"When in the course of human events..."

Most of us, I expect, recognize this article's title from the start of the Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia. Less familiar, however, may be the start of the Declaration of Independence that was signed on May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv:

"Eretz Yisrael [the land of 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. 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, immigrants, 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."

With these words, David Ben Gurion proclaimed the re-birth of our ancient nation. Nearly 2,000 years after the Romans ended Jewish sovereignty in their land, Israel came back to life, thanks to the "human events" caused by the "pioneers, immigrants, and defenders."  For the Jews of the 1940s, Israel's revival was nothing short of a miracle.  The fledgling state offered refuge to persecuted Jews around the world, established a Jewish spiritual and cultural wellspring, and reconnected Jews to our heritage by reclaiming the land that our Biblical ancestors inhabited. Diaspora Jews took an intense interest in Israel's well-being, and took great pride in her existence and accomplishments.