The Jerusalem I Love

by Joan Comay

Book Overview

"This book captures in vivid prose and pictures the 4000-year saga of the city, a dramatic and exciting history which has given the very name Jerusalem a profoundly mystic sound to hundreds of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814806589
• ISBN13: 9780814806586
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: Steimatzky's Agency
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Pictorial Essay on the City of David

This super coffee table book by Joan Comay tells the story of the City of David and its trials and tribulations through the centuries. It is filled with magnificent photographs of landmarks in the city, religious places of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and scenes of life in the city, its vibrancy and its people. The book opens by explaining how on entering the city for the first time, one feels the emotional impact of 4000 years of continuous history, which has given the very word `Jerusalem' to millions of Christians and Jews throughout the world. This is the city of David and Solomon, of Isaiah and Jeremiah, of Judas Maccabeus and his brothers. This is the city of Jesus' last ministry and the crucifixion. It was on Mount Moriah, later the site of the Temple built by Solomon, that the Hebrew patriarch Abraham was called upon to make the dramatic sacrifice of his son Isaac. It was also on Mount Moriah that Jacob had his famous dream where God promised him: "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham and Isaac, thy father. The ground whereon thou liest will I give to thy children; and behold I will be with thee; therefore fear not. I will guard thee wheresoever thou goest and I will increase thy seed as the stars of heaven. I will disperse thy enemies before thee; they will fight against thee but they will not prevail. With greatness and with great wealth will I bring thee back to thy father's land." Since Jewish settlement in the Promised Land nearly 4000 years ago, Jerusalem has been occupied by many conquerors: Jebusites, Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Persians; Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Muslim Arabs, Seljuks, Fatimids, Crusaders, Mamelukes, Ottomans and British. But one constant thread has run through the city for thousands of years: The unique attachment of the Jewish people to Jerusalem. This attachment has remained unbroken from when King David built his capital in Jerusalem and King Solomon built the Holy Temple, to the reunification of the city after Israeli forces liberated it from Jordanian occupation in 1967. This was during the Six-Day War, in which Israel triumphed over Arab forces who aimed to obliterate her very existence. The hymn on the lips of Jews around the world through the ages has been: "If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my highest joys." Jerusalem is not as important to the Muslim world as Mecca and Medina are, and for centuries of Muslim occupation it was a neglected outpost. The Crusaders tried to capture and hold the city, but the capital of the Catholic world was always Rome. Many times the Jewish population of Jerusalem faced massacres and famine. The tribulations endured by the Israelite people include the destruction of the First Temple in 587 BCE when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, conquered the city, destroyed the First Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylonia.

The City of David

This super coffee table book by Joan Comay tells the story of the City of David and its trials and tribulations through the centuries. It is filled with magnificent photographs of landmarks in the city, religious places of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and scenes of life in the city, its vibrancy and its people. The book opens by explaining how on entering the city for the first time, one feels the emotional impact of 4000 years of continuous history, which has given the very word `Jerusalem' to millions of Christians and Jews throughout the world. This is the city of David and Solomon, of Isaiah and Jeremiah, of Judas Maccabeus and his brothers. This is the city of Jesus' last ministry and the crucifixion. It was on Mount Moriah, later the site of the Temple built by Solomon, that the Hebrew patriarch Abraham was called upon to make the dramatic sacrifice of his son Isaac. It was also on Mount Moriah that Jacob had his famous dream where God promised him: "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham and Isaac, thy father. The ground whereon thou liest will I give to thy children; and behold I will be with thee; therefore fear not. I will guard thee wheresoever thou goest and I will increase thy seed as the stars of heaven. I will disperse thy enemies before thee; they will fight against thee but they will not prevail. With greatness and with great wealth will I bring thee back to thy father's land." Since Jewish settlement in the Promised Land nearly 4000 years ago, Jerusalem has been occupied by many conquerors: Jebusites, Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Persians; Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Muslim Arabs, Seljuks, Fatimids, Crusaders, Mamelukes, Ottomans and British. But one constant thread has run through the city for thousands of years: The unique attachment of the Jewish people to Jerusalem. This attachment has remained unbroken from when King David built his capital in Jerusalem and King Solomon built the Holy Temple, to the reunification of the city after Israeli forces liberated it from Jordanian occupation in 1967. This was during the Six-Day War, in which Israel triumphed over Arab forces who aimed to obliterate her very existence. The hymn on the lips of Jews around the world through the ages has been: "If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my highest joys." Jerusalem is not as important to the Muslim world as Mecca and Medina are, and for centuries of Muslim occupation it was a neglected outpost. The Crusaders tried to capture and hold the city, but the capital of the Catholic world was always Rome. Many times the Jewish population of Jerusalem faced massacres and famine. The tribulations endured by the Israelite people include the destruction of the First Temple in 587 BCE when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, conquered the city, destroyed the First Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylonia.