Exclusive Coverage: NYC Flag Ceremony Bowling Green/Wall St, 70th Anniversary Israel Statehood

On May 14, 2018 at 5 pm at Wall Street/Bowling Green, the raising of two flags, the original American 13-star flag and the Israeli flag, was done to commemorate 70 years of Israeli statehood.

The Flag Ceremony was hosted by Bnai Zion Foundation and sponsors: New York Board of Rabbis, World Zionist Organization, America-Israel Friendship League, American Zionist Movement, Israel in New York.)

Speakers included Ibrahim Kurtuluş, a Turkish-American community activist, Arthur Piccolo of the Bowling Green Association, and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis.

Herbert Block of the American Zionist Movement, Dr. Esther Serok of the World Zionist Organization, and Ibrahim Kurtulus helped to raise the Israeli flag.

Evacuation Day on November 25 marks the day in 1783 when British troops departed from New York City on Manhattan Island, after the end of the American Revolutionary War. After this British Army evacuation, General George Washington triumphantly led the Continental Army from his former headquarters, north of the city, across the Harlem River south down Manhattan through the town to The Battery at the foot of Broadway.^[1]

Bowling Green Park  is where Gen. George Washington and his troops waved off the departing British Troops AND dismantled the statue of King George III.

“On July 9, 1776, after the Declaration of Independence was read to Washington‘s troops at the current site of City Hall, local Sons of Liberty rushed down Broadway to Bowling Green, where they ordered their African slaves to topple the statue of King George III. The fence post finials of cast-iron crowns on the protective fence were sawn off, with the saw marks still visible today.^[5] The event is one of the most enduring images in the city’s history. According to folklore, the statue was chopped up and shipped to a Connecticut foundry under the direction of Oliver Wolcott to be made into 42,088 patriot bullets at 20 bullets per pound (2,104.4 pounds). The statue’s head was to have been paraded about town on pike-staffs, but was recovered by Loyalists and sent to England. Eight pieces of the lead statue are preserved in the New-York Historical Society;^[7] one in the Museum of the City of New York as well as one in Connecticut ^[8] (estimated total of 260/270 pounds);^[9] “[wiki]

An historical day in Manhattan, but not too sure the tourists saw anything to write home about — except the modern-day statues of the Bull and the Fearless Little Girl.

What a shame.

[Pictures and videos property of Pamela Hall]