From prayer to fulfillment: Israel’s first birthday

It was 1964; my wife, Rita, and I were here in Israel as students. We had heard that you could buy tickets for the 16th anniversary Independence Day celebratory parade. The only hitch – it was in Beersheba – so the tickets included the bus ride there and back and good seats to view everything. We felt that we could not miss that parade – never knowing then if we would be back. On the reviewing stand were prime minister Levi Eshkol, president Zalman Shazar and high-brass military figures. The parade was exciting and the flyover even more so. Tiny Beersheba had hosted this grand event. Unexpectedly, we did made aliya more than a decade later, some 40 years ago, but we came after the parades had ceased. We were in Zion Square in Jerusalem a few times, but since we could never obtain tickets for the Mount Herzl opening event, we watched mostly on TV. More than three decades ago, I decided to learn what the first Independence Day event was like in 1949. Fortunately, there was a great deal of material to study. Let me offer a taste of the inception of our national Independence Day. In every synagogue in Israel and at every military base, the shofar was blown on May 3, 1949, as the sun set. Only a month before, the armistice to end the war had been signed. Now the celebration of the “year of wonders” began. Cynics all over the world assumed that Israel, once attacked by its Arab neighbors, would never have a first anniversary. How wrong they were. The tenacity of its soldiers and the strong beliefs of its people in their land proved all the predictions of doom wrong. That first year was arduous, a time of fashioning the Jewish State, but May 3, as the sliver of moon came out – 5 Iyar, 5709 – was a time to celebrate. “Until a year ago,” David Courtney, of The Palestine Post (later The Jerusalem Post) wrote, “Israel has been a prayer in Jewish hearts, passed on in piety from generation to generation. “Its fulfillment,” he emphasized, “is still a strange, intoxicating wonder, the meaning and purpose of which can hardly be grasped in a single year.” On May 3, the Knesset was having a fierce budget debate so the members were in session until the sun set. Josef Sprinzak, speaker of the Knesset, offered an important passionate perspective to demonstrate what the first year meant. “Instead of being destroyed, we have flourished,” he said. “Instead of being extirpated, we built and planted.” Since no Remembrance Day had yet been established, a prayer for the fallen was recited at the Knesset. Then Sprinzak urged MKs “to go out into the streets of the State of Israel and celebrate with the people.” The military moment in Jerusalem occurred at Nordau Square in Romema. By the light of glowing oil flares, the Jerusalem Brigade stood in special formation as the fighters for the preservation of Jerusalem were singled out for meritorious bravery. “With rousing cheers, the 10,000 assembled,” one Jerusalemite wrote, “began to sing and dance when the dedication was completed.” To mark that first anniversary, a radiant Star of David illuminated the Generali Building downtown. Jerusalemites, who had suffered so, could now express their exuberance for their homeland. In Tel Aviv, Dizengoff Circle was aglow with multicolored lights and a “forest of flags” covered the downtown area. An outdoor concert in Haifa brought out large numbers of residents, who came to enjoy the rousing melodies. Beersheba played a role, since on that first birthday the city was connected to the electric grid. The first ice factory was also opened there in the Negev that day. Surprisingly, David Ben-Gurion attended a service at the Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv. For the first time, Hallel was recited as an addition to the morning service. The congregation felt a sense of holiness as the rabbis there each walked around, a hakafa (dancing circle) with the Torah, and then Ben-Gurion in his top hat carried the Torah as well. The Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yitzhak Halevi Herzog was in New York with president Chaim Weizmann. At a well attended rally, according to The New York Times, “Rabbi Herzog inspired the attendees with his moving address.” In my student year here in 1964, I found a picture of the start of the Jerusalem Independence Day parade in 1949 with the military and flag-bearing civilians. The marchers stretched from the Valley of the Cross across the fields, which are now part of Sacher Park, up to Ramban Street. In 1964 I could trace the route myself since the Six Day War had not yet changed that natural spot of land. The marchers, carrying all types of weaponry, joined the tanks and combat cars filled with flamethrowers and mine detectors, on Ramban Street and then moved forward to King George Avenue. The crowd cheered loudly, taking great pride in their soldiers and the armaments they saw. The reviewing stand was in front of the Histadrut Building (recently taken apart brick by brick). Lt.-Gen Yitzhak Dori, chief of staff of the IDF, took the salute as the troops paraded by. Ben-Gurion's key phrase in his Independence Day address over the radio was, “Work, work hard and work without rest.” He had seen what his citizenry of 680,000 had done, in an exemplary fashion, in the first 12 months, receiving and integrating into the country 350,000 new olim. Ben-Gurion did not hesitate to challenge Israelis to do as much if not more as Year 2 began. In Tel Aviv, where another parade was held, the crowd poured out into the street, blocking the march. They bedecked the soldiers with flowers and touched lovingly all the arms on parade. The newspapers pointed out that their enthusiasm exemplified the difference between the reserved Jerusalem citizenry and that of Tel Aviv. The final event on May 4 was an outdoor free concert in the Valley of the Cross. The outpouring for this festive event was so large that the concert had to be canceled. The Post reported the following: “In spite of all the setbacks, the people were so elated that they just continued to dance and sing into the night.” A major milestone in contemporary Jewish history had been marked with great joyousness and thankfulness.

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