Six Days That Shook the World

The following is an article that I wrote, which appeared in the June 12, 2025, edition of the Washington Jewish Week:

It took just six days to achieve what many thought to be unachievable. Between June 5 and 10, 1967, Israel swiftly and successfully neutralized military forces from Egypt, Jordan and Syria in one of the Jewish state’s biggest victories in its history.

In the process, Israel took control of the Golan Heights, Sinai Peninsula, West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City of Jerusalem. The iconic images of emotional Israeli soldiers at the Western Wall as Motta Gur, the commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ paratroopers brigade, famously declared “Har HaBayit B’Yadeinu!” (The Temple Mount is in our hands) are forever seared into the hearts and minds of Jews around the world.

In this month’s installment of “Remember When,” we look back at the June 4, 1987, issue of Washington Jewish Week, when a story titled “How the Six Day War Changed World Jewry” appeared.

Written by Theodore R. Mann, then president of the American Jewish Congress and former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the article provided some insights into the circumstances surrounding the Six-Day War and noted the significant impact that the military victory had on Jews around the globe.

“The Six Day War changed us,” Mann wrote. “We understood, far more deeply and universally than before, why there had to be an Israel. Moreover, we stopped seeing ourselves as powerless victims, and sensed a new respect from others. The Jewish community’s political assertiveness, sadly absent in the 30s and 40s, was greatly augmented by the self-esteem generated by the Six Day War. Gradually, the basis for America’s support for Israel shifted. It had been based on moral grounds and, marginally, on political considerations. But after the Six Day War, Israel began to be seen also as a first-class fighting machine, with a citizen’s army second to none and a democratic society in an area of the world where there was no other, and with political support in America that was far more determined than previously. As a determinant of American policy, Saudi oil had met its equal in Israeli military strength linked to American Jewish political strength.”

That increase in “the Jewish community’s political assertiveness” that Mann described has withstood the test of time and remains a major factor today.

As Israel continues to face existential threats from multiple fronts and Jews in the United States and throughout the world are contending with a frightening rise in antisemitism, the American Jewish community’s political involvement and activism is more critical than ever.

Our “political assertiveness,” as Mann termed it, is a critical means through which we can make our voices heard and urge our elected officials to do everything in their power to duly address the pressing issues impacting the Jewish community.