6 - Amos Elon -- ÒJerusalem, City of MirrorsÓ Pg. 34

Jerusalem became their great Capital of Memory. Memory gave them their culture and their identity. Other peoples too had occupied lands and cities and then lost or abandoned them. The point was that they did not remember. The Jews did remember. They never forgot Jerusalem. Nothing remotely like this happened to any other vanquished people in the ancient Mediterranean world. Under the iron skies of northern Europe, the Jewish festivals remained tied to the seasons of the city. Passover and Yom Kippur services ended with the exhortation "Next year in Jerusalem." For centuries, Jews turned in prayer toward Jerusalem three times a day: "Return in mercy to your city Jerusalem and dwell in it as you have promised; rebuild it soon, in our own days. Praised are you, O Lord, builder of Jerusalem."