The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County along with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Monmouth is hosting a special celebration to commemorate the founding of the state of Israel 60 years ago.
It will also honor Zimel Resnick, who lived for many years in Asbury Park, before he died.
The event will be held Tues., April 15 at the Ruth Hyman Jewish Community Center, 100 Grant Ave., Ocean Township from 1 to 2 p.m.
A luncheon is being held from noon to 1 p.m., with a $3 donation.
Registration is required. Contact Edith Glasser, JCC Senior Program Director at (732)531-9100, ext. 125, or JHMOMC Program Co-Chairs Gloria Berman at (732)780-1220 or Carol Cohen at Cohencrew@aol.com
Resnick was the owner of the Asbury Park Amusement Park and according to Jean Klerman of the JHMM, used to take his Zionist colleagues on his ferris wheel when he wanted to talk in private.
According to a release from Klerman, The momentous events leading up to Israels proclamation of independence on May 14, 1948 were played out against a background of broken political promises for a Jewish homeland even as the horrors of the Holocaust unfolded in full detail.
With no provision made for the defense of the Jewish citzens in their new country against their enemies, Resnick and a small group of Monmouth County Jewish residents had begun engaging in collecting and storing weapons and ammunition for transport to the Jewish defense forces in Palestine.
Resnick enlisted the aid of Charles Lowy, the owner of a moving and storage company. It was on his farm in Wall Township that the local police uncovered a hoard of munitions in January of 1948.
 Zimel and Mollie Resnick are pictured with David Ben Gurion, (center) Israeli Prime Minister. |
The front pages of local newspapers as well as those around the United States were immediately filled with alarming headlines about the tons of explosives found, and Lowy being questioned by the FBI, Klerman said.
Radio broadcasts also reported on supplies of dangerous explosives and demolition blocks hidden throughout Monmouth County.
These discoveries, as well as others in Jersey City and New York brought into the open the nation-wide efforts of individual American Zionists to supply Israel with the materials needed to prevent another Holocaust, Klerman said.
According to Klerman subsequent articles attested to the growing sympathy Americans began to feel toward the struggling Jewish state and Lowy, who had been imprisoned.
He was released with a minimum $500 fine and sympathetic words from a local judge.
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