The HuffPost website recently featured a young Jewish writer explaining what she wanted for her wedding: “I want Jewish traditions involved. I want the whole tradition-filled party—a chuppah, the breaking of the glass, and being lifted up in chairs while loved ones dance the hora around me. ‘My Big Fat Jewish Wedding,’ if you will.”
The writer seemed to have no idea what “the breaking of the glass” was all about. Tragically, this wedding season, far too many young Jews will celebrate their weddings and also have little appreciation or knowledge of what this “tradition” is all about: Jerusalem.
The “breaking of the glass” is not the only time under the chuppah that young brides and grooms will hear about our holiest city. The ancient, traditional service also includes the blessing: “May there soon be heard in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy and gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride ... .” But what are “the cities of Judah, and the streets of Jerusalem?”
Last month, when an op-ed by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) attacking Israel was published in The New York Times, it contained the idea that the American government should declare that it considers “Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as part of Palestine.”
What the piece did not explain is what East Jerusalem is. The area Van Hollen refers to isn’t “East Jerusalem” at all; it’s just Jerusalem. The same Jerusalem Van Hollen is calling “East Jerusalem.” What’s more, there is no political entity known as “East Jerusalem”—not now, and not at any point in history.
“East Jerusalem” is simply Jerusalem. Every biblical mention of a specific location in Jerusalem refers to an area that Van Hollen wants Israel to surrender. The term “East Jerusalem” doesn’t appear in the Torah because it is a modern political invention. When Israel’s enemies created this false name for Jerusalem’s Old City and surrounding neighborhoods, including the Western Wall, it was meant to sever the connection between Israel and Judaism’s holiest sites.
Today, Israel’s control of the parts of Jerusalem that the Israeli Defense Forces liberated in 1967 is consistently and vehemently contested by Arabs, who claim those areas rightfully belong to them. This claim is a cornerstone of the daily anti-Israel propaganda disseminated by Van Hollen and his J Street supporters.
At traditional weddings, when the guests shout “Mazel Tov!” the groom recites this verse from Psalm 137: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not make Jerusalem above my greatest joy.” (Psalm 137)
What we are talking about is what Van Hollen is calling “East Jerusalem.” This is not a thing that is limited to weddings. The Jewish holidays—every one of them—are inextricably bound to Jerusalem and its Holy Temple, the Beit Hamikdash.
Nearly 2,000 years after the Romans destroyed the Holy Temple, Jews still mourn its loss. We grieve the destruction of the actual, physical building. We are not at peace with the fact that our holy site has been co-opted by another religion and that the religious shrines of others have been built atop the ruins of ours. It is a bitter irony that these Islamic shrines are now used by extremists to incite hatred and violence against the Jewish people and Israel.
No matter how many Jews live in Jerusalem, no matter how many yeshivahs flourish there, no matter how beautiful the modern city of Jerusalem is, Jewish destiny is left unfulfilled so long as we are without our Holy Temple. And that is why we break the glass.
With Birthright and gap-year programs, there are now more opportunities for American Jews to visit Jerusalem’s Old City than ever before. These programs bring their participants to visit the Western Wall (Kotel), but seldom focus on the ways that Jews for centuries mourned the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple each day through prayer and ritual.
Every summer, two Jewish memorial days focus on the loss of the Holy Temple and the destruction of Jerusalem, starting with July 2, the memorial fast day on the 17th of Tammuz, and, three weeks later, starting on the evening of July 22, 2026, and ending after sundown on July 23, Tisha B’Av.
It is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar—the annual remembrance of the destruction of the First and Second Temples in ancient Jerusalem, along with other calamities throughout the generations.
This summer, Jerusalem should be recalled under the chuppah, on its memorial days and whenever the Van Hollens of this world try to claim that our holy city is someone else’s “East Jerusalem.”
