Israel’s 78th Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day) starts at sundown on Tuesday April 21. Most of us have grown up celebrating the miracle of Israel’s creation each and every year. Imagine what it would have been like to celebrate it for the first time. This program from Israel’s first birthday party held in New York’s Madison Square Gardens on May 14, 1949 gives us a glimpse.

The event was sponsored by the Palestine Pioneers Foundation, the American Committee for the National Sick Fund of Palestine, the League for Jewish National Labor in Palestine and the Tel Hai Fund, all of which are associated with the Revisionist movement founded by Vladimir (Zeev) Jabotinsky.

The program carries a greeting from New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey who said the........

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