50 years ago, a turning point for both Israel and R.I

June is a beautiful month, the month when the greening of the trees is complete and gardens bloom with a riot of color. June’s virtues have been praised in poetry and song, and back in the day, young women dreamed of walking down the aisle at their June weddings.

But in addition to wedding anniversaries, we remember June for another date – June 6, D-Day, the day of the Normandy invasion in 1944.

Twenty-three years later, another major military undertaking began on June 6 – the Six Day War, or, as the Arab nations call it, The Setback.

This year, we mark the 50th anniversary of that war, which profoundly changed the course of history in the Middle East and also became a turning point in the history of Rhode Island’s Jewish community.

The Six Day War was Israel’s third war in the less than two decades of the nation’s existence. The War for Independence, 1947-48, ended with an armistice, but no peace accord followed. The second war, the Suez Crisis of 1956, concluded with a ceasefire, but the belligerent words and hostile actions did not cease.  Each day, each news cycle, brought a new barrage of threats, especially from Egypt. Neighboring nations tested Israel’s resolve and readiness with “incidents,” incursions aimed at civilian targets and infrastructure, while fedayeen terrorists targeted the citizenry.

Our days were filled with worry. My father’s two younger brothers, Yaacov and Mordechai, had made aliyah in the 1920s. Their infrequent letters told of the difficulties, the shortages, the insecurities of everyday life. Yaacov had to flee his beloved farm ahead of advancing Jordanian forces. Mordechai’s family, which included several teachers, lived in kibbutzim in the north. They worried about the children, who slept in shelters, their classes often interrupted by warnings of imminent attack from infiltrators. They told of working their fields while bullets from Syria whistled overhead, or searching for land mines planted beside roads.

Yet also apparent in each letter was the sense of resoluteness. This is our home. We will not leave.

Anxiety pervaded our Jewish community. The latest news, the newest information became the grist for telephone calls and conversations. To show our support for Israel, we doubled our fundraising efforts to provide money to strengthen the nation’s social fabric and assure the services that a civilian population requires. We wrote letters to the president; we lobbied congressmen; we protested.

Fear suffused our worry in the spring of 1967 when Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping and ordered the United Nations’ peacekeeping force out of the Sinai based on deliberate misinformation from the Soviet Union.

On June 1 came this statement from the founder of the Palestinian Liberation Organization: “This is a fight for a homeland. It is either us or the Israelis. ... Any of the old Palestinian-Jewish population who survive may stay, but it is my impression that none of them will survive.”

Then came June 6. The Six Day War brought profound change to the region; when it ended,  Israel had emerged as a regional power.

The Six Day War was also a catalyst for change in the Rhode Island Jewish community. Until 1967, there was a fall campaign in Rhode Island to benefit the agencies of the United Jewish Appeal and local groups. In spring, the annual Israel Bond drive was held to support infrastructure projects in Israel. 

The dire situation facing Israel that May prompted a change in the accustomed schedule. After the May Bond Dinner, the leaders of Providence’s General Jewish Committee decided to start their annual campaign immediately and also canvass other Rhode Island cities and towns on behalf of the emergency campaign. For 10 days, Judge Frank Licht (later the governor), president of the GJC, and the indefatigable Robert Reisman crisscrossed the state to address gatherings arranged by Joseph Galkin, executive director of the GJC.

Reisman and Licht raised more than $2 million by June 8.

The incredible energy and cohesiveness generated by the emergency persuaded Judge Licht to put forth an idea dear to his heart – bringing together all the Rhode Island Jewish communities under one umbrella agency.

Persuading the individual communities to relinquish their autonomy was not an easy task, but in time the proposed plan found acceptance – and the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island was created.

GERALDINE S. FOSTER is a past president of the R.I. Jewish Historical Association. To comment about this or any RIJHA article, contact the RIJHA at info@rijha.org or 401-331-1360.