In Israel, two of the most special holidays are Memorial Day and Independence Day which come one right after the other. The first is a very sad day while the second is very happy and joyous. On these days it is customary to wear blue and white representing the Israeli flag.
Tuesday Afternoon
Our programing started the day before Yom Hazikaron. Right after lunch we had our first speaker, Cheryl Mandel who had lost her son during his military service. She spoke about hearing the news that he child had been killed. She spoke about how it affected her life and how she deals with this loss every day. She showed us a video made up of pictures of him and then afterwards, she shared some stories with us about her son. She spoke really well and it was a very emotional speech.
Our next speaker was Rivkah Moriah, the mother of one of the students killed at the Mercaz HaRav Massacre. She told us step by step, every detail of what happened that night culminating with her finding out that her son had been killed by a terrorist who had gone into the building shooting him and eight other boys in cold blood. Quite a few people were really affected by her story because they somehow knew one of the boys who were killed in this massacre.
Yom Hazikaron- Tuesday Night
After these two speakers we ate dinner and then went down to the kotel. The wall was empty. Not a single person stood beside it in prayer. You could even see the stones darker at the bottom because the sun never shines on it because of the people who come every single day. I have never seen it like that. Right in front of the kotel, soldiers were standing at attention while waiting to begin one of the biggest memorial ceremonies in Israel that night. At exactly 8:00, a siren went off for one minute. Every single person stopped talking, stopped moving, and lowered their heads to remember those who had fallen in battle and those killed in terrorist attacks. For those 60 seconds, we all stood together as a nation. The ceremony began with lighting a giant memorial candle. Then, the president, Shimon Peres, spoke. There were another couple of speakers that I didn't catch because the ceremony was conducted in rapid and more complicated Hebrew than I could really understand. Lastly, the Chief Rabbi of the army said a prayer for the fallen soldiers.
Once we all got back, the Israelis at our school prepared an amazing program for us. They told us famous stories of fallen soldiers through videos, songs and acting them out. There was one story about two men who had the same name and their parents had the same names. One of them died and they went to tell the parents but it turned out that they accidentally told the wrong parents. They apologized for the mistake and went to tell the correct parents, but in that time the second man with that same name was killed too. Their program really helped us understand how the people in Israel relate to memorial day because almost everybody knows of someone who was killed in the army.
Yom Hazikaron- Wednesday
The first thing we did that morning was listen to a story by Uri who is the head of all the technical things at our school. He told us an amazing story of how he was the assistant Rabbi in the Second Lebanon War. His main task was working in the morgue. He spoke to us about the horrors that he saw and about he had to mentally and emotionally cope with it. One of the stories that he told us was about how he had to hitchhike to Jerusalem. On the way out of the north, he was sitting on the side of the road with some soldiers who were just talking and playing backgammon. He eventually caught a ride down to Jerusalem and in the middle of the drive, he heard the news announce that a group of soldiers was hit by a rocket in the exact place that he had just been a couple of hours before. He immediately got out of the car and hitchhiked back because he knew that they needed him.
Afterwards, we got on buses to go to Har Hertzl, Israel's military cemetery. We were put in groups of three where each group got the biography of a fallen soldier. Talia, Dalia, and I learned about the life of Chaim Buskila. He was born in Morocco in 1952 and his family moved to Israel four years later. He was first in the "Golani" part of the army which is up north, but then later he began training for the Air Force. He was killed in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 three days after the war started. He was 21 and left behind parents, three brothers and four sisters. When we got to Har Hertzl, it was filled with people. There, soldiers giving out water bottles and stickers. The grave that we were looking for was in Section E, Plot 2, Row 3, Grave 14. Eventually we found it and at the grave we met his younger sister. She told us how amazed she was that people who come from outside of Israel care about the fallen soldiers and not only that, but she was so appreciative that someone cared enough about her brother to come visit his grave. I asked her to tell us a little bit about him and she told us that he was very smart and he wanted to be a doctor after he got out of the army. She told us that she remembered her last moment with him. It was the Shabbat right before Succot and she remembered that he told her to go decorate the succah. At that moment, he picked up his bag and left, and that was the last time she saw him.
At exactly 11:00, a siren went off for two minutes just like the night before. Everything stopped and we all stood in silence to remember the fallen soldiers. The prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu got up to speak. He spoke about how he lost his brother, Yoni Netanyahu, and he understood how the people felt. He said that he misses him every single day but he knew that he fell serving the country. After Bibi Netanyahu spoke, we had to make our way back to the buses which took a very long time because of the huge crowds that were at the cemetery.
A group of about 12 of us had to go on the mini-bus to set up for the party that was happening that night. We started out by setting up all the tables and chairs in three long rows. This didn't happen very quickly and was accompanied by much waiting around for our lunch. Finally, they brought us lunch and it was worth the wait because they brought us pizza from Pizza Hut. I was so hungry, I ate five slices. Then we brought in all of the food and after that was done we began to set the tables and decorate. We put blue and white table clothes on the table and plates, napkins, and cutlery. We blew up balloons and hung streamers all over the room. We finished after a few hours but they didn't get us a mini-bus for the way back so we had to take the train. In the time that we were setting up, we missed a movie about a soldier named Michael Levine. I had already seen this movie, but for the girls who hadn't, it can be found online. The movie is about the story of a young man from Philadelphia who wanted to be in the Israeli Army so badly, but when they finally sent him to fight in Lebanon, he was killed in the battle. Lastly, Rav Yonatan spoke to us about the transition between Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut. He spoke about how one cannot go without the other because in order for there to be an independent state, people have to fight for it.
Yom Haatzmaut- Wednesday Night
After a beautiful davening led by Sarah and Jane, we all got on the buses to go to the party that we set up before. When we first got there everyone was either taking pictures or dancing or singing and we were all having a great time. The Israeli program also came to join in the party. Then, we ate dinner and Rav Milston, the head of our school came in waving the Israeli flag high over his head. The head of the Israeli program spoke first and then Rav Milston gave his famous Aliyah Speech. We ended the night with more singing and dancing. By the end of the night everyone was going crazy and having so much fun. We got back from the party at about 1:30 last night and despite the music blasting outside my window, I fell asleep in under ten minutes.
Yom Haatzmaut- Thursday
We woke up early in the morning to start off our day. We davened, ate breakfast, and got on the buses to go to our hike. It was a nice and easy two hour hike right outside of Jerusalem. Along the way, our guide told us stories from the War of Independence in 1948. When we were on the top of a mountain, we were able to see Route 1, the main road from Jerusalem to Tel-Aviv. Our guide told us about how the Arabs blocked off that road so the people in Jerusalem didn't have any water and she told us about how they suffered and how they dealt with it.
After the hike, we went to a picnic area where we were split up into six groups. Each group was given a grill, charcoal, matches, raw meat, and vegetables and were told to make lunch. We were group #4 and it took us quite a long time to figure out how to get the coals on fire to stay on fire. At least we didn't get help from other picnic goers like a couple of the other groups did. Hadassa and Meira were the main cooks. First they cooked the hot dogs and hamburgers and then they cooked the chicken after we rubbed spices all over it. The chicken tasted so good! We also cut up some peppers, cucumbers, and onions. We were all full by the end and we even had some left-overs.
These past few days were absolutely amazing and so meaningful to the people in Israel and even to those of us who don't permanently live here. It was a great experience that I have tried to describe, but you can't truly understand it unless you are here. Shalom V'lehitraot!
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