Crowds in Tel Aviv celebrate the UN’s vote for partition in 1947 (Courtesy of the Government Press Office, Jerusalem. Photographer: Hans Pinn)
Dear UN,
We’ve had our differences over the last few years, to put it mildly.
But.
On this day — November 29 — in 1947, you voted to give my people a shot at statehood.
For too many years the Jewish people had to live knowing that we were at the mercy of our hosts — we were grateful to be embraced by some — but too often terrified to be persecuted by others.
And now, we can live anywhere we want knowing that no matter what, there IS a country that will take us in. There IS a country that will have our backs.
I can’t watch this video without weeping.
Because this brave vote created the basis for the place my babies and I call home.
Thank you.
About the Author
Sarah Tuttle-Singer is the author most recently of Fairy Lights in God’s Backyard: A Jerusalem Love Story (Vayinafash Press) and of Jerusalem Drawn and Quartered. She is the New Media Editor at Times of Israel. She was raised in Venice Beach, California on Yiddish lullabies and Civil Rights anthems, and she now lives in Jerusalem with her 3 kids where she climbs roofs, explores cisterns, opens secret doors, talks to strangers, and writes stories about people. Sarah also speaks before audiences left, right, and center through the Jewish Speakers Bureau, asking them to wrestle with important questions while celebrating their willingness to do so. She loves whisky and tacos and chocolate chip cookies and old maps and foreign coins and discovering new ideas from different perspectives. Sarah is a work in progress.
