A two-minute blast on sirens in cities and towns throughout Israel marked tonight the close of the national day of mourning for its war dead and ushered in the formal celebration of the tenth anniversary of Israel’s independence.
Speaker of Parliament Joseph Sprinzak presided over a ceremony on Mt. Herzl where representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel each lighted a beacon to announce to the people of Israel the beginning of the joyous observance of a decade of liberty after 2, 000 years of exile. Beacons were lighted by a representative of the pre-state yishuv and by recent immigrants from the United States, Yemen, South Africa, Poland, Abbysinia, Russia, France, North Africa, South Africa, Iraq and India. The ceremony here ended with a display of fireworks which could be seen by many thousands throughout the city and in the surrounding villages.
President Itzhak Ben Zvitoday gave a reception to members of the diplomatic corps stationed in this country. Diplomats presented their felicitations to the President on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the proclamation of Israel’s independence. In fluent Hebrew, French Ambassador Pierre Gilbert, the dean of the diplomatic corps, expressed his colleague’s best wishes and then formally presented 34 diplomats permanently stationed in Israel and five others accredited to Israel but resident in another capital.
Fifteen members of a Parliamentary delegation from West Germany were not present. It was learned that the President refused to extend them an invitation. Yesterday, Premier David Ben Gurion received the Germans who included Prof. Carlo Schmidt, vice president of the Bundestag; Max Brauer, Mayor of Hamburg, and Hugo Scherenberg, a member of Parliament who was also named Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s personal representative to the celebrations.
All Israel paused today in its preparations for the joyous celebration of its tenth anniversary to pay low-keyed homage to the 5, 000 young men and women, without whose sacrifice of life itself, the State could not have thrown back the assault of five Arab armies which invaded the nascent state in 1948.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
