The 1,900th anniversary of the destruction of the Second Temple was marked tonight on the eve of Tisha B’av by thousands of Jerusalem residents who came to the Western Wall, the remnant of the Temple, to pray and to mourn the destruction of the shrine.
The Jews, sitting on the ground, chanted the appropriate prayers and then arose to walk around the wall in accordance with instructions of Psalm 48:12. All places of entertainment in Israel were closed for the evening and street lights were dimmed. In accordance with Sephardic custom, all lights were put out in Sephardic synagogues while the cantor recited a remembrance of the Temple destruction and the choir sang “You should ask for the peace of your prisoners,” by the Sephardic poet Yehuda Halevi.
Israel’s Chief Rabbis had ruled that there should be no changes in the Tisha B’av services this year, despite demands from some Jews who argued that there should be alterations in recognition of the fact that Jerusalem has been re-united and was in Israeli hands.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
