A week ago: Holocaust Memorial Day. 10 am sirens caught us a a bank. Everyone stood with their heads down in silence commemorating the lives of 6 million Jews mass murdered in the concentration camps and ghettos.
I was surprised to learn that quite a few people avoid sending their 3-8 year old kids to day care and schools on this day. Apparently instruction of the education ministry require all public day care and school teachers mark this day based on their own judgement of the kids understanding and emotional capabilities and many parents do not trust this judgement. My boss brought his 7-year old daughter to the work instead. In our toddler's day care there were two 5-year old kids that used to attend this day care before and now came as visitors avoiding their public kindergartens.
A week later: Memorial Day honoring our fallen soldiers and victims of terror: over 23,000. In a tiny and tightly connected country as Israel everyone knows someone who died. In the evening many families participate in the ceremonies held at every neighborhood. We drove to the one in the old part of Beer Sheva, where the daughter of our friends performed. Organized by the student volunteers, it combined songs, poetry, and theater pieces mediating on the peace, war and memory.
In the morning: another chilling siren and very sad and beautiful ceremonies at all the schools. Our town of Ramat ha Sharon also held the traditional "Boys March" on Saturday: an organized 8 km walk in memory of local youth that died defending the country. It wasn't easy in the 90F heat but those who made it enjoyed the fruit ice and fresh oranges at the finish line:
In anticipation of the Independence day the whole country is decorated with the Israeli flags: on cars, buildings, street poles. The high tech park where I work is located in-between the town of Rosh ha Ayin and the Arab village Kasem. Sitting down at my desk recently I noticed a triplet of new flags outside the window on the Arab village side. In these days of sad "us-them" stories my first thought was that these may be Hamas and Palestinian flags posted by Kasem villagers as antidote to the Independence day fuss. But checking closer we realized that these are German, Portugal and Italian flags - in preparation for the Soccer World Cup starting in Rio De Janeiro in a month. The same Championship that people at my work are staring to make bets for...
The Memorial Day broke into into the Independence Day with a beautiful ceremony translated over TV from the Mount Hertzel in Jerusalem (where my mother-in-law happened to be singing). This year the ceremony was themed on Israeli Women and their achievements. 14 remarkable Israeli women of various ages, colors, roots, accents and professions were selected to light the Independence Torches. Among them a beautiful paralympic champion, a Muslim woman entrepreneur, and a ultra-orthodox woman rabbi. Read more on them
here.
Independence Night concerts, street fairs and fireworks continued well past midnight. Kids wondered the streets with their friends arriving at 1:30 am. I didn't last long as the streets were too crowded and loud to squeeze by with a stroller.
Next morning: beach time and traditional Independence Day bbqs. On Hetzelya beach we first observed the parade or yachts and then the Air Force show:
This week between the Holocaust Memorial Day and the Independence Day is the most amazing week of the year in Israel. It is the strongest week of this nation: when the polarized country suddenly unites, when everyone goes from tears to joy, when we remember and honor together, when everyone feels very proud being a citizen.
