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April 23, 2004
Remembering Israel's fallen
Before Independence Day, we pay tribute to those who gave their
lives.
DVORA WAYSMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
There is just a split second that separates the end of Remembrance
Day for Israel's fallen soldiers (Yom Hazikaron) from the
joyful ushering in of Independence Day (Yom Ha'azmaut). But
it is a second poignant with meaning. It is when Israelis and Jews
worldwide acknowledge the overwhelming debt they owe to those who
fell on active service in all of Israel's wars, beginning with that
of 1948, and without whose sacrifice there would be no Independence
Day to celebrate – for there would be no Israel.
Remembrance Day is observed for a full 24 hours on the Hebrew date
of 4 Iyar. In Israel, it is a solemn day of civil, military and
religious ceremonies, beginning with the lighting of remembrance
candles in army camps, schools, synagogues and public places. Flags
are lowered to half-mast and, in the morning, the whole country
comes to a standstill as two minutes of silence are observed. It
is as though everyone and everything is suddenly frozen. Traffic
grinds to a halt. People stop in mid-sentence. Everything is suspended
for these two long minutes that encapsulate so many bitter and tragic
memories.
Throughout the day, soldiers and former servicemen and women serve
as guards of honor at war memorials and military cemeteries in every
town. "Youth city" someone remarked bitterly to me once
when I visited just such a cemetery in Jerusalem. The tombstones,
row after row, recorded the ages of boys who had made a man's supreme
sacrifice: Avi, aged 20; Yigael, aged 21; Ilan, aged 18. Some were
a bit older – they had lived to marry and father children,
now orphaned, whose only memory is often just a photograph.
Two special psalms are recited in synagogues on Yom Hazikaron: Psalm
9: "... When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall
and perish at Thy presence for You have upheld my right and my cause..."
and Psalm 144: "Blessed be the Lord, my strength, who traineth
my hands for war and my fingers to fight ... that our sons may be
as plants grown up in their youth."
Israel is a country where parents often have been called to bury
their children and the earth is saturated with tears on this day.
In the whole land, there is barely a family who has not been affected
in the past 56 years, who has not lost a husband, a father, a brother,
a cousin or a sweetheart.
When the long day of mourning draws to a close, as sunset merges
with night, a siren is sounded – a long, mournful note fraught
with sorrow. Then the stars appear and suddenly there is laughter
and music and fireworks, as Israel celebrates Independence Day.
It is fitting that it should be so. Before the celebrations, before
the affirmation that we have survived, that – despite all odds
– Am Israel Chai, the people of Israel live – we
must first acknowledge and pay tribute to those magnificent people
who gave their lives to make it happen. And there is only one way
to make some meaning out of the tragic loss of lives robbed of their
promise – Israel must go on surviving.
Dvora Waysman is a freelance writer living in Jerusalem.
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