From the Editor May/Jun 2017
June 1967 was a good time to be Jewish. At least it seemed that way to me. I was a teenager during the Six-Day War, and I was so proud of the Israeli soldiers. Not only were they fighting for their country, but they were fighting for Jewish people everywhere who understood the importance of safeguarding the one place on Earth where Jews did not have to worry about being persecuted: Israel.
The war took place June 5 through 10. In mid-June, I began working as a bunk counselor at Camp Ramah in Palmer, Massachusetts. It was one of the best summers of my life. In early July, the Israeli contingent began to arrive, as it did each year, joining the American staff. The excitement was palpable. Some of the young men were with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and had brought their wives and children to camp with them.
One evening a group of us sat mesmerized around a bonfire as a soldier told us about the fighting. He said the IDF was so careful not to damage the Western Wall that he and his buddies fought hand-to-hand, without firing weapons.
Even Gentiles were praising Israel. One man told me with admiration, “Everyone knows those Israelis are the best flyboys in the world.”
Oh how things have changed. Though there are more than 50 Muslim nations in the world—many of which persecute Christians— apparently few people believe the Jews are entitled to even one Jewish nation.
The Six-Day War was fought 22 years after the Holocaust. Few people then disputed the truth of that atrocity. Today, however, anti-Semitism is rampant again, and more and more people either deny the Holocaust or know almost nothing about it. The world is being pulled into a vortex of revisionism, and the importance of Jerusalem’s reunification is being erased by anti-Semites who have no regard for facts or truth.
In this issue of Israel My Glory, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the reunification of the eternal capital of the Jewish people. We had so much good material for this issue that we ran out of room. I was particularly disappointed we couldn’t run the full interviews Elliot Jager did with Israelis who lived through the war. But we put them online for you, with photographs, at israelmyglory.org. I urge you to log on. You won’t be disappointed.
Someday Jerusalem’s strife will end, and it will become the capital of the world. Ruling will be Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, who will love and protect the Jewish people. And no anti-Semite will be able to stop Him.
Waiting for His Appearing,
Lorna Simcox
Editor-in-Chief
