In Honor Of Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day)

(A song of yearning & its origins)

It was 1997. My wife and I had taken three of our children to Israel. The two younger ones were still in diapers. Our fourth child had not yet been born. It’s hard to say what exactly kept me then—and still keeps me—yearning to return to Israel, to Jerusalem.

Through a strange set of circumstances, my parents, along with my grandma Rose, my Uncle Sol, va…