WHAT JERUSALEM MEANS TO US: JEWISH PERSPECTIVES AND REFLECTIONS

Jerusalem is a distinctive city for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their adherents. It is equally special for Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, having been their home for decades, if not centuries and millennia.

What Jerusalem Means to Us: Jewish Perspectives and Reflections addresses the intimate and unique connections among Jews, Judaism, and Jerusalem along a variety of dimensions - religious, spiritual, historical, cultural, political, psychological, and social. These are manifested through the perspectives and reflections of sixteen Jewish authors representing different backgrounds. The resultant essays present a rich array of personal and professional transformations, extraordinary love and hope for Jerusalem, as well as an honest appraisal of some of the challenges of daily living.

What Jerusalem Means to Us: Jewish Perspectives and Reflections is published by the Jerusalem Peace Institute, which highlights Jerusalem as humanity's shared gift governed by two peoples and cherished by three faiths, and its centrality for a just peace. It complements well the successful What Jerusalem Means to Us: Christian Perspectives and Reflections (2018) and What Jerusalem Means to Us: Muslim Perspectives and Reflections (2020), which were published by HCEF.

Edited by:

Dr. Saliba Sarsar

Co-Founder/President, The Jerusalem Peace Institute

Professor of Political Science, Monmouth University

and

Dr. Carole Monica C. Burnett

Co-Chair, HCEF Research & Publication Committee and

Editor of the Church and Fathers of the Church Mediaeval Continuation,

The Catholic University of America Press

Preface................................................................................................................................................... vii

Introduction by Saliba Sarsar.................................................................................................................. ix

1.Jerusalem: My Favorite City in the World! by Yael S. Aronoff............................................................. 1

2.Next Year in Jerusalem: When Aspiration Meets Reality by Naamah Kelman.................................... 18

3.What Jerusalem Means to Me by John L. Rosove.............................................................................. 26

4.Jerusalem in My Life by Peretz Rodman............................................................................................. 37

5.My Love of Jerusalem as a Reform Jew by Laurence P. Malinger...................................................... 49

6.Jerusalem, Our Common Mother City by Yehezkel Landau......................................... .......................58

7.On the Heavenly Jerusalem and the Earthly Jerusalem by Ron Kronish ............................................71

8.And All the Nations Shall Flow Unto It by Jonathan Golden................................................................ 83

9.The "Abandoned" Houses of Jerusalem by Tamar Verete-Zahavi ...................................................... 97

10."Go West": Reflections on the "West" in West Jerusalem by Elan Ezrachi...................................... 106

11.O Jerusalem: Reflections of a Liberal Zionist on the Too-Holy City by Ilan Peleg ........................... 119

12.My Jerusalem-Our Jerusalem by Sharon Rosen .......................................................................... 135

13.Jerusalem: An Insider/Resident's and Outsider/Researcher's Perspectives by Menachem Klein ...147

14.Jerusalem: The Cost of Jewish Israeli Dominance by Alice Rothchild ............................................ 155

15.My Transformative Journey by Aleen Bayard................................................................................... 165

16.My Story: Jerusalem as Source of Lifelong Inspiration and Career Path by Martin J. Raffel........... 178

About the Contributors.............................................................................................................................. 191

Appendix I: Jerusalem Peace Institute...................................................................................................... 201