May 30, 2022

We join with Jews all over the world in thanking God for the miraculous victory of Israel in the Six Day War when the entire Jewish world feared for the survival of the Jewish state, for the gift of a return of Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem after 2,000 years and access to our holy sites that was denied to us for so many centuries.

We express our appreciation for the thriving, resurgence of Torah and secular life in our most beloved city of Jerusalem. Many of our members recited Hallel on Yom Yerushalayim, as part of expressing our immense gratitude to God for this day! We note that tens of thousands of Israelis celebrated the holiday peacefully and with dignity in Jerusalem and in other parts of the country.

We, however, condemn those groups of young Jewish men and women, some of whom identify as religious-Zionists, who paraded through the Arab quarter, banging on the doors of Arab-owned stores and on the homes of Arab-owned homes, using racist and bigoted language against the Arab populace. This is a desecration of God's name and a distortion of Zionism, religious or otherwise. We strongly condemn those mentors and educators who are encouraging their students to acts of violence and attitudes of racial supremacy and chauvinist nationalism.

We also condemn, Palestinian violence and incitement leading up to Yom Yerushalayim and those in the Palestinian community who deny the Jewish historical religious connection to the Temple Mount and Jersualem. 

Acknowledging the historic and religious connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, alongside those of other faith and national communities, should be a sine qua non for all those who seek the peace and welfare of Jerusalem and its inhabitants.

We yearn for the day when we will witness the fulfillment of the Psalmists vision of Jerusalem as a city that unites all humanity in recognition of the one God who created us all and who seeks peace and harmony among God's creations.