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Victory Day in Israel Over the Years

Writer's picture: iKonnectiKonnect

The 9th of May marks the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany, during WW2. The day used to be celebrated in the USSR and is still celebrated in the Commonwealth of Independent States (Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, etc).


In the 1950s and 1960s in Israel, the day was celebrated by thousands of communist political party members and supporters. The main event was a gathering of thousands of people in the Red Army Forest, near Kibbutz Ma'aleh HaHamisha. After Israel cut its ties with the Soviet Union, the celebrations ceased.


To this day, there are still some people that celebrate the day in Israel by having picnics in the parks and singing old songs from the motherland.

Victory Day Ceremony in Kiryat Mozkin, Israel, 2018. 
Choir pupils of the local Weizmann Elementary singing during the Victory Day ceremony at Golda Park in Kiryat Motzkin, / Ldorfman / CC BY-SA 3.0  

In 2017 the Israeli Knesset passed a law stating the 9th of May as the day of victory over Nazi Germany, marking this date as the day the allied forces defeated Nazi Germany.


On May 9th, 1945, word of Germany's defeat reached ears in Israel, and great celebrations commenced. Huge parades took place in all the major cities in Israel, and hundreds of thousands danced and sang in the streets for days.


In Haifa, 30,000 people gathered in celebrations and to protest the British White Paper.

In Jerusalem around 50,000 people paraded on the street, celebrating the end of the war and commemorating the lives of those that perished in the war. Similar parades took place all across the country.


Celebrating Germany's defeat in Jerusalem, May 9, 1945.
עברית: בתמונה, ירושלים מפגן יום הניצחון על גרמניה מאי 1945ע btm13292, public domain, Wikimedia Commons

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