This
IsYourLifeIsraelCast of Characters (Seventh Grade Players):
[Interviewer starts on stage]
Interviewer: Shalom, Chaverim! This is the Temple Beth-el television network presenting "This is your life." Today we are honoring a wonderful country on the 55th anniversary of its statehood. Come up, please, the State of Israel!
[Israel Enters]
Israel: Oh, what a wonderful surprise!
Interviewer: Who did you think we'd honor today - Uganda?
Israel: This is so exciting. Who is our first guest?
Interviewer: Listen. Remember this voice?
[Spoken from the side]
Herzl: If you will it, it is no dream.
Israel: Theodore Herzl! My Papa!
[Enter Herzl]
Interviewer: That's right. Come on over Theodore Herzl.
Israel: I never could have done it without you.
[SONG] IMTIRTZU 1m tir-tzu (2x) Ein zo a-ga-da (2x) Li-hi-ot am chof-shi b'-ar-tzei-nu B'-e-rezt, Tzi-yon v'-ru-sha-la-yim
Interviewer: So, tell me Mr. Herzl, how did you come up with the idea for the State of Israel?
Herzl: When I saw how badly Jews of Europe were being treated, I knew there was no other choice. We had to have our own country.
Israel: It wasn t easy. I was called Palestine then, and the Turks ruled over me.
Herzl: It took a lot of money and effort to get permission for Jews to settle in Israel.
Interviewer: Tell us about the First Zionist Congress.
Herzl: It met in Switzerland in 1897. For the first time in almost 2000 years, Jews from all over the world met as a national group. I predicted that you would an independent nation within 50 years.
Israel: And you were right. Thanks again, Papa. Glad you could join us for this celebration.
[Enter Chalutzim]
Interviewer: Do you recognize these people?
Israel: Yes, those are Chalutzim - Pioneers. They came to Israel before World War I. What are they saying?
Chalutz 1: I am so tired. I'm just not used to being a farmer. I'm a doctor!
Chalutz 2: You'll get used to it soon. We all had other jobs in Russia before we came to Palestine. But now we're working our own land.
Chalutz 3: Just think how far we've come. We all share in the work and share in the rewards. Hebrew is our common language, now.
Chalutz 2: We were almost wiped out because of the malaria that killed so many of the early settlers. But the women have many more rights here than in any other country.
Chalutz 3: Perhaps some day we will be an independent country - the State of Israel.
Chalutz 1: I suppose you are right, if we survive this World War. Well, let's get back to the fields.
[SONG] SHIR LASHALOM Let the sun rise up today, Oh let the morning dawn, All your prayers and all your pleas Won't give us life again. Now our candle's flickered out, Now we're turned to dust, Bitter tears won't bring us back, Or wake us from our rest.
[Exit Herzl and Chalutzim]
Israel: Those were the good old days. And then, in 1917, a miracle.
Interviewer: Yes, on November 2nd. Remember?
[Enter Lord Balfour]
Israel: The Balfour Declaration!
Balfour: "His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
[Exit Balfour]
Israel: Great Britain said that if they won the war they would help me.
Interviewer: They issued the Balfour Declaration because they were grateful for Jewish help during World War I.
Israel: It was as if the Messiah had come. Jews from all over the world poured in. The first all Jewish military unit in almost 2000 years was established. It was amazing.
[Enter David Ben Gurion]
Ben Gurion: I was a volunteer in that unit, which eventually became the Israeli Army.
Israel: David Ben Gurion! Long Time No See!
Interviewer: Yes, David was raising money for you in America when he heard the news.
Ben Gurion: It was the start of marvelous times. After the war, Jews came by the thousands from every country on earth. We worked hard and lived in overcrowded camps, but we couldn't be happier.
Israel: Not always though. Arab leaders stirred up hatred against us. We had violent riots. Many Jews died.
Ben Gurion: But the Jews kept coming to you. We built cities, kibbutizim, moshavim. We made roads, elected leaders, set up a school system, and our own government.
Interviewer: Then Hitler came to power, and Jews in Europe were desperate for a place of escape.
Ben Gurion: But the Arabs didn't want any more Jews to enter even though there were three times as many Arabs as Jews, and there was plenty of room.
Israel: I remember 1939. The British issued the White Papers.
[Enter British Official]
British Official: Only 75,000 more Jews can enter Palestine during the next 5 years. The Arabs will not agree to any further immigration.
[Exit British Official]
Ben Gurion: We had to side with the British in this struggle against the Nazis, so I told everyone, "We will fight the War as if there is no White Paper, and we will fight the White Paper as if there is no War."
[Exit Ben Gurion]
Interviewer: Many Israelis helped by fighting in Europe. Recognize this Poetry?
[Enter Hannah Senesh]
READ "BLESSED IS THE MATCH": Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame. Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart's secret places. Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor's sake Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
[Enter Judges]
Hannah: Blessed is the match consumed in Kindling the flame. Israel: Of course, Hannah Senesh. The Hungarian girl who left the safety of an Israeli kibbutz to parachute into Nazi occupied Hungary in 1944.
