With Israel’s 75th anniversary coming up next month, planning is underway for The Yom Ha’atzmaut Experience—a very special community-wide Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration that is planned for Tuesday evening, April 25, at Teaneck’s Votee Park.

“The goal is to make Yom Ha’atzmaut into a special day for our community, to celebrate Israel b’rov am, with many people together, and to really make a statement for those outside and inside our community that we are proudly Zionist and that Israel is a critical part of our lives,” explained Rinat Yisrael’s Rabbi Chaim Strauchler, who is also chairing the planning committee for what is expected to be an extraordinary event.

Rabbi Strauchler added that Yom Ha’atzmaut, especially on this 75th anniversary, should not just be a regular day in the Teaneck Jewish community, but rather something critical to our identity as Jews and contributors to Israel’s future.

Bergen County’s Jewish community as well as other friends of Israel are invited to the event, which will begin at 6:15 p.m. at Teaneck’s Richard Rodda Center.

“Israel’s Independence Day cannot take place without a recognition of the sacrifices that were necessary to create it. We can’t have Yom Ha’atzmaut without Yom Hazikaron,” Rabbi Strauchler added.

Thus, the program will start off with a Yom Hazikaron kumzitz led by Jewish music star Uri Davidi, to remember Israel’s fallen soldiers who died in service to the State of Israel, with stories, music and words of Torah that relate to what Israel means to the community.

At 7:30 p.m., the program will continue with Mincha and a special Maariv service that will conclude with the singing of Tehillim Chapter 107.

The program will then move to Votee Park’s new Sportsplex for an immersive audiovisual experience that will include special effects including drones that will make the sky come to life in celebration of Israel’s 75-year history and its promising future.

“The multi-media event will fill the sky with images which will be integrated into a story-telling experience created to really see and experience Israel on that day,” Rabbi Strauchler explained. “The state of Israel is not an individual experience, it’s a collective experience. Zionism is something which extends beyond the borders of any given piece of real estate. It’s an approach to the world that says that we as a people matter to human destiny and that by coming together we create something more than we do as individuals.”

He says that message is critical not just to what Israel has created but to the fact that the Jewish story continues.

Rabbi Strauchler said that by reinforcing in our community the feeling that Israel is a force for good, we will be able to broadcast that message beyond our community. It can help strengthen our children on campuses and strengthen us in our workplaces. It can instill a sense of confidence about what the Jewish story means today in our lives.

He emphasized the importance for our community to make Israel an essential part of our Jewish identity and that we must look at our lives and truly understand how incredibly blessed we are to live in an era when Jewish people once again have sovereignty in our land. But he cautioned that the possibility of it being taken for granted, and of our children not understanding the historical context in which we live, could pose a tremendous threat to our well-being.

“It really behooves us to make this day something which stands out and to invest it with religious meaning and to really care deeply about Israel’s meaning in our lives,” he said.

Especially after the “Day of Hate” this past weekend, Rabbi Strauchler stressed that the reality of antisemitism within the world is still ongoing and although Israel has not changed that, “it has given us the tools by which we are able to defend ourselves and in ways that are radically different from 76 years ago.”

“Israel has positively changed so many aspects of our existence as Jews,” he continued. “We can’t talk about antisemitism without talking about Israel since antisemitism today often focuses on Israel, Yet, Israel is also the platform from which we can best stand up to antisemitism.

“As American Jews in a community like this, we have a crucial role to play in telling the story of Israel within our walls and beyond our walls. By coming together and making this day into a tremendous civic celebration of Israel, we broadcast why Israel is such a force for good in the world.”

Some of Bergen County’s leading Religious Zionist and Modern Orthodox individuals, organizations and congregations collaborating to orchestrate this meaningful event include the RCBC; Rabbanit Batya Friedman, philanthropic advancement officer and member of Congregation Keter Torah; Beth Aaron’s Mordy Ungar; Rinat Yisrael’s Ephraim Mandel and Yehuda Kohn; Shaare Tefillah’s Golan Elias; Bnai Yeshurun’s Chaim Kiss; and Teaneck Councilwoman Karen Orgen.

The committee is also asking for the community’s support to help facilitate this special day and sponsorship opportunities are still available. For more information and to help contribute to this groundbreaking event, please visit https://www.rinat.org/yomhaatzmaut#