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November 29: Every Jew Should Know About This Day

The United Nations vote to partition Palestine.

One more step on the long road to the rebirth of Israel.

One more step which led to the miracle of today’s Jewish country of Israel.

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions and 1 absent, in favour of the Palestine Partition Plan. This vote did not just emerge out of nowhere, contrary to popular efforts to delegitimize the history that led up to this momentous occasion.

In 1922, the League of Nations approved the British Mandate over Palestine - an ancient land with a name bestowed by the Romans only after the destruction of the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount, Har HaBayit that had since exchanged hands, rulership, and social demographics.

Citing the Balfour Declaration, the mandate outlined that the nations were in agreement with the original proclamation “in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” Whereas there may have been but a small percentage of Jews in the region, the longevity of the Jewish connection to the land was an accepted fact by nations worldwide. Years of longing, persecution, and political action gave life to a Jewish nationalism that represented this ancient history.

When the UN Committee reached the conclusion that, when the British Mandate for Palestine would end, there should be created both a Jewish state and as Arab state, internationalizing Jerusalem to be shared by both.

Although the partition map allotted the Jewish state only a small part of our ancestral land, the Zionist Organization and institutions of the Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael accepted the plan on its merits - the full recognition of our rights as a people to our national origins and a sovereign state where we could, indeed, live free.

All over the world, the Jewish community erupted with great joy. In Jerusalem, Zippy Porath shares how thousands went out to the streets to celebrate. And planning for implementation began as Chaim Weizman proclaimed "It is now our primary task to establish relations of peace and harmony with our Arab neighbors."

Unfortunately, the Arab world did not accept this, nor any prior or subsequent proposal for partition of land or peace. And sadly, November 29 has become a day for increased anti-Zionist and anti-Israel attacks as a part of the continued effort to demonize and incite hatred against the Jewish State.

The UN Vote on Partition of Palestine has great historical significance that should in no way be diminished by the change of rhetoric or attempt to negate the importance of what took place.

Every Jew should know about this day, and every effort should be made to negate the relentless war against the truth of history.

Just as we celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut every year in honor of the Declaration of the State of Israel by Ben Gurion, so, too, should we remember and celebrate the steps that led up to this monumental event.

From Herzl to Balfour, from the centuries of dreamers who could only long for a place where Jews could live free in our own land to today's generation who struggles to recall the importance and value of our Jewish State, the international affirmation of our national destiny remains poignant and essential as we continue the ongoing project of building Israel.

So as we begin the season of giving thanks, let us also raise our voice and protect the legacy of this day.

Let us remember the hundreds of thousands of Jews exiled from the Arab states as we honor Jewish Refugee Day on November 30.

Let us honor Ben Gurion Day and remember this great and imperfect leader who navigated the Palestinian Jews through pre-state struggles and whose voice echoes in our hearts with the Declaration of Israel's Independence on the very day the British Mandate came to an end.

And let us honor our collective commitment to the land, the people, the state of Israel today, tomorrow, and FOREVER!