Robert Besser is a news editor who has worked in television and newspapers in theUnited States, Asia and the Middle East.
It was Friday, May 14, 1948, just hours before David Ben Gurion was to declare, at 4 pm in Tel Aviv, the independence of the reborn State of Israel.
At that same time, a group of some 25 young Jewish men and women, armed with only 12 old rifles, was stationed on a dusty hill overlooking Jerusalem’s suburban Ein Kerem. These were among the first Jewish soldiers defending Jerusalem since Bar Kokhba’s rebellion against the Romans from 132-135 CE.
For these soldiers, the heat and dust on that hill were terrible. To find water to drink the soldiers had to walk 1.5 km, while dodging bullets, so they could fill empty petrol cans with water and haul them back to the other soldiers.
And just to remind these Jewish soldiers that they were at war, there were continuing mortar explosions and ricocheting bullets nearby.
Yehudah Avner recalled that day, as he was stationed on that dusty hill with his fellow Jewish soldiers defending Jerusalem. He came to Israel from Britain in 1947. Avner would go on to work as the English expert in the office of five prime ministers, before becoming Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and later Australia.
Because this unit was cut off from the day’s miraculous news, rumors ran wild among these young men and women on that May 14. Recalled Avner, his unit had “......no field phone, no intelligence, not even a radio. So in the absence of solid facts, rumor piled upon rumor: David Ben-Gurion had capitulated to Washington and would not declare independence; Menachem Begin was planning an uprising; Arab armies were invading; the United Nations was in emergency session to pass a resolution asking the British to stay."
Also, there were more frightening rumors that Iraqi forces would join with Jordanian soldiers to overwhelm Avner’s hilltop.
Avner recalled that Elisha Linder, his unit commander, ordered a soldier named Mahler “....to rest up and then hitch a ride into town any way he could, and find out what was actually going on. ‘Come back with hard news,’ Linder commanded."
Elisha Linder was to later become one of the founding fathers of maritime archaeology in Israel and a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa.
Mahler, ordered to bring back news about whether the state of Israel had been created, was Leopold Mahler, a former violinist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and grandnephew of Gustav Mahler.
Returning from central Jerusalem, Mahler reported to the group “....that he had heard nothing about Begin. And as for the Arabs taking over downtown Jerusalem, the opposite was the case. The Jews were in control of the whole area."
And as proof of the Jews controlling the center of Jerusalem, Mahler said he had walked into a just-abandoned officer’s mess at a British police headquarters near Zion Square and raided their food stocks. He brought back a feast for the 25 members of his unit on the hill, including triangles of Kraft cheese, Mars bars, Cadbury chocolates, cans of peaches, jars of Ovaltine and a bottle of Carmel wine.
Mahler dutifully reported that he also went to the famed Cafe Atara on Ben Yehuda Street to find out whether Ben Gurion had at last declared a state.
Avner remembered the questions fired at Mahler from the soldiers. “Has Ben-Gurion declared independence, yes or no?".....Mahler took a deep breath and solemnly announced, “David Ben-Gurion declared independence this afternoon in Tel Aviv. The Jewish State comes into being at midnight.
“There was a dead silence. Even the air seemed to be holding its breath. Midnight was minutes away.
“And then the air exploded in joyful tears and laughter. Every breast filled with exultation as we pumped hands and embraced, and roared the national anthem at the tops of our voices."
Then unit commander Linder shouted above the din, asking Mahler what the name of the new state was? Mahler had to confess that he had forgotten to ask.
Among those digging trenches on that hill was a resident of Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood, a chassid nicknamed Nussen der Chazzan who was, in fact, a hazzan, a cantor.
Amidst the soldiers’ midnight celebration Nussen shouted, “It’s Shabbos. Kiddush first."
“Our crowd gathered around him in a hush, as Nussen der Chazzan clasped a mug and, in a sweet cantorial tone began to chant “Yom hashishi" - the blessing for the sanctification of the Sabbath day.
“As Nussen’s sacred verses floated off to a higher place of Sabbath bliss his voice swelled, ululated, and trilled into the night, octave upon octave, his eyes closed, his cup stretched out and up. And as he concluded the final consecration - 'Blessed art thou O Lord who has hallowed the Sabbath' - he rose on tiptoe, his arm stiffened, and rocking back and forth, voice trembling with emotion, he added the triumphantly exulted festival blessing to commemorate this first day of independence - 'shehecheyanu, vekiyemanu……Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the Universe, who has given us life, sustained us, and brought us to this time'."
It was just past midnight, the Jewish state came into existence only minutes before, and these soldiers, young men and women, religious or not, came together to honor this most miraculous shabbat with the eternal Kiddush.
And how remarkable it was at that moment to chant the Kiddush. In truth, there would have been no rebirth of Israel without the Kiddush, without the Jews stubbornly observing Shabbat for the past 2,000 years, which had sustained us for nearly 20 centuries as we were dispersed to every corner of the world.
How many miracles did the Jews witness on that day, May 14, 1948?
For the first time in human history, a people that had been expelled now returned to their homeland and saw their nation reborn.
And what people did this? The remnants of the ancient Jews, dispersed onto every continent, with Jews returning to Israel from Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America to rebuild Israel.
And as proof of the role of heaven, all of this occurred only 36 months after the European crematoriums were closed down.
So on May 14, 1948, after nearly 20 centuries in exile, the Jew Nussen der Chazzan was chanting the kiddush on this dusty hill above Ein Kerem outside Jerusalem.
How long had it been since a soldier of a Jewish army in Israel had recited these same words of the Friday night Kiddush?
In fact, the last Jewish soldier to recite the Kiddush in Israel had been under the command of Simon Bar Kokhba in 135 CE.
This coming shabbat, May 15, 2026, as we gather our loved ones together and recite the kiddush, let us remember our debt to the 4,000 Jewish soldiers and 2,400 civilians who died during the War of Independence in 1948. For we would not be living securely in Israel had it not been for their sacrifices.
And let us also remember our debt to those 25 young Jewish men and women guarding a dusty hilltop above Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem. They suffered from the heat, the dirt, their thirst, as well as from Arab bullets and exploding mortar shells….all so you and I might live as a free people.
And of course, let us not forget Nussen der Chazan from Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim who, amidst the chaos of war, stood erect on a hill, chanted the eternal Kiddush, and reminded his fellow soldiers, along with us today, that after all of the centuries of temptation, persecution and violence, and against all odds, we remain Jews and are today blessed to participate in the miracle of rebuilding the reborn Jewish state of Israel.