Lee Diamond
Israel Celebration Tours
All of us remember the day we left Egypt. In every generation we see ourselves as if we participated in the Exodus.
All of us remember the day we stood at Mt. Sinai and received the Torah. We were all there! If we dig deeply enough we can connect with the entire nation of Israel of all generations who shared this moment which formed our identity forever.
On Tisha BiAv we remember the destruction of the Temples and of the sovereign Jewish State by fasting and mourning as a nation.
As the last phrase of the Seder and as the last act of Yom Kipper we declare “Next Year in Jerusalem.”
Under the Chuppah we break the glass to recall the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E.
In all of these cases it is clear that we Jews choose to relive our national history by becoming part of it and it is through this “reliving” that we live as Jews.
Exodus and Sinai were two key moments in our history. But there is another which is as key and as miraculous as they are.
The Birth of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 is no less significant
and no less miraculous!
Independence Hall Tel Aviv
On this historic day, David ben Gurion in the presence of the provisional government of the Jews of Israel declared the State of Israel after 2,000 of exile. The Jewish people, world wide, were glued to their radios as this historic event took place. This turning point in Jewish history was heard and felt by the entire Jewish nation. Words like Shecheheyanu or Baruch HaShem were heard throughout the streets of Israel and homes in London, Moscow, and Buenos and New York.
We were all there--the generations before us as well as Jews of the entire world. We knew where we came from. We remembered the recent and distant past. We saw this as the hope of our future. Indeed the words of HaTiqva (the Hope) said it all.
Here in this room, in the former home of Meir Dizengoff on Rothchild Blvd in Tel Aviv our history changed. Just as the Exodus was our turning point bringing us to freedom and Sinai was the moment that gave this nation its content, so too this moment gave us the home that we longed for throughout our exile.
This moment needs to be experienced by every Jew. It is so easy to forget. It is so easy to take Israel for granted. It is so easy to assume that Israel was always here. It is so easy to forget what Jewish life was before being empowered by our own state, our own homeland, our own language; our own holidays our own history and our own literature taught in our schools; our own Knesset or Parliament, our own Israel Defense Force to protect the Jewish people and Israel.
Just as every Jew was at the Exodus; at Mt. Sinai and in Auschwitz, so too every Jew for all times has to relive the moment of Israel’s birth and never allow this moment to be taken for granted or to become prosaic.
Here in the Independence Hall in Tel Aviv Israel Celebration Tours provides this crucial moment of reliving; a moment of “re Jew vi Nation”; a moment for all generations of Jews to discover the miracle and include it in their lives.
*ICT brings this and other moments to life.
*ICT understands the Jewish mitzvah of identification
*We read the declaration of Independence as it was read on this historic day in this historic place.
*We hear the voice of Ben Gurion declaring the State
*We join in singing Ha Tikva with those present and proclaim the Shehecheyanu prayer with the original participants.
*We discuss the values expressed in the Declaration of Israel’s independence and try to determine our success in implementing these values in Jewish life and in our young nation.
*We remember that Israel is a work in progress
We add our names to the signatures or our founders
We stand as Jews, with Jews and for Jews!
And we commit to our next generation to keep the miracle alive and progressing.
To relive Jewish moments in Israel
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