The Miracle of Israel at 70

On that first Independence Day, May 14th 1948 (the 5th Iyar 5708 in the Jewish calendar) at 3pm, in haste before the Sabbath started, David Ben Gurion presided over the ceremony to mark the founding of the State of Israel and to declare her Independence. Until the last moment it was not even known what the name of the fledgling state would be. All of Israel’s most important people were crowded into the bunker-like home of Meir Dizengoff; Jerusalem being under fire and there was a very real fear that they could all be wiped out simultaneously. The infant state had scarcely recovered from the Holocaust that had nearly decimated their national identity. It was only out of the ashes of Auschwitz, and a score of other death camps, that the promise of the dry bones began to be fulfilled. Yet all were aware that taking the step to statehood would move Israel from its refugee status coming out of the Holocaust to an Independent Nation capable of defending itself in the future. ...