Israel 60 Celebration Dinner

This year, Action Israel and many other organizations joined with the Allied Jewish Federation to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, one of the miracles of the modern world. Many dinners have been held this year in the Denver metropolitan area, including 100 on the Night of 60 Dinners in April. Our local group of friends of Israel held a celebratory dinner tonight.

All told, we had 22 in attendance, a neat coincidence as the Hebrew Alefbet contains 22 letters. Using recipes from the materials provided by the Allied Jewish Federation, everyone prepared and shared typical Israeli dishes.

Below are pictures of just a few of the items that graced our table.

The complete menu looked something like this:

Chopped Israeli Salad (pictured below)

Israeli Spiced Chicken (pictured below)

Sliced Eggplants with Garlic and Tomato Glaze

Israeli Cous-Cous Salad with Fennel and Goat Cheese

Humus

Chicken Hamin

Moroccan Meat Balls

Moroccan Chicken with Olives and Lemons

Pot Roast with Carrots, Potatoes, and Gravy

Potato Kugel

Challah and other breads

Brownies

Jam Thumb-Print Cookies

(If you are interested in the recipes, we have posted some of them on our daughter's recipe blog here and will be posting more in the next few days.)

Another interesting article about the Night of 60 Dinners with some insight into Persian cuisine can be found here.

After the meal, we shared some interesting facts about Israel in her 60 years of existence in the modern world, using the materials provided by the Allied Jewish Federation. You can check some of them out here and here. Some of us had gathered other information, as well, and since many of our people have visited Israel, we shared our experiences and our favorite memories.

One of the most touching moments was the reading of the blog post of our friend, Ori, who is spending some months in Israel. She wrote about her thoughts and feelings attending ceremonies on Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day, literally The Day of Remembrance). Yom Hazikaron is always held the day before Israeli Independence Day, which is intended to remind people of the price paid for independence and of what was achieved with the soldiers' sacrifice. Ori's writing really is worth reading, and you can find it here.

The younger set was busily coloring during this time.

Here are the products of their artistic labors!

All in all, our celebration of 60 years of Israeli independence was rewarding, informative, delicious, and a whole lot of fun.