By Jerry Klinger
MA’ALE ADUMIM, Israel — A unique, long-term partnership between the Diaspora and Israel resulted in Ma’ale Adumim being the beneficiary of two huge Lion sculptures. The two Lions of Judah, each eight feet in height and ten feet in length, majestically supine and serene, are sited at the city’s entrance for maximum visibility. They are just below the large, bold “I Love Ma’ale Adumim/ Welcome Visitors” sculpture.
The Lions, donated by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, are the artistic creations of noted Jerusalem sculptor Sam Philipe. They are part of a national ten-sculpture series that JASHP and Philipe have named the Lion’s Trail.
The Lions of Judah are strong, physical affirmations of Jewish historical presence and legitimacy, the Jewish Kesher (connection) to the Land. Each Lion has a dedication plate with a biblical text that links the Lion(s) to the site with a declarative sentence, “Jews have lived here for over three thousand years.”
Ma’ale Adumim was founded in 1975 on barren, empty land across the Green Line in the West Bank (land to the West of the Jordan River). The Green Line was, literally, a green line drawn on the 1948 maps demarcating the Israeli-Arab ceasefire lines after the Israeli War of Independence. Final, permanent borders were to be negotiated later with a peace treaty.
A permanent negotiated peace with defined borders was never possible. Jordan annexed the disputed West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem to itself. Great Britain legitimized the Jordanian annexation.
Between 1948 and 1967, repeated terrorism was launched against the State of Israel from Jordanian territory. In June 1967, Jordan joined Egypt and Syria in a coalition to exterminate the Jewish state. The coalition was defeated in an ensuing war, an incredible lightning Six-Day War. The Jordanian West Bank fell to Israel. For the first time in 2,000 years, the Old City of Jerusalem was again under Jewish dominion. The State of Israel vowed Jerusalem would never be divided or surrendered ever again.
To protect Jerusalem and Israel’s access to the Jordan Valley, in the absence of the hoped-for negotiated peace treaty, Israel began permitting Jews to live over the Green Line. Ma’ale Adumim was again, as in Biblical times, strategically significant.
Today, Ma’ale Adumim is one of the largest Jewish cities in the disputed West Bank, with a population of almost 40,000. Ma’ale, as it is commonly called, just three miles from Jerusalem, has become an integral Jerusalem suburb, a Jerusalem bedroom community.
For the anti-Jewish world, who wish to destroy the Jewish State, Ma’ale Adumim has become a mantra, a central obstacle to a negotiated peace. They characterize Ma’ale as a “settlement on occupied Palestinian land.”
Yet, to obtain a negotiated peace with Egypt, Israel uprooted and withdrew its settlements from the Sinai Peninsula. More than 20 years ago, at great risk and repeated warnings not to do it, Israel unilaterally removed all Jewish settlements from Gaza. Israel demonstrated its willingness to make the hard decisions seeking a two-state solution to the Palestinians.
Hamas and the Gazans’ genocidal October 7 attack and the maniacal blood-lusting chanters of “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” revealed Ma’ale and the settlements are not the obstacles to peace.
The haters who wish to destroy Israel are.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis are fanatical Islamists who are funded and supplied with materials of death by Iran. Their objective is not a two-state solution but the extermination of Jews in Israel and everywhere. They have stated that Israel is the small Satan that must be destroyed. The West and America are the big Satan that they are really aiming at.
The New Islamic unified world they dream of will be guided by the principles outlined by their Spiritual mentor, Iran’s Ruhollah Khomeini, in his book Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist.
Non-Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jews living anywhere under Islamist dominance will be reduced to second-class existence. Khomeini called for the reinstitution of Dhimmi status for them.
Islamists envision the world subject to the restrictions of the Pact of Umar from the 7th century. Dhimmis will be forced into ghettos, wearing easily distinguishable clothing. They will not be permitted to build new churches or synagogues nor to repair older ones. They will be required to pay a toleration tax to the Islamic state, the jizyah.
Five years ago, JASHP donated a Philipe sculpture of Anne Frank to Ma’ale Adumim. The sculpture, entitled the Anne Frank Children’s Human Rights Memorial, is sited adjacent to a high school on one of Ma’ale’s main roads.
Engraved into the stone base of the sculpture is the vision of the Memorial.
“Children are the ultimate victims of adult hatred, bigotry, and ignorance.”
Israel’s then-President Reuven Rivlin wrote to JASHP about the sculpture: “Children are, indeed, often victims of adult hatred, bigotry, and ignorance…I certainly can agree with you that when all people, everywhere, protect the children of today, peace will be one step closer.”
Golda Meir wrote in her biography, “When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”
Ma’ale is not the obstacle to peace and a possible future two-state solution.
The dedication plate for the twin lions reads:
“The boundary ascended from Emek Achor to Devir and turned north to Gilgal, facing Ma’ale Adumim…” (Joshua 15:7)
וְעָלָה הַגְּבוּל דְּבִרָה, מֵעֵמֶק עָכוֹר, וְצָפוֹנָה פֹּנֶה אֶל-הַגִּלְגָּל אֲשֶׁר-נֹכַח לְמַעֲלֵה אֲדֻמִּים
The Jewish people have lived here for over 3,000 years.
The Lion of Ma’ale Adumim, initiated by Benny Kashriel, Mayor of Ma’ale Adumim, in cooperation with the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.
Design and fabrication: Sam Philipe – Sculptor
January 2023
The Lion(s) of Judah stands. Israel and the Jewish people will stand.
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Jerry Klinger is the President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation
www.JASHP.org