Bells of Peace which is being observed on Veterans Day this year to honor the end of WWI.  It is a national event.  On November 11, 2018 at 11am the Rutherford WWI Committee and veterans organizations will be at Sunset Park (corner of Jackson and Union Ave., Rutherford) while the bells ring all over the country.  We are also dedicating a tree to honor those who fought and died during the war.

Please join us if you can on November 11th.

Bells of Peace The Liberty Bell is the Honorary Bell of Peace! The World War I Centennial Commission and the National Park Service have designated the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia as the Honorary Bell of Peace to commemorate the Centennial of the Armistice on November 11. The Liberty Bell, the most prominent and revered bell in the nation, is on display in Philadelphia at the National Park Service’s Independence Park.  Owing to a crack that dates from the mid-19th century, it cannot be tolled. National Park Service Interpretive Specialist Bill Caughlin explained that the history of the Liberty Bell is closely entwined with American involvement in World War I.  Philadelphia Mayor Thomas Smith tapped it to announce the first war bond drive in June 1917, and the bell’s image appeared in countless posters advertising Liberty Bonds, which citizens were encouraged to buy to help pay for the war.  Songwriters Joe Goodwin and Halsey K. Moore composed “Liberty Bell – It’s Time to Ring Again” and their song reached the Top Five in 1918. After the war, Allied leaders visited the bell, including the King and Queen of Belgium and Field Marshal Joseph Joffre of France, who said little, but kissed the bell, according to the National Park Service.  General John J. Pershing visited the bell on September 12, 1919, and was presented with a small golden Liberty Bell in recognition of his leadership of American armies in the World War. The National Park Service will toll the Centennial Bell, which was placed in Independence Hall in 1876, at 11:11 a.m. on November 11, 2018, to mark the Centennial of the Armistice that ended “the war that changed the world.”  The Liberty Bell, silent in her enclosure nearby, will stand witness to the commemoration as the Honorary Bell of Peace, sustaining her place as the indelible symbol of the freedom of our Republic.