Every single street was filled with people dancing and drinking. It didn't matter if you were in a club or you were at a bar, the music from bars allowed you to dance outside and they deliberately did this. People were showering everyone with shaving cream, Israeli flags were everywhere, people had face paint on, and fireworks were shot off. The best part about the night was the traveling Chasidic Jewish vans. Chasidic Jews were driving around in vans with massive speakers on the roofs and the Jews themselves were either dancing around it or even dancing on it. Vans would drive around slowly, blasting their music, and then would sometimes get to an intersection and just stop at the light for 20-30 minutes and people would just dance around it. I saw a car trying to get past a group of around 100 people and people were just dancing in front of it, jumped on the car, and nobody cared, even the driver. Of course he was honking, but never got out to confront the people. Everyone was generally happy. I danced with Chasidic Jews, with random Israelis of all ages, and simply had the best night of my semester.
I believe that Israeli Independence Day is so much crazier and so much more vibrant than any other independence day for any other nation is because of what it represents and how close it is to each Israeli. For Americans, Independence Day is a nice time to get the family together and have a barbecue and shoot off fireworks and yes drink. But the Declaration of Independence was signed over 240 years ago. It is only something symbolic to Americans and also… something forgotten. Of course we remember what our founding fathers did for our country, but only from the standpoint of the history textbooks. We don't know the feeling of declaring independence from a foreign power. For Israel, independence is as close to them as our own birthdays. Israel is only 64 years old and for some people who live in Israel and are alive today, they were there. They were in the world and read the newspaper that said that Israel had declared independence. There are people who are alive today who fought and saw their friends die for the creation of the Jewish state. And the people who live there now who are young? At most, they are separated by the day of independence by only maybe 2 generations at most. We are only now getting to a generation separated by three generations. That is why Israeli Independence Day means so much to everyone here. They know how hard it is to make sure that Israel sees another birthday and why? Because they fought for it or are fighting for it currently. Every citizen past the age of 18 has had a hand in fighting and defending the State of Israel, the Jewish state. They can all say that Israel still exists partly because of their contribution. So why should they not celebrate?
I realized on Independence Day just how unified this country is. Regardless of race, ethnicity, or political standpoint, every Jew in this country had a reason to celebrate because no matter what you think of the State of Israel and its actions in the political realm, a state for Jews exists in this world and two nights ago, G-d heard his Chosen People's appreciation. In one night, the entire Jewish state, in one unified action in celebration, showed their appreciation for their ancestors who died because they were Jewish, their ancestors who fought and died in the fight for Israel's independence, their immediate family members who have fought for 64 years, their current friends and family members who are fighting for it today, and of course, themselves and what they have sacrificed.
Am Yisrael Chai
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