Celebrating Memorial Day in the USA and in Israel - In Israel it is not a happy time

 

Celebrating Memorial Day in the USA and in Israel

In Israel it is not a happy time

It’s eight o’clock on Tuesday night. The siren begins its wail. I put down the orange that I am peeling; it seems disrespectful not to do otherwise.

This evening is the start of Memorial Day here in Israel.  Although there are similarities, the celebration of Memorial Day in Israel is not what the people in the USA are used to. Both countries honor their war dead, and we both decorate their graves, and in the USA, Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day.

We Israelis call it The Day of Remembering, Yom HaZichoron, יום זיכרון.

For us it began on Tuesday at 8 PM when sirens were heard throughout the country. The Israel Defense Forces’ latest data shows that 891 IDF soldiers died in 2023 and 2024. Of those deaths, 558 were killed in 2024. Many of the fallen were killed during and in the immediate days after Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.

It is not a happy time.  Remembrance Day also commemorates civilians who died as a result of terror attacks. On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered 725 Israeli civilians, including 36 children and 71 foreign nationals, 79 civilians were killed in the past year since Memorial Day 2024.

There will not be anything like the thousands of parades taking place with marching bands in large and small cities all over the USA. We will not come close to anything like the traditional running of the Indianapolis 500 or NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600.  We’ll both visit cemeteries, but there will not be pot-luck dinners held on the grounds of our synagogues in contrast to the picnic-like settings at many churches in the USA. 

There will be no Memorial Day sales events.  Best Buy will not get any of our business.  And even though I am advised that Memorial Day is a great time to shop for clothing, the shops in my little town of Nahariya shut down early in the day...another sign of respect.

By way of contrast, in the USA, the holiday is a marketing opportunity.  Just pick up your local newspaper; this is what you will see:

Memorial Day Weekend -  Sales & Deals Are Here!!!

The summer sales are finally here, and there's a lot to choose from. We're rounding up all the best Memorial Day sales here, and we've included a few of our favorites below. (Hint: This is an excellent time to shop for clothing!)  It's also the unofficial start to summer, which means retailers will offer huge discounts on outdoor items, including patio furniture, grills, lawnmowers, and gardening tools.

At evening services On Yom HaZichoron in most synagogues, memorial prayers are recited for the fallen. The following morning at eleven o’clock the sirens will sound once more for two minutes during which we Israelis will stop everything including driving , and stand in silence, commemorating the fallen and showing respect.  We will also remember the IDF's missing soldiers and the fallen soldiers whose place of burial is unknown, and we will pray that our children return to their own land.  It is not a happy time.

Wherever soldiers are buried there will be gatherings and ceremonies.  Over the course of the day one of the television stations will screen the names of all the fallen in chronological order by rank, name, Hebrew date and secular date deceased.  Names appear for about three seconds each.  It is not a happy time.

Immediately following Yom HaZichoron, Memorial Day, we begin celebrating Independence Day, Yom Ha’Atzmaut.  The scheduling of Yom HaZicharon right before Yom Ha’Atzmaut is intended to remind people of the price paid for independence and of what was achieved through the soldiers' sacrifice.  This transition shows the importance of this day among Israelis, most of whom have served in the armed forces or have a connection with people who were killed during their military service. 

The contrast between 4th of July and Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations brings to the fore, once again, the difference between the two cultures and their everyday differing realities of life and death.  During the Maariv service the Ark is opened; we say the Hallel and the Shofar is blown.  I will still be wrestling with my emotions from Yom HaZichoron

In the Book of Joshua, God gives Joshua the daunting task of defeating the Canaanites.  No less than three times, God exhorts Joshua to be strong and to persevere… חֲזַק וֶאֱמַץ.  For we Israelis, that self same message rings true today as it did more than three thousand years ago:

 Be strong and persevere.

We hear, We are; We do.