Page 261 - big friday
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have looked at many different accounts of the day upon which
the State was proclaimed, including what happened before and what
happened afterwards, drawn from sources current at the time and from
other sources that have appeared over the course of the years. Nevertheless,
there remain endless accounts and stories which were never published, or
which were published in the distant past and then forgotten. We present
some of them here.
The story of the Scroll of Independence
in the safe of the Anglo-Palestine Bank
(Bank Leumi)
D orit Rosen was personal assistant to
Zeev Sharef, Secretary of the People’s
Administration and – after the proclamation
of the state – Secretary of the Provisional
Government. She had been born in
Switzerland and had immigrated to Palestine
in 1934.
It was Rosen who was responsible for
copying the text of the Proclamation from the
moment that the first draft was complete. On
the day of the Proclamation, Rosen duplicated
the final version about a hundred times, so
that there would be enough copies for the
members of the People’s Council, journalists,
and others. The copying was carried out at
the offices of the Anglo-Palestine Bank.
O n that same historic day she even
managed to type the final text onto sheets
of paper that she had acquired at Lautman’s
stationary store on Nahalat Binyamin Street,
where she had also purchased the gold-tipped
fountain pen for signing the proclamation
E ndlessly Recounted 259
the State was proclaimed, including what happened before and what
happened afterwards, drawn from sources current at the time and from
other sources that have appeared over the course of the years. Nevertheless,
there remain endless accounts and stories which were never published, or
which were published in the distant past and then forgotten. We present
some of them here.
The story of the Scroll of Independence
in the safe of the Anglo-Palestine Bank
(Bank Leumi)
D orit Rosen was personal assistant to
Zeev Sharef, Secretary of the People’s
Administration and – after the proclamation
of the state – Secretary of the Provisional
Government. She had been born in
Switzerland and had immigrated to Palestine
in 1934.
It was Rosen who was responsible for
copying the text of the Proclamation from the
moment that the first draft was complete. On
the day of the Proclamation, Rosen duplicated
the final version about a hundred times, so
that there would be enough copies for the
members of the People’s Council, journalists,
and others. The copying was carried out at
the offices of the Anglo-Palestine Bank.
O n that same historic day she even
managed to type the final text onto sheets
of paper that she had acquired at Lautman’s
stationary store on Nahalat Binyamin Street,
where she had also purchased the gold-tipped
fountain pen for signing the proclamation
E ndlessly Recounted 259
