Six Day War - 40 years later

All week, National Public Radio has been running a series on the fortieth anniversary of the Six Day War in 1967. On All Things Considered for June 5 (click on the link to hear the story) covered the outbreak of the war, using sound clips from the CBS News reporting of the day. I remember the Six Day War - I was only ten years old at the time, but it made an impression on me, probably because of my parents' reaction (especially my father's). I remember sitting in our kitchen watching the black and white television coverage, and listening to the CBS radio reports. My remembrance is not of specific events as they occurred, but more of the emotional atmosphere in our family - one of tension and anxiety. As my father has told me many times, he took his radio to the office (he was working as a lawyer in a small practice) to listen to the ongoing reports. I imagine it was with a great sense of relief that he heard the report of the Israeli destruction of the Egyptian air force on the ground on the first day of the war.

The Six Day War is not the first political event I remember - that would be the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 - but it is certainly the earliest one to make a great impact on me, since it is one of the external, political events that influenced my interest in my Jewish identity.

(Cross-posted from my Jewish Studies blog, Israel Musings).