>>> Expand this image. <<<

Immediately following the ceremony declaring the new State of Israel on Friday, May 14, 1948, this one-off newspaper was published in honor of the event. Entitled State Day, it was initiated and produced collaboratively by all the major Hebrew daily papers, in a rare display of national unity. This headline, “The Nation Proclaims the State of Israel,” appears next to a portrait of Zionist visionary, Theodor Herzl, followed by the text of the Declaration of Independence and the first pronouncements of the provisional government.

Political reality was highly polarized at the time, and most of the major newspapers were partisan platforms for the left or right, Marxist or religious parties, liberals or socialists. The declaration of the State united them all, but it is doubtful this would have happened had the groundwork not been laid in advance. Five weeks before the establishment of the State of Israel, in besieged Jerusalem, the major newspapers were compelled to band together to publish a joint paper that they called Yediot Yerushalayim (Jerusalem News). This cooperation sowed the seeds for the collaborative and celebratory publication of State Day.

State Day newspaper, Tel Aviv, May 14, 1948. L 1498.

Photography by Ardon Bar-Hamaz.

Click here to return to the full Crossroads & Connections: Collections of the National Library of Israel digital exhibition on Kolture.