Yom HaZikaron-Israel's Memorial Day

Last Sunday-Monday was a gloomy day in Jerusalem. At 8pm on Sunday evening, a siren was heard throughout the city to begin what for most Israelis, one of the most difficult days of the year, Yom HaZikaron. This is a day of memorial for all of the fallen soldiers in the Israel Defense Force. My roommates and I stepped out onto our balcony for the siren and watched people get out of their cars, stop walking down the sidewalk, and just pause and stand for a moment of silence. Monday morning we had a Yom HaZikaron service at school led by the Parallel Lives coordinators, Rachel and Hannah. One of the Israeli rabbinical students told a personal story of his friend, Marla, who lost her life in the bombing at the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria at Hebrew University. It was a powerful and emotional story. After the service, our class walked to one of the local High Schools for their ceremony. Every school has a Yom HaZikaron ceremony and graduates of the school (including the current soldiers) all go to their own High School for the ceremony. I was fortunate enough to stand with a former student who was able to explain all of the parts of the ceremony and even told us a few personal stories about some of her classmates who had lost their lives. At this school, they recited all of the names of former students and faculty members in chronological order. In front of me were two Israeli soldiers and at the end of the list of names, one of the soldiers grew very emotional and the two men stood hugging and crying for several minutes. As sad and emotional it was to witness, I felt very much like an outsider. Fortunately, I do not have any personal connections to fallen soldiers. I've never fought in the IDF and felt that this was very much a holiday of unity for these soldiers. After the ceremony, I went about my day, and began preparing for the following day, Yom Ha'Atzmaut.