From the Archives: ‘A Jewish state has been proclaimed’

The war in Israel is steeped in history. So you need to start at the beginning.

David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. Then-U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized this new nation on the same day. Here is the front page from the Herald:

FROM THE ARCHIVES: BOSTON_HERALD_May_15_1948_p1

Truman wrote, and we quoted: “In 42 fateful words, Mr. Truman proclaimed: ‘This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new state of Israel.”

It was a solemn moment coming so soon after the horrors of the Holocaust were still being revealed. It’s a story that we must keep reporting!

Including Grand Rabbi Y.A. Korff, chaplain for the City of Boston, who delivered Wednesday’s prayer at the start of the Boston City Council meeting, where he shared he was in the Jerusalem Great Synagogue in Israel when the Hamas attack occurred on Oct. 7.

The terror attack was all too real, he said. I’ll let you go read the rest.

Rabbi Korff called your loyal archivist this morning to thank the Herald for printing his words. How could we not?

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night,” wrote Elie Wiesel in his landmark book “Night.”

This is a complicated story, but this chapter started Oct. 7 near the Gaza Strip with Hamas terrorists killing innocent children and taking women hostage. The story must start there.

JUMP PAGE: BOSTON_HERALD_May_15_1948_p3

The Herald’s coverage of that historic declaration jumps to page 3 (linked above). It’s not lost on this writer that Israel’s existence and life in the Middle East is on an arc that remains violent and seemingly never-ending.

But we can’t put our pens down.