This is one of the most incredible photos in Jewish History. It was taken under the Arch of Titus in Rome days after the historic UN Resolution of 1947 that restored Jewish sovereignty to the land of Israel after two thousands years. The people in the picture are Jewish refugees displaced by World War Two.
Reflecting on the 71 Year anniversary of this occasion which is today, Anshell Pfefer wrote in Haaretz, “No matter how many times you stand there, facing the southern panel with its depiction of the defeated, exiled Jews carrying the vessels of the Temple of Jerusalem to Rome, it’s impossible not to reflect on how far we’ve come.
Throughout their history, Roman Jews had observed an unwritten rule never to walk beneath Titus’ Arch. But on the morning of November 30, 1947, they assembled there for the first time in joy, only three years after they had been in hiding, with the Germans rounding up deportations to Auschwitz, while the Vatican turned a blind eye – and made the most incredible prayer in the history of Jewish exile.
The United Nations had voted to establish a Jewish sovereign state in the homeland and finally the Jews of Rome, joined by Holocaust survivors from across Europe, could raise their middle finger to Titus and to history.”
The post-1947 tradition is for Jews to walk backwards through the arch.
tora42's nonsensne 