The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on Monday celebrated its 70th birthday, marked every year on the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat, the date on which the first Knesset convened for the first time (February 14, 1949).
Some 2,000 children, IDF soldiers and other guests arrived at the Knesset and participated in a variety of events, one of which was the creation of flowers from recycled materials. Tu Bishvat is celebrated in modern-day Israel as an ecological awareness day.
Participants in the special occasion also planted 740 blue and white flowers at the entrance to the Knesset in a pattern that created the number 70. Guests added their best wishes to the Israeli lawmakers in small notes planted in the flower beds.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said that he prays that “together with the wonderful growth of the seedlings that we have planted, the Knesset’s legislative work will also bear sweet fruit.”
The Knesset experienced a moving moment when Edelstein, together with Chief Rabbi David Lau, reset a Mezuzah at the entrance to the Knesset which was originally affixed to the entrance of the first Knesset building, situated at Beit Frumin at the center of Jerusalem.
The Mezuzah went missing in August 1966 when the Knesset moved to its current location in Givat Ram, but was recently found and reinstated today.
• By Aryeh Savir/TPS
Photo by Esty Dziubov/TPS
