TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel at 73
by David Harris
April 11, 2021

Modern Israel celebrates its 73rd birthday this week. Let me put my cards on the table. I’m not dispassionate when it comes to the country. For nearly 1,900 years, Jews around the world prayed for a return to Zion and Jerusalem, after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. and the loss of sovereignty. That’s a span of approximately 75 generations. The Jews never lost hope, however remote the likelihood of return may have seemed at any given time. How could they have, though, since without Zion and Jerusalem at the center of Judaism’s universe, what would Jewish identity be? READ MORE