Local events celebrate Israel’s 60 years of independence

In one week in May 1948, Jules Feuer celebrated two marvels: the birth of his first son, and the founding of Israel as a modern, Jewish nation.

Sixty years later, the anniversary this month of Israel's creation as a Jewish state is still a cause for rejoicing by Feuer, 94, and fellow Jews in Hampton Roads.

"This is what you might call a miracle, that the whole thing came to fruition," Feuer said of Israel. "We never thought it would happen."

Israel became a nation on May 14, 1948. According to the Jewish calendar, Israel's independence day this year falls on Thursday.

The local celebrations include "60 Years/60 Tastes of Israel" at Temple Israel today in Norfolk and a free independence day festival May 18 at the Simon Family Jewish Community Center in Virginia Beach.

To many Jews of Feuer's generation, planting a Jewish nation in the Jews' historic homeland was both a distant possibility and an immediate passion.

The region was known as Palestine and ruled by Britain in the 1930s and '40s. But in the global Jewish diaspora, a movement called Zionism worked to create a Jewish Israel.

Feuer, born in Germany, spent two years in Palestine in the '30s on a kibbutz, or Jewish collective.

"There was nothing but sand and stones as we worked our hands off, preparing the country for expected emigration," said Feuer, who labored in a quarry and orange groves before immigrating to the United States.

In America, many Jews sent money before World War II to Zionists in Palestine.

"When I was a kid, every Jewish family had a little blue box and put in change or whatever money they could" for Jewish groups in Jerusalem, said Dr. Arthur Kaplan, a retired Norfolk physician who grew up in High Point, N.C.

In South Hampton Roads, Norman Hecht's father, Joseph, spent the 1940s fervently working toward a future Israel as head of the Norfolk Zionist Emergency Council.

"We were still coming out of the Depression, raising money for something way off," said Hecht, a retired Norfolk attorney. He remembers his father, a jeweler, lobbying politicians, speaking at meetings and soliciting businessmen to support an Israel.

In 1947, Joseph Hecht and local Jews paid to repair an old Chesapeake Bay steamer before it sailed to carry Holocaust survivors from Europe to Palestine. The British later attacked the ship and diverted its 4,500 passengers to refugee camps in Europe.

That same year, the United Nations voted to create separate Arab and Jewish states in Palestine.

"I remember they had the big vote, and I remember my father was so excited he was crying. This was something he'd worked for for seven years," Hecht said.

A few months later, Feuer was glued to the radio on May 14, straining to hear a broadcast by David Ben-Gurion, who became Israel's first prime minister.

"He made a speech in Tel Aviv declaring the state of Israel," said Feuer, who had settled in Norfolk. "We did open a bottle of wine, had a drink and a few friends over and celebrated that day." He also named his son Shalom Ysrael - "peace" and "Israel."

The news of independence, and President Harry Truman's formal recognition of Israel the same day, electrified Jews across the city.

"When the state of Israel was recognized, we had a big rally at the city auditorium," recalled Julian Rashkind, 92, a retired developer in Norfolk.

The celebration was also a fundraiser for Israel, which was attacked immediately by Arab states.

Sixty years later, Rose Glasser, 93, still worries about threats to Israel from hostile Middle Eastern nations and terrorist groups.

"When I hear remarks from their neighbors that Israel will be pushed into the sea and eliminated, I am concerned," she said.

"The entire Glasser clan has worked for many, many years to support Israel," she said, "and we pray it will continue to be free."

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com