Forward.com

Israel, Through the DecadesTo honor the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, the Forward asked a number of prominent Israelis to reflect on the six decades of history they have lived through. Their narratives provide a fresh, startlingly honest look at the history of the Jewish state, as seen through the eyes of those who lived it and helped to shape it.
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Before Independence: The Meaning of a Jewish StateWhat we knew about Israel back then, in the months before and in the months and early years after, was derived 10% or so from newsreels and 90% from Zionist youth movements, Hebrew schools, now and then a newspaper or a book. The world was different before television, and the first years of television were only a tiny foretaste of what television was to become, with its 24/7 coverage of just about everything. The world was different before the Internet, too. Today Israeli newspapers, frequently updated, are a mere key click away. Israel back then was mostly an imagining, and imagination offers more room for dreams, for milk and honey and utopian speculation or messianic conviction than does insistently graphic depiction.
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A Jewish State: ‘Mazel Tov!’The day has finally arrived, the day that Jews have awaited with such longing in their hearts — a day for which they have waited 2,000 years.
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