Tonight I went to Kikar Rabin, the central square in Tel Aviv, and watched the annual Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) ceremony. It was quite moving.
I'd heard for years about the sirens and how they're played only three times a year: Holocaust Day, the night before Memorial Day and the morning of Memorial Day. As the sirens wail the country comes to a complete standstill and everyone is quiet for a minute. In a land that never stops and people that don't have patience for anything, witnessing 100,000 people shutting up and stopping is very meaningful and illustrates the importance of the moment.
The ceremony itself was beautiful. The army and deaths caused by defending the country are a constant part of life here (this is something that I will one day write a much longer piece about) and everyone knows someone personally or knows someone who knows someone that was killed in a war or in a terror attack. The ceremony was a mix of videos, speeches and live music. I appreciated the videos the most. Each video was of a surviving family member of someone that was killed defending the country in the many wars over the last 60 years. The one that touched me the most was a mother talking about her son who was killed on March 1, 2008. That's only two months ago and serves as a reminder of the situation we're in here and how defending our country is always on the mind.
On Thursday, Israel will celebrate its 60th birthday and I plan to take part fully in the celebrations all weekend long:-)
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2 comments:
Have a great trip back to the ATL next week. Don't forget the brownie at Chik fil A.
ok, evan, it's been over 2 months since your last post. it's time for a new one. look at robin - she's posting all the time!
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