This is an extraordinary evening, and it’s taking place at an extraordinary moment in our calendar. For two thousand years the Jewish calendar has been fixed, unchanged. But remarkably, in living memory, four new dates have been added, four days that we are marking in this very period, which tell the story of modern Jewish history. A couple of weeks ago we marked Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. A week later, Yom Hazikaron, remembering those who fell for the establishment and defence of Israel. Then Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. And today we celebrate Yom Yerushalayim, the day marking the reunification of Jerusalem and the first time in modern history that people of all faiths can worship freely in the Holy City.

In fact, when I’m at home in Jerusalem, I’m woken up very early by the call of the Muezzin from the Mosques. I roll back to sleep and a little later I’m woken by the bells from the monastery just across the road. And the third time I’m woken up is by the noise of the earliest Jewish worshippers hurrying along to synagogue. And I lie there saying a little prayer of thanks to G-d for making me belong to the religion that wakes up latest!

These new dates in our calendar mark our return to history, and they give our answer to one of the oldest philosophical questions: do the times make the man or does the man—or woman—make the times? The answer of Jewish history is unequivocal: we can make the times, we can write our own story. We are not flotsam tossed about by events, but we have the power, the potential, to shape those events ourselves.

That’s a message of the calendar, but it’s also the message of our distinguished guest speaker. He encapsulates that spirit of possibility, the ability to dream and then dare to ask: why not? Why not make the inconceivable a reality, in the field of security, of diplomacy, of technology? To dream, to dare, to do. Shimon Peres, it is wonderful to have you with us.

The forces of history may be great, but the force of our spirit is greater. We can be the authors of our destiny. It’s true in our region, and it’s true here in the UK as well.

Here too a battle is being waged, a battle for Israel and for its legitimacy. And here too we need that spirit of possibility, that conviction that no challenge is too great, that this is the time of our calling. That is the spirit embodied by the Zionist Federation.

The ZF has had an astonishing history. Ninety-eight years ago it was the only organisation mentioned by name in the Balfour Declaration. And of course it was very shortly after that that Alan Aziz took over as director. Since then it has been the very forefront of making Israel’s case, loudly, clearly passionately, and in doing so has given many others the courage and confidence to raise their voices too. Paul Charney, Alan Aziz, and all your incredible team, thank you very much.

Former President Shimon Peres, Ambassador Taub, and Zionist Federation Staff

The challenges we face are real, but we have to rise above them to realise what remarkable times we are living in. To live in modern Israel is truly to live in the dreams of our grandparents and grandparents. What has been achieved in sixty-seven years can only be called miraculous. But these are a special type of miracles, miracles in which we are invited to play a part.

When think of miracles in biblical terms we think of making the lame walk, of bringing water from a rock, or the burning bush, or the pillars of cloud and fire which led the Israelites on their way. Israel today is no less miraculous than that, but we are full partners in making theses miracles happen. The lame, the paraplegic, rise from their wheelchair—but  using  Rewalk technology; water comes to the desert—using drip irrigation; the lights keep on burning—through renewable energy; and Israelites reach their destination led not by a pillar of cloud but by the Waze app. These are miracles, and no less miraculous for being ones in which we have played a part.