The year 2017 will celebrate Zionist history and the State of Israel by marking the milestone anniversaries of four significant Zionist achievements.
“The coming calendar year should be a year of celebrations,” writes Ari Shavit, author of the 2013 New York Times Best Seller, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. Shavit notes the abundance of major anniversaries awaiting us in 2017.
First Zionist Congress
August 31, 2017, marks the 120th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress in 1897.
It’s hard to imagine today what an inspiring event it must have been, turning overnight the yearnings of a nation into a solid, pragmatic political agenda.
The Balfour Declaration
November 2, 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
Again, who would have believed that the most prominent imperialist power, the successor of the Roman Empire, if you will, would give its enthusiastic support to a political, territorial response to the millennia of Jewish yearnings for Zion.
UN Vote to Establish Jewish State in the Land of Israel
November 29, 2017, marks the 70th anniversary of the United Nations’ decision to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel.
An idea that was galvanized 120 years ago and received a strong boost 100 years ago was widely accepted by the nations of the world 70 years ago.
The Liberation and Reunification of Jerusalem
Jerusalem Day at the Western Wall, Jerusalem. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
On June 5th, 2017, Jews everywhere will celebrate the liberation of biblical Jerusalem during the Six Day War, along with the last areas of the Land of Israel which had remained under foreign occupation: eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City and the Temple Mount; Judea, birthplace of King David; Samaria, where the Kingdom of Israel ruled for several centuries; Gaza, where Jews have lived for millennia, and the Sinai — the wilderness where the nation received its founding document, the Torah; and the Golan Heights, where Jews have been making wine and growing wheat since King David chased away the Arameans.
By: JNI.Media