Thousands gather at Western Wall for Tisha B’Av, as Jewish communities set to mourn Oct. 7 victims

Thousands gather at Western Wall for Tisha B’Av, as Jewish communities set to mourn Oct. 7 victims

Thousands gather at the Western Wall in Jerusalem to mark the beginning of Tisha B’Av and read the Book of Lamentations, describing the destruction of Judaism’s First Temple, some 2,600 years ago.

Thousands of synagogues across all denominations are expected to incorporate texts about Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre in their Tisha B’Av ceremonies this year, causing some to predict the onslaught’s eventual canonization in Jewish liturgy alongside other catastrophes.

The fast of Tisha B’Av, which mourns the destruction of both the First and the Second Temples in Jerusalem, began this evening and lasts for 25 hours.