From Twain to Twerski

"Shortly after the Yom Kippur War, I visited Israel, and indeed spirits were low. Many families had suffered losses, and the shock of the war had seriously dampened the euphoria that had resulted from the triumph of the Six Day War. I left Israel with profound feelings of sadness.

On the way back from Israel, I stopped off in Rome and visited the ruins of ancient Rome - the Coliseum and the Forum. I walked among the broken columns of the once-proud buildings, and I came to the Arch of Titus. On the arch there is the bas relief of the Sack of Jerusalem, with Roman soldiers carrying off the Menorah, and the inscription, Judea Capta, Judah was taken captive. Under this relief someone had scrawled in graffiti in white chalk: עם ישראל חי, the nation of Israel lives on!"

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski in Visions of the Fathers.