Israel at 75

Presented by the KJA Barbara Winick Bernstein Archives of the Jewish Community of East Tennessee

This summer, the Schwarzbart Gallery is hosting a celebration of Israel's 75th anniversary. Special thanks to KJA Archivist Nicki Russler for curating this exhibit.

Knoxville’s Jewish Community Center’s newsletter, The Center Menorah, announced an event to commemorate the founding of the State of Israel one year later, in 1949.  In subsequent years there were many events, sometimes identified as commemorations of Israel’s birthday, Israel’s Independence Day, or Yom Ha’atzmaut.  For this year’s Knoshville, whose theme was the 75th anniversary, the archivist checked newsletter coverage, scanned several, and enlarged six years’ coverage to be part of the Archives exhibit.  These years are 1949, 1978, 2000, 2003, 2008, 2014. The first year with the label “Israelfest” was 1998, coinciding with the 50th anniversary.  In 1996, the AJCC and Knoxville Jewish Federation celebrated Jerusalem 3000, the 3000th anniversary of the founding of the city.  Among the various events associated with Jerusalem 3000 was a day with the same sorts of activities as found in subsequent IsraelFest celebrations.  To see more about these events, you can read about some years in the digitized editions of The Center Menorah and the Knoxville Jewish Community Voice, currently located here, or, for later years, the Voice and Ha’Kol archived issues located here, or you may come to the Archives to see additional materials. To make an appointment to visit the Archives, email Nicki Russler at nrussler@jewishknoxville.org.