Overview

• Elder of Ziyon published Rev. Henry R. Coleman’s 1880 description of weekly Tisha B’Av–like lamentations at the Western Wall.
• Coleman observed mourners kissing the stone wall and reciting Lamentations, psalms and responsive kinnot drawn from Hebrew prayer books.
• Israel National News released a comprehensive list linking major Jewish calamities from the First Temple’s fall in 586 B.C.E. through Holocaust milestones to the ninth of Av.
• Highlighted events include medieval expulsions from England, France and Spain, the 1648 Chmelnicki massacres and both World Wars coinciding with the fast.
• These historical reflections underscore Tisha B’Av as a day of collective mourning and introspection that continues to shape Jewish identity.