embassy opening

History lesson and applause for Trump as Touro marks Yom Yerushalayim in Five Towns

Posted

A motzei Shabbat history lesson that tracked the Jewish connection to Jerusalem over the millennia was capped with a “thank you” to President Trump on the eve of the opening of the new U.S. embassy. The Yom Yerushalayim event, at the Young Israel of Woodmere, was sponsored by Touro College.

“No matter what you want to say about him, this is the first president to say that Yerushalayim is the eternal capital of eretz Yisroel,” said Rabbi Tzvi Flaum, mashgiach ruchani at the Lander College for Women.

Rabbi Flaum referenced the views of leading rebbeim over the centuries on the propriety of Jews resettling in eretz Yisroel and of a Jewish government being established there.

The Six-Day War, which returned the holiest sites to Jewish hands, and Israel’s ability to fight wars and protect Jews “on levels we never had in 2,000 years,” are signs that we are moving from a state of galus to one of geullah. “This can only be the yad of Hakadosh Baruch Hu,” he said.

The evening’s second speaker, Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz, rav of Beis HaKnesses of North Woodmere, reminded that it’s a mitzvah to live in eretz Yisroel.

“We should move to Israel, or at the very least, be proud of those who do,” he said.

Rabbi Eliyahu Soloveichik, rosh yeshiva, Beis Medrash L’’Talmud, Lander College for Men, delivered a Yom Yerushalayim shiur on Sunday morning at the YIW.