Photographs can capture exceptional moments in an iconic way,
making the original experience “present” emotionally as well as pictorially.
The photo of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima’s
Mt. Suribachi “means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years,” Secretary of the
Navy James Forrestal said in 1945. The image of John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s boyish
salute as his father’s casket left Washington’s St. Matthew’s Cathedral in 1963
helped cement the “Camelot” myth into its seemingly impregnable place in
American public life. The “Earthscape” pictures shot by Apollo 8 astronauts at
Christmas 1968 continue to play a not-insignificant role in today’s
environmental movement.
And then there is David Rubinger’s iconic photo of young Israeli
paratroopers at the Western Wall of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem June 7, 1967.
The faces of those young soldiers, their expressions conveying surprise, awe, and
wonder, tell a tale of national regeneration that stirred my heart when I was a
teenager – a story that continues to inspire today. Yet the reunification of
Jerusalem 50 years ago almost never happened.
Jordan’s Hashemite Kingdom had controlled East Jerusalem since
1948. The Jordanian king, Hussein, was a serious man with little reason to
esteem the volatile Egyptian strongman, Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was busily
trying to undermine Hussein’s rule. And despite the depredations Jordanians had
committed in the parts of post-1948 Jerusalem under their rule -- including
turning Jewish gravestones into latrine pavements -- relations between Israel
and Jordan were far more rational than between Israel and Egypt. Yet when the
crunch came in late May 1967, Hussein, under enormous pressure, signed an
alliance with Egypt and joined the Arab assault on Israel -- a mistake that
cost him the West Bank and the eastern sectors of Jerusalem.
As a result, Israeli paratroopers stood at the Western Wall. And
a Jewish polity was in charge of the most sacred of Jewish sites for the first
time since Titus destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D.
I’ve been to Jerusalem four times, most recently in November
2015, and on each occasion I’ve visited the Western Wall and prayed there: for
the “peace of Jerusalem” of which Psalm 122 speaks; for Jewish friends
throughout the world; for my own family and friends, especially those in
particular need. My 2015 visit to the Holy City was especially encouraging,
though, because it suggested that something resembling a real
religion-and-society debate is finally emerging in Israel.
On previous visits, beginning in 1988, I lectured at Hebrew
University and spoke on programs organized by scholarly and civic
organizations, the discussion always being about religion-and-society. Except
it was a non-discussion, or at least a non-starter, for until recently, the
religion-and-society debate in Israel meant ultra-orthodox Jews vs. thoroughly
secularized Jews, which didn’t leave a whole lot of room for serious conversation.
November 2015 was different. While leading a week-long seminar on
deep secularization and its effects in Europe (and on the democratic project
throughout the world), I met younger Israeli scholars, deeply immersed in their
Judaism and keen students of political philosophy, who were trying to
articulate a Jewish theological rationale for human rights, democracy, the rule
of law, and so forth. They were, in the main, Modern Orthodox and I thoroughly
enjoyed our exchanges.
Their work represents the possibility of creating something
missing from Israeli society and culture for too long: a religiously-informed
public philosophy for shaping the typically-raucous Israeli debate over the
country’s present and future. Developing that body of thought is not going to
be easy. But it wasn’t going to happen at all when the only actors on the stage
were the ultra-Orthodox and the hard-core secularists, so now there is a
chance.
On this 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem,
thanks also are due to the Israeli authorities for the care they have taken to
make genuine pilgrimage possible throughout the Holy City, which is far more
open to people of all faiths today than it was when the city was divided
between 1948 and 1967. Israel’s admirable stewardship of Jerusalem is too
infrequently acknowledged; it’s both a duty and a pleasure to acknowledge it
here.
To return to the psalmist, “For the peace of Jerusalem, pray.…May
peace reign in your walls/in your palaces, peace!”
Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E.
Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in
Washington.