Sixty years ago, on the 5th day of the month of Iyar (May 14, 1948), David Ben-Gurion stood before the National Council and declared the Jewish People's independence as a sovereign country for the first time in over 1,900 years.

This holy and happy day represents even more than the Jewish People's regaining of political independence for the first time since the destruction of the Holy Temple. It stands for the removal of the disgrace of the Jews' humiliating and devastating exile, and the beginning of the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies regarding the Jews' return home and the flowering build-up of the Land. It also meant the physical salvation of millions of Jews around the world, who now had both an army to protect them and a political entity representing them wherever they lived.