To our neighbors and friends, the Muslim community in Illinois, Greetings and Eid Mubarak!
Our hearts go out to you, our neighbors and friends, Muslims and Palestinians in the State of Illinois as you watch the images of violence from the heart of Jerusalem. We, rabbis of T’ruah-Illinois decry the recent, repeated armed incursions by the Israeli military and police into the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
We pray with you for the peace of Jerusalaem.
We know you are deeply connected to Jerusalem, so far away, yet so close to heart. As Jews, we know those feelings well. For Jews, the Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif is our most sacred site. It was the location of the Bet Hamikdash/Temple dating back to biblical times.
However, we affirm the millennia-old Jewish view that abdicates any Jewish claims to the Temple Mount in the here and now. The vast majority of Jews have no desire to pray on the Temple Mount and certainly not to perform any Biblical animal sacrifices there. Even the most traditional Jews, who continue to pray for a restoration of the ancient Jewish temple at this site, defer such visions to messianic times, on the other side of the horizon of our own reality.
We, the undersigned rabbis of T’ruah-Illinois, affirm the status quo in Jerusalem: the Western Wall is the traditional prayer space for Jews, the Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif, on the other side of the Western Wall, is the prayer space for Muslims.
The State of Israel is responsible for upholding the status quo in Jerusalem, and guaranteeing the sanctity of the Haram el-Sharif and the dignity of its Muslim worshippers. Violently disrupting Ramadan prayers, beating unarmed worshippers and intimidating Muslims in Jerusalem is absolutely not the way of peace. We call on the State of Israel to immediately commit to abstaining from any further violations of the Waqf’s authority on the Haram el-Sharif. Israel must guarantee freedom of worship in the holy city of Jerusalem, not just for Jews but for Muslims and Christians too.
On this Eid al-Fitr, we bless you, our Muslim fellow Illinoisans, with Eid Mubarak, a sweet holiday, as we pray with you for the peace of Jerusalem.
Signed,
Rabbi Ilana Axel, Hoffman Estates, IL
Rabbi Lisa Sari Bellows, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Michael Davis, Hebrew Seminary, Skokie, IL
Rabbi David Eber, Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, Evanston, IL
Rabbi Laurence Edwards, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Bruce Elder, Congregation Hakafa, Glencoe, IL
Rabbi Maralee Gordon, Woodstock, IL
Rabbi Suzanne Griffel, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein, Elgin, IL
Rabbi Andrea London, Beth Emet The Free Synagogue, Evanston, IL
Rabbi Rachel S. Mikva, Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL
Rabbi Nina J. Mizrahi, Ames Jewish Congregation, Ames, IA
Rabbi Rachel Weiss, Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, Evanston, IL
Well done.
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”
Attributed to Benjamin Franklin, but more likely Solon, Greece, 6th century BCE
Briefly, for the record, from “Jerusalem, a very short history,” by Professor Dr. Mohamed El-Masry, 2005.
EXCERPTS:
“Following the Muslim “opening” of the Jerusalem in 639 AD, the Dome of the Rock Mosque was constructed (688-691 AD). Two years later, the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built nearby on the same site. The two mosques & their surroundings became known as Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Holy Sanctuary).
“From 638 to 1099 Jerusalem enjoyed some 460 years of peace, religious tolerance & social-political development under Muslim rule; this period of progress ended in 1099 when invading Crusaders from Europe indiscriminately slaughtered its inhabitants — Muslims, Jews & Christians alike. In 1099 AD the city had few resident Jews & following the Crusades in 1200 there was reportedly only one Jewish family surviving.
“The Muslim leader Saladin liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187 & allowed the Jews to return.
“During Muslim rule, Jerusalem was administered from Medina (638-641 AD); from Damascus (641-750); from Baghdad (750-870), from Cairo (870-1517); & from 1517-1917 by Turkey.
“In 1267 the Muslims of Spain sent Rabbi Moshe Ben Nahman to Jerusalem to revive the Jewish religion.
“By 1572 there were reportedly 115 Jews in Jerusalem & by 1688 that number had increased slightly to 150. However following the Zionist movement in Europe, the city’s population soared in the late 1800s to some 50,000 with about half that number being Jewish. But even in 1854, Karl Marx, then a journalist with the New York Daily Tribune, reported that the Muslims in Jerusalem were the masters in every respect; virtually all the land in the Old City was owned by Arabs, even in the Jewish & Christian quarters.
“The British occupation of Palestine began in 1917. Lord Allenby, planting his sword in the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, boasted “Now end the Crusades!”