On this day 50 years ago the Israeli Army secured the Old City of Jerusalem, which had been in Jordanian hands since the War of Independence in May 1948.

In the 1970s I was a high school student lucky enough to make it on a student trip abroad. We were in Rome, getting a tour of some, well, ruins. Among them was the Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman conquest of the remains of old Israel. Among the engravings on its side is a menorah (6 armed candelabra) being carried among the war booty. I don't know where I picked up the apocryphal story that no Jew would walk under the Titus Arch. It was a moot point when I was there as those ruins in particular well cordoned off.
Anyhow, our tour guide was an excellent Italian lady who at one point on the march mentioned that Rome on its own contained 400 churches. "How many synagogues?" I asked. With no pause whatsoever she answered "Four". Now I'm from Boston, which already had a wide ratio of churches to synagogues, but a 100 to 1 is impressive. I asked for the location of the biggest, and during my free time in the city I made it over. Noticed the police (or soldiers) with the submachine guns guarding it, we were already in the age of terrorism. It was a large building, I wasn't able to tell if it was in use for its original purpose or even if there was enough of a population left who knew what to use it for. But it was quiet and cool and had a gift shop. The woman behind the counter was pleased to chat with an American who knew no Italiano, and at one point I repeated to her my factoid that no Jew would walk under the Arch of Titus. With no pause whatsoever she said: "We can walk under it now. We have Jerusalem back!"

Fifty years ago today. Mazel Tov!