On Friday May 14, 1948, at 4 p.m., David Ben Gurion stood behind a microphone at the Tel Aviv Museum and read Israel’s Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the Jewish State into existence. Ben Gurion was the chairman of the Minhelet HaAm (People’s Administration), a cabinet-like group that existed from April 12 to May 14, 1948. It was replaced by the Memshala HaZmanit (the Provisional Government) and Ben Gurion served as prime minister and defence minister.
Israel’s first Knesset elections were held Jan. 20, 1949. Ben Gurion’s Mapai party won 46 of the 120 seats, making him Israel’s first elected prime minister. For all these achievements and more, Ben Gurion is widely considered to be Israel’s founding father.
In 1966, an autograph collector from the Bronx, N.Y., sent Ben Gurion a letter thanking him for his critical role in creating Israel. Ben Gurion responded by handwritten letter which reads as follows:
Tel Aviv 20.4.66
Dear Mr. Robert J. Cohen,
While I have no doubt in the sincerity of your letter of April the 16th—I cannot agree with the view that Israel was made possible by a single person. I am now engaged in writing—in Hebrew a book about that miracle—how it happened, beginning with the year 1870, when the first agricultural school was established by French Jews. There you will see who really made Israel. I have done my share as many Jews have done it.
Yours sincerely,
D. Ben-Gurion
As we think about Israel on the 77th anniversary of its independence (according to the secular calendar), we should all be like Ben Gurion and do our share to make Israel stronger and better. If Ben Gurion was modest about his contribution, we can be as well.
