The first Yom Yerushalayim was a military victory.
On June 7, 1967 (Iyar 28 on the Hebrew calendar), a Wednesday, Israeli soldiers captured the Old City of Jerusalem, reuniting the capital that had been divided, under Jordanian control since the 1948 War of Independence.
Jerusalem Day was born, observed, by order of the country’s Chief Rabbinate, with prayers of thanks.
In the former Soviet Union, where World War II is known as the Great Patriotic War, the anniversary of Germany’s surrender to the Allied forces is an annual cause for nationwide celebration, a day of parades and reunions of onetime veterans.
The veterans from the FSU who have settled in this country over the last few decades still commemorate the day.
On Shabbat, the usual worshipers came to Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope.
The next day, the visitors came.
As part of the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s annual Sacred Sites Open House Weekend, the century-old Brooklyn synagogue welcomed people with an interest in the synagogue’s neo-Romanesque architecture, its limestone dome and its stained-glass windows.
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