Two months after his bar mitzvah, the boy Mordechai Naor was privileged to be a part of the history of the Jewish people.
"We had a terrible shock," Noor told Israel Hayom. at the door in a crazy way. My uncle and aunt, Jacob and Deborah, said to us: 'Why are you sleeping? We have a country.' We got up in our pajamas, my father brought a bottle of wine and we cheered."
Dr. Mordechai Naor. "But the Holocaust became a state", photo: no
The next day, the curious Mordechai got up to listen to the radio: "I heard from the neighbors on the streets the news on Voice of Jerusalem. I remember the name of the announcer, Rita Persits, who reported on what happened that night at the United Nations and that we have a state.
She cried on the air with excitement.
I went to school, and there everyone was dancing and singing.
Our principal, Yaakov Schneider (Sherid), father of Yossi Sherid, gathered us all at the end of the school's yard for the ceremony of planting the state tree."
In Tel Aviv they danced in the streets, cafes and kiosks gave out free wine and in Jerusalem there was a festival.
"The English also joined in the joy," he testifies, "there was a real elation and exaltation. There was a feeling that tomorrow morning the Messiah would come, and in a short time there would be a Jewish state. There was a severe war in that place and it took almost six months for the state to be established."
"Six months of war, but in the end the state rose."
Ben-Gurion at the time of the announcement, photo: L.A.M
Over the years, Dr. Mordechai Naor, now 88 years old, became a writer and a respected researcher of the history of Israel, served as the commander of the IDF, a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University and the head of the Department of Land of Israel Studies at Beit Berel College and wrote more than 100 books.
His proficiency and knowledge began already in his youth: "I was a media animal and I followed everything that was happening."
Mordechai Hatzair was aware of the establishment of the UN commission of inquiry before the announcement: "We knew there were discussions on whether to end British rule and divide the country.
It was necessary to obtain a two-thirds majority in the UN to accept the decision. This was the finest hour of Jewish diplomacy. The Arabs threatened that if a partition decision was made, they would drown it in blood, and so it was. This decision was a tremendous lever for the establishment of the state. They managed to reverse the terrible mourning of the Holocaust to a country that will be ours. Israel rose before our eyes."
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