Ari Cat

A LITTLE JEWISH HISTORY LESSON. 🇮🇱 Before anyone claims that Jews have no historical connection to the land of Israel, perhaps it’s worth at the very minimum, opening a history book. The ancient Kingdoms of Israel and Judah existed thousands of years ago. Jerusalem was the capital of Judah and the spiritual center of Jewish civilization. The First and Second Temples stood there. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE. They fought Jewish revolts, imposed restrictions, and ATTEMPTED to suppress Jewish national identity. But they never erased the Jewish connection to the land. Jewish communities continued living in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, Tiberias, and throughout the region. Jewish scholarship, religious traditions, archaeological remains, inscriptions, and historical records document that presence. Even during centuries of dispersion, Jews never abandoned Jerusalem in their prayers, traditions, or collective identity. And then there are the Jewish cemeteries. The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem is home to one of the oldest and most sacred Jewish burial grounds in the world. Jewish burial traditions in this area stretch back roughly 3,000 years. Across the Kidron Valley, archaeologists have documented ancient burial caves dating to the First Temple period, including tombs associated with prominent families of the Kingdom of Judah. We’re talking about Jewish burial grounds that existed centuries before Christianity or Islam. These aren’t simply stories passed down through generations. There are actual tombs, burial chambers, Hebrew inscriptions, and archaeological discoveries documenting ancient Jewish life and death in Jerusalem. The Jewish people did not suddenly appear in 1948. The modern State of Israel was established in 1948, but the people, their language, their religion, their history, and their connection to this land are thousands of years older. Recognizing Jewish historical roots doesn’t require denying the history or rights of other people who also call this land home. But claiming that Jews are historically foreign to their ancestral homeland is simply not supported by the historical record.