Less than a week after the liberation of the Western Wall 50 years ago on the 28th of Iyar 5727, the plaza in front of it opened to the public, allowing Jews to approach the remnants of the Temple Mount’s retaining wall unimpeded for the first time in two millennia.
The first morning after Shavuot, four Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidim stationed themselves at the wall with tefillin, offering throngs of Jews the opportunity to transform their raw emotions into concrete action. The men, along with hundreds of more Chassidim who would travel from Kfar Chabad and throughout the country on a daily basis to put on tefillin with visitors to the Kotel, were on the front lines of Chabad’s newly launched Tefillin Campaign, which the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—had initiated just days before war started. The iconic tefillin stand that greets visitors at the site today was also formally established at that time.
These photos, collected by Dan Hadani, founder of the Israel Press and Photo Agency, were recently released by the National Library of Israel. They offer a new look at some of the many thousands who gathered at the Kotel soon after its liberation 50 years ago.
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