Interviewer: Watch this. The Nazis have captured her. Listen to the judges.
Judge 1: We find you guilty of treason against Hungary.
Hannah: I am guilty only of trying to help Jewish children escape from death in concentration camps.
Judge 2: Tell us who you are working with.
Hannah: No matter how much you torture or threaten me, I will never tell you anything.
Judge 1: You are a traitor to Hungary.
Hannah: You, the Fascists, are the traitors to Hungary , not I!
Judge 2: You are condemned to death by firing squad.
Hannah: Blessed is the match consumed in lighting the flame.
[Exit Hannah and Judges]
Israel: With the help of God and dedicated people like Hannah Senesh, the Nazis were defeated.
Interviewer: But then the British would not let the Jewish refuges come to you after the war.
Israel: Dangerous actions were taken to get Jews from Europe into the Land of Israel.
Interviewer: Aliyah Bet where boat loads of Jews escaping Nazi persecution were turned away had to literally sneak into you.
[Enter Chaim Weizmann]
Weizmann: After so much suffering, we still had to struggle to get into the Promised Land.
Israel: Chaim Weizmann! My first President and a brilliant scientist.
Interviewer: He helped the British develop an important chemical during World War I. It was partly because of this that they issued the Balfour Declaration. Weizmann: But then, after World War II, the British wanted Arab, not Jewish support. We were all fighting each other - Jew against British, British against Jew, Arab against Jew.
Israel: Finally, Britain couldn't take it any longer. They turned my future over to the United Nations.
Interviewer: The U.N. decided to vote on a Partition Plan. It would have created two independent countries in Palestine, one Arab and one Jewish.
Weizmann: I remember that night - November 29,1947.1 went to every United Nations member pleading for votes. Finally, exhausted and ill, I heard the news - 33 for Partition, 13 against. In 6 months the British would leave, and you would be an independent Jewish State.
Israel: There was dancing in my streets!
Weizmann: But not for long.
[Enter David Ben Gurion and Israelis]
Ben Gurion: On Friday, May 13th the Declaration of Independence was read in a small art museum in Tel Aviv and at midnight on May 14, 1948 the British mandate ended and the State of Israel was born. That same day the Arabs attacked with full force.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Israeli 1: ERETZ-ISRAEL was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books. After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Israeli 2: Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma'pilim [(Hebrew) - immigrants coming to Eretz-lsrael in defiance of restrictive legislation] and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
Israeli 3: WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th lyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel".
Israeli 4: THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
Israeli 5: THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-lsrael. WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to receive the State of Israel into the comity of nations.
Israeli 6: WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the up building of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
Israeli 7: WE EXTEND our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East. WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-lsrael in the tasks of immigration and up building and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.
Israeli 8: PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE ALMIGHTY, WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY,1948).
Interviewer: We fought them off. Again and again we have gone to war. In 1948, in 1956, in 1967, and in 1973. Throughout the 1980's with terrorist attacks between the wars.
Weizmann: Hardly a family of mine has been spared a loss. Plus we've had huge problems with inflation, immigration, labor. But at least we have our own country.
[Exit Weizmann, Ben Gurion and Israelis]
Israel: Yes, at least there's that. Who's next?
Interviewer: You want more?
Israel: I certainly don't want to end on such a depressing note.
Interviewer: Just teasing. Here come the peacemakers.
[enter Begin, Kabin, and Peres]
SONG: HEIVE1NU SHALOM ALEICHEM
Israel: Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres! You have kept me alive.
Begin: We have started on the road to peace.
Peres: With the help of some Arab leaders and assistance from the United States...
[Enter President Bush]
Rabin: Things are not perfect yet, but we have great hope for the future.
Peres: It is so sad that Yitzhak Rabin lost his life in his dream for PEACE.
President Bush: We will continue to work together with Israel. In our pursuit of Peace and freedom.
[Enter Entire Cast]
Israel: But I will continue to live and flourish. As long as Jews all over the world continue to support me, I know I will be just fine. This has been my best birthday yet. Todah Rabah!
All: Happy Birthday Israel.... This Is Your Life and What a Life!
Interviewer: Everyone, please rise and join us in the singing of America the Beautiful and Hatikvah.
SONG: AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL (Congregation)
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
SONG: HATIKVAH (Congregation)
Kol od ba-le-vav pe-ni-mah
Ne-fesh ye-hu-di ho-mi-yah,
U-!e-fa-a-tey miz-rah ka-di-mah
A-yin ITzi-yon tzo-fi-yah.
Od lo av'dah tik-va-te-nu,
Od lo av'dah tik-va-te-nu,
Li-h'yot am hof-shi be-artze-nu,
B'-retz Tzi-yon vi-ru-sha-la-yim.
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