Israel’s Independent Spirit

Tonight we celebrate Yom HaAtzma’ut, Israel’s Independence Day. Just last week we observed Yom HaShoah which commemorates those who perished during the Shoah (Holocaust). Last Tuesday at 10:00 AM an entire nation came to a standstill as Israelis and visitors alike stood at attention for the duration of the blast of sirens heard from Rosh Pina in the north down to Eilat in the south. Anyone who has been in Israel on Yom HaShoah knows how powerful those two minutes are. Cars stop in the middle of the street and their passengers get out to stand respectfully, joining shopkeepers and their customers, factory workers, civil servants, teachers and students, politicians, doctors and even beggars in the street—everyone stops to remember in silence those whose voices were silenced by the Nazis and their minions.

For the duration of Yom HaShoah, all entertainment stops as well. Movies are closed and the Israeli media broadcasts music and programs of commemoration and remembrance in honor of the victims. But, it was from the ashes of the Shoah that the State of Israel emerged—a true modern miracle just three years after the liberation of the death camps.

What other people has witnessed such utter despair and such mighty triumph in such short a span? Our people has truly come to know the meaning of miracle. Yet, even this miracle came, not just by Divine fiat, but through the blood and blisters of Jewish pioneers and visionaries who followed Herzl’s charge: “If you will it, it is not a dream.”

It all began with the earliest Jewish settlers of modern Zionism, the First Aliyah at the end of the 19th century who established the first Jewish settlements and revived Hebrew, our ancient and now modern tongue. Then came the visionaries and socialist laborers of the Second Aliyah who founded the first kibbutzim as a utopian experiment in social organization and reclamation of the land. And to defend that land they created the HaShomer defense organizations, whose mounted watchmen stood guard over the growing Yishuv—the Jewish population of Palestine.

Following World War I the stream of Jews returning to the homeland swelled. The returnees of the Third and Fourth Aliyot rounding out the first quarter of the 20th century brought their ideals and their skills. Mostly from Russia and Poland, the young socialists were joined by middle class shopkeepers who formed the backbone of the Yishuv’s city-dwelling middle class.

The Fifth Aliyah between 1929 and 1939 witnessed the growth and development of the Yishuv as Jews from Germany and Austria joined those who had come from the Ottoman Empire and Eastern Europe adding their rich resources of culture and enlightened education to the Jewish community of Palestine. It was the Fifth Aliyah that added a new dimension to the Return to Zion as the Youth Aliyah movement took root and flourished. This growth and development continued despite Arab resistance and the infamous British White Paper that restricted Jewish immigration to a mere trickle, tragically trapping countless thousands of Jews in Hitler’s vise who might otherwise found refuge in a Jewish homeland.

Because of the strictures of the White Paper, Aliyah “Bet”—the “illegal” Aliyah under the watchful gaze of the British authorities brought Jews to Palestine’s shores in defiance of the mandate authorities. Between 1934 and 1948, some 115,000 Jews were brought to Palestine through the various channels of Aliyah Bet.

Then there were those who tried but failed to reach Zion, refugees and survivors of the Nazi concentration camps whom the British captured as they attempted to pursue their own avenue of hope and, instead of finding freedom, were interred by the British in yet another barbed-wire shrouded camp on Cyprus.

Upon the declaration of independence in a little pink house in Tel Aviv on a hot and dusty Friday, the gates of immigration were flung wide open. Jews from the prison of Europe as well as Jews from North Africa, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and from the four corners of the globe came home by the thousands. In its first year, Israel absorbed some 203,000 immigrants. All in all, 684,201 immigrants—more than the entire Jewish population when independence was declared—settled in Israel between May 14, 1948 and the end of 1951.

Yes, Israeli’s believe in miracles because Israel itself is a miracle. But it came at a heavy price. Thousands have died defending the dream against those who could not accept the idea of a Jewish return and homeland in Palestine. They were the fallen heroes who, since 1860 when the first records were kept, gave their lives so that Israel could thrive, a branch once withered now blossomed into a fruitful tree.

That is why today, the day before Yom HaAtzma’ut we observe Yom HaZikaron ve-haGevurah—Israel’s Day of Remembrance and Valor—in loving and grateful tribute to those who died so that Israel might live. Beginning with a siren’s blast last night at 8:00 PM, just as we marked Yom HaShoah a week ago, we stopped to memorialize. At 11:00 AM this morning a two-minute siren again brought all Israel to a stop as we stood in silent respect for the fallen. And, tonight at 8:00 PM another blast will sound as the somber mood of Yom HaZikaron is suddenly transformed into the jubilation of Yom HaAtzma’ut, our celebration of Israel’s independence and independent spirit.

Tonight there will be dancing in the streets, concerts, confetti and fireworks until the wee hours. Tomorrow, the traditional BBQ’s (the ubiquitous mangal, a hibatchi-like little grill) will be lit in parks, patios and throughout the countryside as an incense of smoke and grilling meats wafts over Israelis joyfully celebrating our modern miracle.

This is not our first Yom HaAtzma’ut in Israel, but for Wendy and me it is our first Yom HaAtzma’ut as Israelis and so the events and the commemorations of this past week have touched us as never before; because now, and from now on, we are part of the on-going miracle that is the up-building of Israel and the return of our people to Zion.

Hag Same’ach and shalom from Jerusalem.