Experience history in Tel Aviv

RHONDA SPIVAK

Independence Hall on Rothchild Boulevard in Tel Aviv brimmed with school children the day that I visited with my son to mark Israel's 6oth birthday last year.

It was there, at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 14, 1948 (the fifth day of Iyar 5708) – just before Shabbat and a mere eight hours before the termination of the British Mandate in what was then Palestine – David Ben Gurion met with the leaders of the Yishuv and declared the creation of the state of Israel.

Everything in this simple, unadorned room with a row of small rectangular windows that line the top has been preserved exactly the way it was. The names of those who attended the ceremony are on the dais, with the original microphones and chairs; Zionist founder Theodor Herzl's portrait hangs above the dais, flanked by two long Israeli flags.

The wooden chairs for invited guests are set up the way they were then and, on my visit, they were filled with elementary schoolchildren, who quieted down as their teacher recreated history before their eyes, transporting us all back in time.

My eight-year-old-son, Dov, asked me where Ben Gurion sat? His question was answered by the teacher, who pointed to Ben Gurion's seat and noted the wooden gavel before it. She banged the gavel on the dais three times to show how Ben-Gurion would have called the meeting to order on that fateful day.

On the walls, there are paintings hanging. Why? The teacher explained that this hall was not a place that had been designed for political ceremonies. It was a building that served as the Tel Aviv art museum at the time. In fact, most of the pictures still hanging on the walls of the hall were part of the museum's collection from the day the state was declared.

Before the hall was an art museum, it was the home of Meir Dizengoff, Tel Aviv's first mayor, and his wife, Zinna, who donated it to their beloved city.

Why did Ben Gurion and the members of the national council make the declaration in Tel Aviv and not Jerusalem? The teacher explained that, at the time, Jerusalem was under siege and the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road was blockaded by the Arabs of Palestine. Two members of the national council were unable to arrive in Tel Aviv for the historical decision.

The room full of children was hushed as the teacher noted the proceedings were kept "almost a secret" and the 250 guests were invited at the last minute. Why? Because the Zionist leaders feared that the Declaration of Independence would be stopped by the British.

In the United Nations, the United States and other countries tried to prevent or postpone the establishment of a Jewish state, suggesting trusteeship, among other proposals. But by the time the British Mandate was due to end, officially, the partition plan calling for a state of Palestine and a state of Israel was still "on the books" of the United Nations, which had not yet approved any alternate plan.

Two days before the declaration, Golda Meirson (Meir) reported the results of a secret meeting she had on May 11, 1948, with King Abdullah of Jordan. The king had decided to withdraw from former agreements for political arrangements to recognize the Jewish state, joining the Arab league preparations to invade Palestine directly after termination of the British Mandate.

Hours before the British Mandate was set to expire, Ben Gurion was faced with a dilemma. Should he declare Israel's independence upon the withdrawal of the British mandatory administration, despite the threat of an impending attack by Arab states? Or should he wait, perhaps only a month or two, until conditions were more favorable?

Ben Gurion seized the moment to declare the state. No borders of the state were mentioned in the declaration. When queried on this point, Ben Gurion asked, "When the United States declared independence, did it define its borders?"

In the hall, I listened with the children to the original recording of the ceremony. One of the teachers sitting near me commented how she'd forgotten that Ben Gurion's voice had such a strong European accent.

On the original recording, after Ben Gurion reads the declaration, the entire audience rises. On this occasion, the children and I rose also.

On the recording, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Fishman reads the Shehechiyanu: "Blessed art thou, O Lord, King of the Universe, Who has kept us alive and preserved us and enabled us to reach this season." My lips began on their own to recite the words – after 60 years, the magic is still there. The ceremony concluded with the singing of Hatikva, Israel's national anthem.

As we left the hall, I asked myself why, even though I had spent hundreds of days in Tel Aviv, it was only then that I thought to visit Independence Hall. And then I answered my own question. Maybe, it was meant to be, that I first experience the joy of being there with a young child who is curious enough to ask all the right questions and old enough to remember the experience. My husband will next take my daughter.

When you are in Tel Aviv, and especially if you haven't been before, make sure to stop by Independence Hall – above all, take a child or as many children as you can. It's an experience to be shared, m'dor le dor, from one generation to the next.

Rhonda Spivak is a freelance writer and the editor of Winnipeg's Jewish Post and News.

^TOP