Fast Facts Fast Fact 43

Fast Fact #43

Jerusalem – one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world – has been destroyed at least 2 times, besieged 23 times, attacked another 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. Jerusalem Day, an Israeli national holiday celebrated on 28 Iyar of the Hebrew calendar, marks the reunification of the city in 1967 – the first time the whole city was under Jewish rule since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

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Fast Facts Fast Fact 42

Fast Fact #42

The Kotel, a.k.a. the Western Wall, is one of four retaining walls of the Temple Mount that survived the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The 11th-century poet Ahimaaz ben Paltiel is credited with the earliest Jewish use of the Hebrew term “hakotel hama’aravi” (the Western Wall) to describe the section that’s visible today. His ancestors were captives whom Titus brought to Rome after destroying Jerusalem.

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