Israeli weather has finally come to our part of the world, at least for this week.
This past week, Israel celebrated the 68th Anniversary of Independence. This anniversary has a deeper meaning for our Family, as my wife, Bonnie's Father landed on the dock in Haifa on the day Israel was created along with a boatload of other Jews who were wanting to return to the homeland. Elder James McFarlane was called to the Palestinian Syrian Mission and served in the Middle East. Israel became a state the day he docked. He recounted that it was really quite a scene with the Arabs not happy with the decision by the United Nations of the creation of a home land for the Jewish people.
David Ben-Gurion, who was the first prime minister of Israel, publicly read the Declaration of Independence of Israel on May 14, 1948. According to the Jewish calendar, this was the fifth day of Iyar, the eighth month of the civil year, in the year 5708. The anniversary of this date on the Jewish calendar is known as Yom Ha'atzmaut and usually falls in April or May of the Gregorian Calendar.
