Education Minister Gideon Saar and newly-appointed Ministry Director-General Shimshon Shoshani have instituted a new program under which all elementary school students in the country must visit Jerusalem at least once.
The five obligatory sites to see in the capital are the Western Wall in the Old City, Ammunition Hill in an area liberated during the 1967 Six Day War, Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, the Knesset and the Supreme Court.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Rabbi of the Holy Sites, expressed great satisfaction. “The decision to restore Jewish values to the education system,” the rabbi said, “and to connect the young generation to the chain of the Jewish Nation is worthy of great appreciation by all of us.”
The Western Wall was never a part of the Holy Temple, but was rather the retaining wall on the western side of the Temple Mount. Its sanctity in Jewish tradition is long-standing, however, and the Sages said, "The Holy Presence never left the Western Wall."
In words that could have been directed to millions of Jews living abroad, Rabbi Rabinovitch said, “At the foot of the Western Wall, more than anywhere else, the memories of the Jewish Nation’s past merge with its hopes for the future. The sacred stones of the Wall reveal our roots, and they are an educational tool of the first order in revealing the remnants of our nation’s longing, and enable [us] to touch with our hands the subject of our yearning.”
“Everyone is equal before the Western Wall,” the rabbi continued. “There, every Jew feels his Jewishness, sometimes for the first time and without even knowing why or wherefore. Touching the stones of the Wall means connecting with the essence of our tradition and nation.”
“Generation upon generation streamed to touch its holy stones, but unfortunately, a significant portion of the present younger generation does not do this – and not because of estrangement, but for insignificant reasons. I hope that this important decision will help to raise up the younger generation to the correct vantage points.”
Half of Israel's Students Don't Visit Capital
Education Ministry statistics show that 50% of Israel’s children do not visit Jerusalem.