United Jerusalem will be the focal point of next year’s 20th anniversary celebrations of Israel’s independence with a full scale military parade and restoration of the 700 year-old Ramban (Rabbi Moshe Ben Nahman) Synagogue in the Old City, the oldest known synagogue in Jerusalem.
The announcement of plans for Israel’s 20th Anniversary Year, which will be officially inaugurated by President Shazar next Sunday, was made today by Dr. Jacob Hertzog, chairman of the Government Committee on Celebrations. He said that emphasis will be on the nation’s ties with Jewish communities all over the world and on the impact of the Six-Day War.
On schedule are 45 international conferences to be held in Israel with an anticipated attendance of 15,000 people. The first large group, arriving this week, is the 600-member special mission of the United Jewish Appeal which will study the problems of immigrant welfare and absorption arising from the Six-Day War and its aftermath. Next month there will be Weizmann Day in honor of the late Dr. Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel. In March, the Jewish War Veterans of the United States will hold its convention here. Also scheduled is a world conference of Jewish journalists.
The projected military parade in Jerusalem on Independence Day will mark the first time that Israel displays its full armed might in its capital city. Until this year, armistice regulations limited the number and type of weapons that could be paraded in Jerusalem.
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