The 50th Annual Mickey Marcus Memorial Service will be held at the Jewish Chapel of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Sunday, April 17, at 10 a.m. Hosted by the American Veterans of Israel Legacy Corporation (AVILC), in conjunction with the Israeli Consulate in New York, the annual commemoration is in memory of Colonel David “Mickey” Marcus who was among the 41 U.S. and Canadian volunteers who gave their lives in Israel’s War of Independence (1947-49).

This year’s event will pay special tribute to Czech Republic and Slovakia. Their predecessor state, Czechoslovakia, during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, was the sole country to ignore the UN embargo on sale of arms to Israel. Its help allowed Israel to gain decisive air superiority and mount the ground offensive that ended the war on a victorious note. This crucial support was in line with a remarkable tradition of Czechoslovak friendship towards the Zionist movement.

Members of the American Veterans of Israel (AVI) are the American and Canadian volunteers who served in MACHAL (Hebrew acronym for ‘Volunteers from Abroad’) during Israel’s War of Independence (1947-1949).

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