This year, 5 Iyar – Independence Day of the State of Israel falls on April 28. On 5 lyar 5708 (according to the Jewish calendar) / May 14, 1948, with the expiration of the British Mandate of Palestine (lasted from 1922), the leadership of the Jewish Yishuv (Jewish community of Eretz Yisrael) adopted the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed the creation of the State of Israel. After a two-thousand-year break, Jewish national independence was restored.
A lengthy preparatory process, which was begun by supporters of the Zionist movement led by the famous public and political figure Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) at the end of the 19th century, preceded this event. The defining event for the Zionists and at the same time for the entire Jewish people was the First Zionist Congress (1897). According to its results, the World Zionist Organization, headed by T. Herzl, was formed, and the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet LeYisrael), which was to acquire land for the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael, was created. The Jewish Colonial Bank (üdische Kolonialbank / Jewish Colonial Trust), created in 1899 and registered in London, became the financial instrument for implementing the plans of the Zionist movement members. The institution provided special certificates (bonds) with a face value of £ 1 for the acquisition of land in Eretz Yisrael. Bank branches were located in different countries of the world, in particular in the Russian Empire; a significant branch was in the city of Katerynoslav (modern Dnipro), where the famous public figure Moses Karpas provided the bank with a separate room in his own company and organized the work, taking over the management of the sale of shares. The fund was not the only institution involved in the purchase of land. As far back as 1891, the Jewish Colonization Association (since 1924 – the Palestinian Jewish Colonization Association), created by the Bavarian philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch, began to provide multifaceted assistance to the Jewish settlement in Palestine. Its activity was actively supported by a Zionist movement supporter, a descendant of the famous banking dynasty, Baron Edmond Rothschild (1845-1934). Numerous resettlement movements (Aliyah), in particular from Ukrainian lands, which began in the 1880s, played a significant role in uniting all Jews into a nation state.
However, the international community turned its attention to the independent Jewish state recognition issues only after the end of World War II and the Holocaust tragedy.
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, with 33 votes to 13, resolution No. 181, “The Future Government of Palestine”, which provided for the distribution of British Mandate Palestine into Jewish and Arab (Palestinian) states with a special regime for the city of Jerusalem. As a result of the declaration of Israel’s independence, the next day, the armies of Arab countries attacked the Jewish state; this marked the beginning of the War of Independence, which lasted more than a year and ended in July 1949.
In 1992, in Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro), in the largest Jewish community center “Menorah”, an Israeli cultural center was opened to inform the population of the city and region about all aspects of life in the State of Israel.
In 2016, the permanent exhibition “Creation of the State of Israel” was opened at Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”. The Museum’s library also offers the following publications on the creation of the Jewish state:

• K. Kapitonov. Israel in Faces: Biographical Essays. Moscow: Muravei, 2002, 320 p.
• Howard M. Sachar. A History of Israel. From the Rise of Zionism to the Creation of the State of Israel. In 2 volumes. Volume 1. Jerusalem: Library-Aliyah, 1992. 340 p.
• Howard M. Sachar. A History of Israel. From the Rise of Zionism to the Creation of the State of Israel. In 2 volumes. Volume 2. Jerusalem: Library-Aliyah, 1992. 384 p.
• Howard M. Sachar. A History of Israel. From the War of Independence to the Six Day War. Vol. 3. Jerusalem: Library- Aliyah, 1995. 337 p.
• Haris D. Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Yehupets: An Artistic and Publicistic Almanac of the Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies. 2002. No. 10. p. 273-288.
• Epstein A. The Founding of Israeli Democracy. The First Decade. The Formation of the Judicial System and Foreign Policy Orientation of Israel. Digest of articles. Israel: Open University, 2001. 164 p.
• Epstein A., Maryasis D. Paradoxes of Israeli democracy. Reflections on the political heritage of the Ben-Gurion era. Origins: Bulletin of the People’s University of Jewish Culture in Eastern Ukraine. 2001. No. 9: July-December. p. 8–35.

Iryna Radchenko