Religious Jews celebrated Lag B’Omer in their traditional manner in northern Israel and trade unionists paraded through the center of Tel Aviv in honor of May Day, the traditional workers’ holiday, yesterday.
The dual holiday caused mammoth traffic jams on the roads of Galilee and in and around the country’s largest city. Orthodox Jews gathered at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai in Meron, near Safad. Organizers of the festivities said that “well over 100,000 were on hand.
The May Day parade, organized by Histadrut and the Labor Alignment, drew an estimated 70,000-100,000 prompting cynics to remark that “Rabbi Shimon appeared to have beaten Rabbi Karl Marx” this year.
The Lag B’Omer celebrations began Saturday night with bon fires all over the countryside, a tradition practiced mainly be teen-agers who hold parties around the flames and create headaches for local fire brigades.
The daylight gathering at Meron has been observed in its present form for about 150 years. It draws black-garbed ultra-Orthodox Jews and conventionally dressed Sephardim. Food booths set up in recent years have added a camival atmosphere.
The May Day parade and rally in Tel Aviv departed from the low key with which the workers holiday has been marked in Israel for the last 10 years. It was designed to rally the populace behind Labor and in opposition to the Likud government. Massed red banners led the procession. The celebration culminated last night with official opening of the Hapoel International Labor Sports Club games which have drawn athletes from all over the world.
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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.
