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Jerusalem Day
Jerusalem Day 2004 at the Western Wall
Official name	Template:Lang-he (Yom Yerushalayim)
Observed by	Israelis, Religious Zionists
Type	Secular (observed religiously in some Zionist communities)
Significance	The reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli rule after the Six-Day War
Begins	Iyar 28
Date	28 Iyar
2025 date	date missing (please add)

Jerusalem Day (Template:Lang-he, Yom Yerushalayim) is an Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the reestablishment of Jewish control over the Old City in 1967.

The day is marked by state ceremonies, memorial services for soldiers who died in the battle for Jerusalem, parades through downtown Jerusalem, reciting the Hallel prayer in synagogues, lectures on Jerusalem-related topics, singing and dancing, and special television programming. Schoolchildren throughout the country learn about significance of Jerusalem, and schools in the city itself hold festive assemblies. The mayor holds a reception open to the general public.

Some members of the ultra-orthodox community do not celebrate Jerusalem Day because of their refusal to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the state.

Under the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which proposed the establishment of two states in Palestine - a Jewish state and an Arab state - Jerusalem was to be an international city, neither Arab nor Jewish. The Jewish leadership accepted the plan, including the internationalization of Jerusalem, but the Arabs turned it down. As soon as Israel declared its independence in 1948, it was attacked en masse by its Arab neighbors. The 1948 Arab-Israeli War left Jerusalem divided between Israeli and Jordanian control. The Old City and East Jerusalem were occupied by Jordanian army, and the Jewish residents were forced out. Under Jordanian rule, the Old City's 58 synagogues were demolished and the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives was plundered for its tombstones, which were used as paving stones and building materials. The area around the Western Wall was turned into a public dump.

This state of affairs was reversed in 1967 by the Six-Day War. Israel did not intend to enter the West Bank, and sent a message to King Hussein of Jordan declaring that it would not attack as long as the Jordanian front remained quiet. Misled by Egyptian intelligence reports, Jordan began shelling civilian locations in Israel, to which Israel responded on June 6 by opening the eastern front. The following day, June 7, 1967 (28 Iyar 5727), Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem.

Later that day, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan declared:

This morning, the Israel Defense Forces liberated Jerusalem. We have united Jerusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned to the holiest of our holy places, never to part from it again. To our Arab neighbors we extend, also at this hour—and with added emphasis at this hour—our hand in peace. And to our Christian and Muslim fellow citizens, we solemnly promise full religious freedom and rights. We did not come to Jerusalem for the sake of other peoples' holy places, and not to interfere with the adherents of other faiths, but in order to safeguard its entirety, and to live there together with others, in unity.

The war ended with a ceasefire on June 11, 1967.

On May 12, 1968, the government proclaimed a new holiday - Jerusalem Day - to be celebrated on the 28th of Iyar, the Hebrew date on which the divided city of Jerusalem became one. On March 23, 1998, the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Day Law, making the day a national holiday.

One of the themes of Jerusalem Day, based on a verse from the Book of Psalms, is "Ke'ir shechubra la yachdav - "Built-up Jerusalem is like a city that was joined together" (Psalm 122:3).

The slogan for Jerusalem Day 2007, marking the 40th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, was "Mashehu Meyuhad leKol Ehad" (Template:Lang-he, Something Special for Everyone), punning on the words "meyuhad" (special) and "me'uhad" (united).

See also

• Jerusalem
• Yom HaShoah, Holocaust remembrance day
• Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day
• Yom Ha'atzma'ut, Israel Independence Day
• Jerusalem of Gold, Famous song by Naomi Shemer

References

1. 40th Anniversary of the Reunification of Jerusalem Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 16 May 2007

• "Overview: Jerusalem Day". Retrieved 2006-05-27.

External links

• Jerusalem Day on the official Knesset website
• Hebrew broadcast of the conquering of the Old City, from Voice of Israel Radio, June 7, 1967
• European parliament marks Jerusalem Day
• Photos of the Celebration, 5767
• Israeli Calendar for 2007

• Moveable holidays (2014 date missing)
• Jewish holy days
• National days
• Jerusalem
• May observances
• June observances