The Shavuot holiday yesterday gave Israelis a long weekend to take to the beaches and countryside while the pious flocked to synagogues. The latter were especially crowded during “Yizkor,” the memorial service for departed loved ones. Shavuot is only observed for one day in Israel.
In many respects, it was a children’s holiday Youngsters, garbed in white, wearing flower garlands around their heads, made their donations to the Jewish National Fund, symbolic of the first crops of the spring planting that, in Biblical times, were donated to the Temple.
At Kibbutz Revivim in the Negev, a concert was held in honor of former Premier Golda Meir’s 80th birthday. Her daughter, Sara, is a member of the kibbutz. The Israel Chamber Orchestra performed under the baton of Rudolf Barshai, formerly of Moscow. The concluding work was Beethoven’s Eroica. The concert was the only public festivity in her honor agreed to by Mrs. Meir.
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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.