At 8 p.m. on the 4th of Iyar (Monday this year), Israel will come to a standstill.
On that evening, sirens will blare and Israelis — and Jews around the world — will pause to remember the thousands of soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Today, a look at Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day.
More than 20,000 soldiers have fallen since Israel’s War of Independence. The Orthodox Union site traces the number of casualties from pre-state battles over the next 50 years at www.ou.org/yerusha layim/yomhazikaron/names.html
Israel’s Ministry of Defense maintains a large Hebrew-only site dedicated to Yom HaZikaron. You can view a list of each soldier whose yahrzeit is being observed on this day at www.izkor.gov.il/ izkor50.asp On the Yizkor page — www.izkor.gov.il/izkor11b.htm — you can read the special prayer for the fallen soldiers while hearing it recited. A Hebrew poetry page includes works of some of the country’s premier poets, including Natan Alterman, Naomi Shemer and Hannah Senesh. It includes King David’s lament from the Book of Samuel II upon hearing of the deaths of Jonathan and Saul, “How the Mighty Have Fallen,” at www.izkor.gov.il/izkor30a.htm
The sirens will wail in Israel on Yom HaZikaron, which is observed the day before Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. But how can the grief and importance of that day be conveyed to Jewish communities throughout the diaspora? The Virtual Jerusalem Web site — http://207.168.91.4/vjholidays/memorial — recommends the lighting of memorial candles, “giving tzedaka, or charity, or learning on behalf of the deceased. Some learn Torah in the memory of a particular soldier, study history (either of the Jewish state, or of Jewish history in general), or spend some time reflecting upon how the sacrifices of Israel’s soldiers affect them and the direction their own lives are taking.”
The Jewish Agency’s department for Jewish Zionist education — www.jajz-ed.org.il/festivls/zkatz/zk — has suggestions for schools and other organizations that want to hold remembrance ceremonies, including readings in English and the Prayer for the Welfare of soldiers in the Israel Defense Force. United Synagogue Youth’s Karen Stein has prepared some more suggestions at www.uscj.org/usy/pb/ kzikaron.htm
Aside from the 20,000-plus fallen soldiers, many more have sustained serious injuries while serving in the military. The Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization was established in 1949 to care for wounded and disabled soldiers during the War of Independence. Currently, the ZDVO has 48,000 members and four Beit Halochem rehabilitation centers in Israel. The Web site — www.fidv-bh.com –also has a picture gallery and profiles a disabled veteran every month.
On Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s political, military and religious leaders gather at Israel’s main military cemetery at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl. You can take a 360-degree look at one section of the cemetery online at http://shlk.com/49
For more Yom HaZikaron links, check out Aj6 Online — www.aj6.org/jpbo/410 — and the Israel Defense Force Web site –www.idf.il/hebrew/links/links.stm
It is almost impossible to understand the grief of a small country that has given up 20,000 of its young. That’s why an article about the loss of one soldier has such an impact. In “His Name Was Nachshon Wachsman” at — www.ou.org/yerushalayim/yomhazikaron — Esther Wachsman explains how her son was kidnapped and held ransom by the Hamas in October 1994. The IDF launched a military rescue that failed and Nachshon and the commander of the rescue mission were both killed.
“The entire nation mourned with us,” Esther Wachsman writes. “Thousands came to comfort us, though no one can comfort a bereaved parent… Food and drink were delivered non-stop to our home; bus and taxi drivers who brought people from all over the country who wished to express their condolences, left their vehicles and joined their passengers in our home. That unity, solidarity, caring, compassion, and love with which we were showered gave us strength and filled our hearts with love for our people. After the Shiva, we all returned to our routines…for that is what the Jewish people have always done — rebuilt after destruction, began new lives from the ashes and blood of the old.”