Yom zicharon L' Hashoa Ve'legevura

This year Holocaust Memorial day fell out on Mon. April 24/Tuesday April 25. In Toronto, we always knew when yom hashoa was because the children all prepared for it in school and quite often we would attend speakers or a ceremony commemorating the six million. Once again, here in Israel the day permeated our lives in a way it only could in Israel. Fifty nine years ago, out of the ashes of the most horrific events in history, Israel rose up and NEVER AGAIN did we have to be defenseless as a people! What was amazing to me was that this feeling is so palpable here, even among the young! The feeling of the horror of the event and the helplessness of the six million to have any sort of control of their horrendous destiny. The feeling of the world standing by and watching this happen and there was no one to help us or care about us and nowhere to go. On the MOnday night, there was a yishuv ceremony in our ulam. I went with my mother in law and we met up with Darrell who was on his way home from work. I was amazed at how suddenly, the often leibadik israeli kids and even the little ones knew to be quiet. When the siren went off everyone stood and you could hear a pin drop!! Unfortunately, the siren is part of life here, and children grow up from infancy hearing the siren atleast four times a year, on yom hashoa and yom hazikaron, so they all know the seriousness of the moment. The ceremony was simple but so moving. There was the siren and prayers, there was a lovely woman, a mother of one of the yishuv members who stood up and spoke about her experiences in the holocaust. There was a choir of young girls who sang so beautifully. We sat their staring at their beautiful innocent faces and listening to their sweet sweet voices............how many of them had grandparents who were survivors?, how many of them were missing grandparents who didn't survive? The feeling of the founding of this state and the tragedy of losing so many beautiful souls because we had no state no home of our own at the time was literally palpable in the air. The feeling of being a people who is hated in this world was also palpable. But out of the ashes and the horrific events of the Shoa the Jewish people perserved as we always seem to do and not only did we survive but we have flourished! And thus, these beautiful sweet children singing in front of us and helping us remember our loss of six million and to feel the loss and pain of the survivors. For Darrell and I we also experienced the awesome feeling of now being a part of this place, of Israel, of our yishuv.........we stood side by side with our fellow Israelis and yishuv members and cried and remembered! We felt proud to now be a part of the answer to the Nazis and the world at large. The ceremony ended and everyone helped to put their chairs away and we filed out of the ulam, somewhat quieter than usual.

The next morning, approx. 11:00 am, the sirens sounded once again. I was home with my inlaws and we stood by the window, in silence and looked out over the Judean Hills while the alarm sounded. It is an eerie sound and cuts to your heart quickly. We could hear it from the hilltops of the surrounding yishuvim. From where we stood the traffic continued, mostly Arab traffic I'm sure. That's okay, I didn't expect them to stop. Darrell called to tell me how he was in the board room in his Tel Aviv office, when the siren sounded, he stood by the window and looked out on the busy street and watched the world around him come to a complete halt. Cars stopped and people stood by their cars in silence. Sara came home and asked why everyone looked at their feet during the siren. She didn't get all the hebrew explanations she had heard in gan so I tried to explain.

It was one of the most meaningful Yom hashoa days I had ever experienced and once again, we felt that we and our children had just experienced a day that we could not have in Chutz l'aretz.