Diane Abelman Wattenberg was intrigued by the Jewish Historic Society of Greater Washington's poster depicting the joyous celebration outside Jewish Agency building in Washington, D.C., as Israel's independence was declared on May 14, 1948.
What had happened, the D.C. resident wondered, to the 8-year-old boy living in Fairfax, who, according to the Washington Post photo featured in the poster, had raised the first flag of the newly created state at the Jewish Agency building at 2210 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., as the crowd celebrated below?
"He's barely older than I am, and I thought it was be interesting to find him," says the lifelong Washingtonian, who has no memories of her own from that historic day.
All it took was a Google search, and Wattenberg, a JHSGW board member, discovered that Oren Zinder is a professor at the Technion: Israel Institute for Technology in Haifa, where he heads the laboratory medicine program at the faculty of medicine.
In an e-mail reply to Wattenberg, Zinder, a 15th-generation sabra, recalls that the ceremony was very emotional, followed by the raising of the flag, singing of "Hatikva" and a short speech by Israel's first envoy, Eliyahu Eilat. "Then (of course!) some light refreshments were enjoyed by all," Zinder writes.
Yet before that flag-raising took place, according to Zinder, his father, Harry (Zvi), a senior Jewish Agency staffer involved in founding the Jewish state's first embassy, had to submit paperwork to the White House.
"This trip was unique since in the document he was carrying, the place for the name of the country was left blank as the people at the [Jewish] Agency were not sure whether the name of our country was to be Israel or Zion," Zinder writes. "However, before he reached the White House, a messenger was sent out to call him back to the Agency to have the name ISRAEL put into the blank space."
And, it turns out that Zinder didn't raise the flag alone. His brother, David, now 66 and a theater director in Israel, joined him.
It was no spur of the moment decision to have the two siblings raise the banner.
"We were both born in Jerusalem and the ambassador and the staff wished that a native-born Israeli raise the first Israeli flag outside the country," Zinder, 68, says in an e-mail to WJW.
Although he doesn't remember his feelings when the flag was raised, he says he has "no doubt that there was a lot of pride and happiness."
The Zinders returned to Israel in 1954.
In a historic twist of irony, the Massachusetts Avenue building that housed the Jewish Agency before serving for about four years as Israel's mission and then embassy is now home to the Embassy of Sudan, the site of frequent demonstrations by members of the Jewish community protesting against Sudan for its treatment of Darfur refugees. -- Debra Rubin
The flag-raising photo is featured on a poster, "A dream comes true," that the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington created for May's Jewish American Heritage Month. The free posters are available at www.jhsgw.org or by calling 202-789-0900.