Day 2: Tel Aviv and the beginnings of the Jewish state.
Today we took an informative and amazingly emotional journey back to 1948 and the beginning of the Jewish state. Our day began with a visit to a secret bullet factory where, Jewish settlers secretly manufactured bullets for the Jewish militia (the “Palmach”) literally under the nose of the British government. The bullet factory was built directly under a kibbutz Laundromat where the noise of the laundry machines covered the noise of the bullet making machinery hidden underneath the Laundromat. There, over the course of several years, millions of bullets were manufactured by kibbutz members who worked under incredibly difficult conditions. The ingenuity and creativity was quite remarkable … from the fact that this secret was hidden even from other members of the kibbutz, (who were called ‘giraffes’ because they had their head in the air and could not see what was going on underneath their feet … to the fact that they even had a tanning room in the underground factory so that those who worked 8 to 10 hours daily in this sunless environment would appear to their fellow kibbutzniks and British authorities as if they were working in the fields.
We then went on to Independence Hall in Tel Aviv. There we sat in the exact room where David Ben Gurion announced the beginning of the Jewish state. In a very moving and emotional recreation we sat in the very setting of that momentous May 5, 1948 day, listened to the voice of Ben Gurion reading their Declaration of Independence, followed by the shehecheyanu and then we stood and joined in the hatikvah as played by the symphony orchestra on that day. There were not many dry eyes as it was very easy to relive the emotion of that important day.
After a short break at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf … yep, even here …
… it was on to the Palmach museum where through incredible technology we relived the fight of for the independence of the Jewish state through the experience of one group of soldiers from this important faction of what would become the Israeli Defense Forces. It is hard to retell for you the miracle that was the Israeli victory that lead to the establishment of the State. Imagine that these men and woman fought sometimes with less than even one weapon for each person in their company. They fought with bullets hand made secretly underneath laundries. They fought not only against the British and indigenous Arab population, but also against the armies of 6 surrounding Arabic countries.
We all left the day’s experiences with a new appreciation for the men and women who created this Jewish state. They simply refused to be denied and were willing to do whatever it took in order to create a Jewish homeland … including sacrificing their own lives. 6000 died in the struggle to create the state. To put that in perspective, as we were told over and over again, this represented 1% of the entire Jewish population. AND to put that in perspective think about what that would mean in terms of the population of the United States.
Exhausted from an amazing day, we relaxed in the late afternoon on a Tel Aviv beach, enjoying the softest sand I have ever squished my toes through and Mediterranean water that must have been close to 90 degrees.
Finally, we joined together at a Tel Aviv restaurant for a tasty dinner and much too much food.
Filled up to overflowing physically and emotionally we made our way back to Jerusalem for a quick night’s sleep to recharge our batteries as we move on tomorrow to another amazing day in the Promised Land.
