On 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel as the British mandate ends; the War of Independence follows at once, and Jewish sovereignty returns to the land for the first time in nearly two thousand years.
Tagged: Conservative Judaism Jewish Orthodox Judaism Reconstructionist Judaism Reform Judaism Secular Judaism
The Event
- Date
- 1948 (exact)
- Era
- Contemporary; Standard periodization of Jewish history
- Location
- Tel Aviv; today Tel Aviv, Israel
- Traditions
- Judaism
- Streams
- Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, Secular Judaism
- Key figures
- David Ben-Gurion
How the Tradition Tells It
The streams divide over the state's religious meaning: religious Zionists in Orthodoxy read it as the beginning of redemption, much of Reform embraced it after initial classical Reform ambivalence, and some Orthodox communities reject its religious significance outright.
Primary Sources
- Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (1948)
Secondary Sources
- Johnson, A History of the Jews (Harper, 1987)
- Sarna, American Judaism: A History (Yale, 2004)
Provenance: HIST-0130; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
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- Destruction of the First Temple History Event
- Exodus and Sinai History Event
- Fall of Samaria; the Northern Kingdom Destroyed History Event
- First Temple Dedicated History Event
- Patriarchal Period History Event
- Second Temple Completed History Event