Israel’s 32nd anniversary was celebrated here last night and today with private parties, official ceremonies, gatherings and receptions.
The major Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration by the New York Jewish community was held at the Bier Auditorium an Manhattan’s East Side where some 700 people gathered last night to pay homage to those who fell in Israel’s wars and to celebrate Israel’s anniversary. The event was sponsored by the American Zionist Federation. Yehuda Blum, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, brought Israel’s greetings to the audience and delivered the major speech of the evening.
The Israeli Consulate in New York organized Yom Ha’atzaut parties for Israelis in the five boroughs, where glasses of wine were raised in toasts to the Jewish State. Blum and the Consul General of Israel in New York, Yoseph Kedar, are hosting a reception tonight at the United Nations to mark Israel’s 32nd anniversary.
PRIDE AND SATISFACTION
In his speech last night Blum described Israel’s achievements of the past 32 years, declaring that “we are entitled to look back with pride and satisfaction.” But he said that Israel still faces “great and formidable challenges.” Those challenges, he said, include the oppression of Soviet Jewry and Jews in Arab lands and the assimilation of Jews in the free world.
“In the countries of the free world, where parents are free to provide a thorough Jewish education for their children, only a negligible fraction of our young people is given this opportunity, “Blum said “Intermarriage–this sure and clear symptom of assimilation–is rampant and has reached alarming proportions, thus sapping our national vitality. There is of course a clear connection between these two phenomena–the lack of adequate Jewish educational framework and the rise of intermarriage.”
As for the situation in the Mideast, the Israeli envoy declared that Israel is determined to prevent any departure from the formula agreed upon at Camp David. “We are determined to prevent a situation in which the autonomy regime (in Judaea, Samaria and Gaza) could become the nucleus of a PLO state.”
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