalem,” we will pray that the Holy City remain the eternal undivided capital of Israel.

Steven M. Graber is the rabbi at Temple Hillel in Valley Stream.