It is easy - and understandable - to be depressed by our living in grim times, when antisemitism is a mainstream news story and Jews and Israel are under attack, not just from terrorists but on campus and from peddlers of hate elsewhere.

But the week of Yom Ha'atzmaut reminds us that we should never forget the modern miracle that is Israel.

First, that it exists - that the Jewish people have a home. And second, how it exists - as an example to the world of tolerance, freedom and creativity.

Happy 68th birthday!