A few weeks ago, I was driving and noticed the car next to mine was filled with hassidim. The car had a bumper sticker memorializing my friend and fallen soldier, Aviad Noyman, God should avenge his blood.
It isn’t common to see hassidim with bumper stickers memorializing fallen soldiers, and especially one who was born, raised, and lived in our town of Mitzpe Yericho, as Aviad had. Even though we were at a red light, I asked the hassidim for “their story” and how they knew Aviad. They told me their story; we exchanged numbers and agreed to meet again soon.
What I didn’t know at the time was the hassidim in the car were the famous Elbaum family of the Belz Chassidic community. The Elbaums are well known inside and outside of Belz for their three generations of activism for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount.
The Elbaums, among hundreds of other Jews in Israel, have staged an almost sixty-year campaign for increased rights for Jews to practice Judaism freely on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. A horrific stain on the modern Jewish state is the accepted discriminatory policy that prevents Jews from practicing Judaism on its most sacred place.
THE NETWORK of Temple Mount activists includes advocates from across Israel and Jews from every circle of Israeli society. Haredim (ultra-Orthodox), national religious, hassidim, and secular Jews all make up the community of activists who advocate for increased freedom for Jews to practice Judaism freely on the Temple Mount.
Through their activism, the Elbaums of Belz in Jerusalem met the Noymans of Mitzpe Yericho. Aviad Noyman was a reserve soldier in the IDF, who although exempt from many of his tours, served multiple times in this recent war. He returned from Gaza upset and charged. He noticed that in every Palestinian home they entered, the Palestinians had a picture of the al-Aqsa compound of mosques on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Aviad was upset that Israelis don’t have a picture of the Temple in their homes. He would say, “The Palestinians know what they’re fighting over; we don’t know what we’re fighting for.” When Aviad was killed, his message was spread throughout Israel.
Aviad’s family and the Elbaums, sharing a love for the Temple Mount, became close friends. When Aviad fell in battle in Lebanon, the Elbaums joined hundreds of Israelis who placed a sticker on their car memorializing him. The sticker quotes one of his teachings emphasizing that we Jews don’t only fight in defense of our land but for sovereignty over it, including the Temple Mount and the eventual rebuilding of the Temple.
In the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan, Jerusalem was designated an “international city,” to be managed by the UN. That plan didn’t come to fruition; instead, Jerusalem was split along east-west lines, with the Temple Mount falling into Jordanian occupied territory. For the next 19 years, Jews were banned from Jerusalem’s Old City and the Temple Mount.
IN 1967, Israel gained control of the Old City of Jerusalem in its victory in the Six Day War. Israel signed an absurd deal with Jordan. The agreement grants the Jordanian Waqf administrative control over al-Aqsa Mosque compound and other Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount, while Israel maintains security control.
Under the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, Israel recognized Jordan’s “special role” in overseeing these religious sites, allowing the Waqf to manage daily operations, including access and religious activities, to preserve the Islamic character of the site.
The agreement prioritizes Muslim worship to maintain the Islamic character of al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and Israel enforces this by limiting non-Muslim religious activities to avoid escalating tensions.
Israeli authorities often restrict Jewish prayer to prevent clashes with Muslim worshipers, given the site’s history of sparking violence, such as during Palestinian uprisings. While Israeli courts have upheld the theoretical right of Jews to pray there, in practice, police frequently intervene and stop Jewish prayer – to maintain order, citing public safety concerns.
Agreement between two countries disastrous for Jewish sovereignty
The effect of the Israeli-Jordanian agreement has been disastrous for Jewish sovereignty. It concretized religious discrimination against Jews in the Jewish state, by the Jewish state, in the most sacred space in Judaism. Most Jews, and almost all Gentiles, assume that the Western Wall, a wall with no religious sanctity in Judaism, is the most sacred space for Jews. This is pure ignorance: The most sacred space has always been, is, and will always be the Temple Mount.
The Israeli-Jordanian agreement over the Temple Mount is a pathetic appeasement to terrorism. Instead of standing up to Palestinian and Arab threats of violence, Israel cowered and agreed to stop Jews from freely practicing their religion and even walking on their own land. The deal assumes that Palestinians are incapable of peacefully objecting to policies they oppose, and it’s their nature to be violent and uncontrollable. That’s an absurd assumption and racism of low expectations.
ONCE ISRAEL accepted this agreement, the world accepted its premises. If Jews visit the Temple Mount, they are described as agitators. It makes no difference whether it was Ariel Sharon walking around up there or a Jewish shoemaker from Jerusalem coming to visit the most sacred place in his religion – they are all branded agitators. Could anything be more ironic than peaceful visitors to the Temple Mount being branded violent because there are people there who threaten to unjustly attack them?
Western Democracies boast of the freedom they give to all religions to pray and practice freely. Yet America is quick to criticize Jews when they want to practice their religion freely on the Temple Mount. Israel itself boasts of giving access to Muslims and Christians to their holy sites. It’s embarrassing as an American and Israeli that my governments’ advocacy for religious freedom stops when it comes to Jews and their most sacred places.
Jews prayed for thousands of years that the Messiah would appear and bring the Jewish people back to Israel. In a surprise few Jewish thinkers contemplated, the actual return occurred when Jews stopped waiting for the Messiah but took an initiative and established a Jewish state on their own.
Today, Jews pray for a Messiah to appear and build the third Temple in Jerusalem. Just like the Jewish return to the Land of Israel and the state came with Jewish initiative, so too will the rebuilding of the Temple. One day, Jews will gain the courage to rebuild it, may we see it quickly in our day.
When the Temple will be rebuilt in its special place, it will be a place where all Jews and all nations come to serve and pray to God in unity. Thankfully, seeing hassidim like the Elbaums join with Israelis of all walks of life to advocate for increased freedom at the Temple Mount, demonstrates that it has already become a place of unity. May God grant us the right to build the third Temple soon.
The writer is a certified interfaith hospice chaplain in Jerusalem and the mayor of Mitzpe Yericho, where she lives with her husband and six children.