In the year 1939 the Nazis attacked Europe, with the intention of destroying anyone who didn't meet the standards of the Aryan race, and as a result the Holocaust began. The Holocaust was the method that the Nazis used in order to kill all those who they didn't approve of, especially the Jewish nation. The Nazis succeeded in killing over six million Jews and a smaller quantity of gypsies and mentally disabled.  In 1949 the Nazis were overpowered by the Russians, Americans, and the British, and after the war, Jews began immigrating to Palestine in search of a life of freedom from the oppression and prejudice that they had known in Europe for so many years.

      In 1947, the British, who had been ruling Palestine at the time, came up with the partition plan, an arrangement that recommended the establishment of a joint Jewish and Arab state. This proposal was accepted by the Jews, however, it was rejected by the Arabs.  

     On May 14, 1948 the Jewish people's council declared the establishment of the state of Israel. Consequently, less then twenty-four hours later, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded the country, causing the war that is now known as the War of Independence. During this war Israel succeeded in defending the whole country, losing no land, and in proving to the world, and more importantly the Israeli citizens, that they were capable of being an independent country.

          On November 7 ^th Prime Minister David Ben Gurion declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, and on December 14^th the Knesset, the Israeli government, moved to the new capitol, despite the vast objection from the Arab countries.   Israeli citizens finally felt, by the designation of a capital for their new country, that their dream was finally being fulfilled. They felt that they were finally receiving Israel as their home, and now more then ever it was becoming a real country.  

     On the 4^th of July, 1950 the Knesset passed the law of return, a law which enabled any Jew to immigrate to Israel and become and Israeli citizen. The law was accepted with great happiness by the Israeli citizens. Israel now had the opportunity to increase in population, the Jews felt like their new home was beginning to grow.

          Another one of the many events that helped increase the Jewish population in Israel was "Operation Magic Carpet," which helped 50,000 Jews immigrate to Israel from Yemen. Furthermore, on the 3^rd of July 1956, the Polish government decided to permit large immigration from their country to Israel, causing around 20,000 Jews to arrive in Israel that year.

     One important event that finally brought the Jewish nation closure on the holocaust was the death sentence of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi criminal responsible for the extermination of European Jews during the second world war, and one of Hitler's closest advisors. After the end of the Second World War, Eichmann hid in Argentina, under the alias of Ricardo Klement, where he was kidnapped by Mossad agents and brought to Israel. Eichmann's trial began in April 1961, and he was hanged May 31^st at 4:35 in the morning. The culpable had at last been punished for the terrible crime, and it was finally time to move on.

     On June 5^th, 1967 Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq attacked Israel, resulting in what is now called The Six Day War. It took the Israeli army only three days to defeat the Jordanian forces, and on the morning of June 7 ^th the order was given to recapture the Old City.  After the success of the army in securing the Old City, defense minister Moshe Dayan arrived with chief of staff Yitzhak Rabin, to formally announce the Jew's return to their historic capital, as well as their holiest site, the Kotel.  At the Kotel, a shofar was blown by Rabbi Shlomo Goren, in order to celebrate the miraculous event. On June 27 ^th 1967 the Knesset passed three laws annexing the old city to Jerusalem. Jews from all over the world could now come and pray at the Kotel (the Western Wall).

      Israel made it through The Six Day War with an amazing victory. Although over 700 Israeli soldiers were killed during the war, over 18,000 Arab soldiers were killed and large amounts were taken prisoner as well.  Israel had also managed to capture the Golan Heights, Gaza, Sinai, and enough land to triple the size of the area that it had controlled until that point.    

     This victory brought the Jews a feeling of genuine accomplishment. Not only had we been capable of defending our young country, but we also succeeded in expanding our previously small amount of territory. Israel was now growing not only in population but also in size, causing the optimism of the Jewish nation to grow as well.  On June 12, 1967 two days following the war, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol proudly said, "Alone we fought for our existence and security. The position that existed up till now will never again return. The territory of Israel shall no longer be a no-man's-land, open to acts of sabotage and murder."

     The events spoken about above had a large impact on our story, Yad Vashem.  During the fifties and sixties, the Jews wanted nothing more then to move on from the terrible event that took place less then twenty years before, and the establishment and growth of Israel gave them the opportunity to do so, it gave them a home, a haven. In our story we have characters on both sides, one side wishing to completely forget about what happened, Raia and her husband Yehuda, and the other wanting to never forget it, Grandpa Ziskin. As a result of these contradicting desires, Grandpa Ziskin got into a heated argument with Raia and Yehuda over the name of Raia's soon to be born son. He didn't want to forget his old life, he wanted the baby to be named Mendele after his dead nephew, but Raia and Yehuda wanted to become a part of the new country, they wanted to become a part of the new nation that is no longer subjugated, but can win wars on it's own, and survive independently. They wanted to become a part of the new, growing Israel, where all Jews yearn to live in, and as a result they wanted to give their child the modern Israeli name, Ehud. These two names, Mendele, and Ehud, are basically representatives of the two completely different feelings that Israelis had, during the years following the holocaust, the ones who wanted to forget, and the ones who wanted to return and live the way they once did.

      Aharon Megged was born in 1920 in Poland, and immigrated to Israel when he was six years old. He moved to a kibbutz in Tel Aviv, where he worked for twelve years in agricultural jobs and in fishing. 

     Aharon Megged founded the weekly newspaper “Masa” and was its Editor for fifteen years. Megged also edited other newspapers over the years, for example, “Lamerchav.”

     Between the years 1968-1971 Megged worked as a culture Ambassador for the Israeli Embassy in London.

     Up till now, Megged has published thirty-five books, and has won several prizes, such as the Koret Prize, which he won in 2004 for his books on Jewish fiction.

     Aharon Megged focuses, in his writing, mainly on relationships between the characters that he writes about, and by doing so, he draws a picture of society at large. In addition, Megged tends to write about the struggles of Jews with their Jewish identity, and their efforts to free themselves, in the state of Israel, from their terrible past.  Megged has, in many ways, reflected in his literature, the changing face of Israel.   

 1. What new ideas or skills have you learned from this project?

This project has definitely improved our research and writing skills. The project also taught us how important history is to our modern times, and so we cannot only look into the future without looking back into the past, whereas the story The Name taught us that you cannot only look into the past, but must also think about the future.

2. Did you have enough help from the teacher?

Yes we felt that you helped us with everything we needed.

3. Do you feel that this project was successful? How?

This project was very successful in teaching us a lot of important events that helped build our country and make it into the wonderful place it is today. We think that it will be very successful in teaching the Canadians about how our country was established as well. In addition, this project also helped us identify in some manner with the Israelis living in the time of the establishment of Israel.

4. Do you feel that having some communication with a different culture in Canada made the project more interesting and educational?

We don't feel that the communication with Canada had a very big effect on our project although we did like the fact that we would be teaching the Canadians so much about our country's history.

5. Were you able to correct your work on your own?

Yes we were able to correct our work on our own.

6. Did you work well with your partner?

Yes we feel that we worked well together.

  7. Would you enjoy reading what your friends have written?

We are really looking forward to learning more on this subject, especially from the work of the other girls.  

8. What would you change in this project in the future?

We are very happy with how our project came out, and we don't think that there is anything that we would wish to change in the future, except that we would possibly like to look into additional sources in order to learn more details about the events that we wrote about.

Irving, Clifford. The Battle of Jerusalem. New York : The Macmillan Company, 1970

 Shiff, Yehuda and Danny Dor. Israel 50. Israel : Alfa Communication, 1997    

 http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Israel