Joyous celebrations marking the second anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish state swept Israel last night and today. Scenes of unparalleled revelry were enacted in every village, town and city as the people of Israel–including the nearly 400,000 immigrants who have arrived here since the proclamation of Israel statehood, as well as the Moslem and Christian citizens of this country–heralded the ushering in of the third year of the independent existence of Israel.
Three artillery salvoes fired in Tel Aviv at 8:35 P.M. last night officially opened the nationwide celebration. President Chaim Weizmann, addressing the citizens of Israel and Jews throughout the world in a national broadcast, emphasized that “from Dan to Elath, the country is vibrating with the sound of the hammer and the ploughshare.” He added: “We appeal to the sons of our people throughout the world to come to our aid. Our festival is their festival; our anxiety, their anxiety.”
The Shofar–the traditional ram’s horn–was sounded on loudspeakers throughout the country as the merrymaking got under way. In the Haifa and Tel Aviv harbors, ships at anchor shrilled their sirens as citizens of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and other parts of Israel turned on every available electric bulb, illuminating the entire country. Hundreds of thousands of Tel Aviv’s citizens poured out into the streets last night immediately after dusk marked the end of the Sabbath. Israel flags blew in the breeze from every pole and tree in the city as men, women and children spontaneously seized one another to sing and dance. Horas–Israel’s national folk dance–were organized at a second’s notice.
Motion picture theatres throughout the Jewish state offered free entertainment; displays of fireworks were featured in many sections of Israel. A group of 1,500 Communists parading in the principal streets of Tel Aviv last night carried banners with portraits of Dr. Weizmann and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin. A chain of torches and a beacon of fires blazed last night on Israel’s hills and mountainsides from the new state’s borders in the north to the southernmost point at Elath.
U.S. TOURISTS MINGLE WITH NEW IMMIGRANTS FROM NORTH AFRICA
Thousands of newly-arrived immigrants from North Africa, Yemen, Eastern Europe and Iran mingled with hundreds of American tourists in Jerusalem to watch the display of Israel’s armed might on perade. President Weizmann, Premier David Ben Gurion and Chief of Staff Yigal Yadin took the salute as thousands of Israel troops passed by in smart formation to the cheers of tens of thousands of onlookers. The procession included units of the women’s services and mounted frontier police seated proudly on Arabian horses. Officers directing the troops could be heard commanding their men in foreign languages, testifying to the fact that many of the troops were recent immigrants.
Synagogues throughout Israel were crowded yesterday when special prayers were offered for the welfare of the new state. Members of the diplomatic corps, who attended various celebrations arranged by the government in Tel Aviv and Hakiryah, sent a message of congratulations to President Weizmann declaring that the anniversary celebration “marks extraordinary progress in the country’s two formative years.” Congratulatory messages were also received from President Truman, President Chvernik of the Soviet Union, the Greek Premier and the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Hungary, Poland and Guatemala. British Minister Alexander Knox Helm also conveyed a congratulatory message to Israel.
Aside from a fire in a Jerusalem home in which two persons were seriously hurt, the only untoward incident that marked the celebration was the proclamation issued by the ultra-Orthodox sect, Neturei Karta, declaring that today was to be a day of mourning. Three followers of the sect were arrested after they were found tearing down Israel flages.
(Dispatches reaching the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York today reported that Jewish communities in all parts of the world–including London, Paris, Munich, Montreal, Buenos Aires as well as cities in the United States–staged special celebrations marking Israel’s second birthday.)
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