Memorial Day conjures up memories of long weekends, the beginning of summer vacation, family gatherings and seasonal sales. Yet since moving to Israel I have developed an appreciation for what I think that the day was meant to be, especially through observances here that are part of the DNA of Israeli culture. For a day [...]
READ MORE »Yom Hazikaron
Yom HaZikaron: In Memory
View Slideshow Growing up in the United States, I never felt much emotion on either Memorial Day or Independence Day, which are marked more than a month apart. In Israel, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut are two of the most somber and joyous days of the year. The proximity of the two holidays on the [...]
READ MORE »
From Ruin to Renewal
The period of time beginning the second night of Pesach and climaxing forty-nine full days later with the Festival of Shavuot can be called a time of “Ruin and Renewal” for the Jewish People.
READ MORE »
A Place to Sigh – Israel Memorial Day
I WENT TO A FUNERAL — a spring funeral — in the city of Jerusalem. An Israeli soldier was killed; a Jewish boy had died. Another name was added to a list, a long list, of Jews who have given their lives in the past fifty years so that the Jewish State of Israel might [...]
READ MORE »