Remembrance Day

On Remembrance Day Israelis remember those who gave their lives in defense of the State of Israel. This year Remembrance Day fell on Tuesday (April 16).

Events began at 8:00 p.m. on Monday (Jewish holidays begin on their eve) with air-raid sirens wailing throughout the country for two minutes. (When the sirens sound, all stop whatever they are doing and stand in silence. Cars halt in intersections and drivers and passengers get out and stand at attention.) Following this call to remembrance, the main state ceremony commenced at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, with President Moshe Katsav and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon participating.

At 11 a.m. on Tuesday sirens sounded for another two minutes, and again, everyone stood with bowed heads. Following these two minutes, memorial ceremonies were held at the country's 42 major military cemeteries. The largest of these ceremonies took place at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery. (Since 1860 and the arrival of the first Zionist settlers, 21,182 people have been killed in wars and terrorist attacks.)

Other remembrance services are held in towns, villages and settlements throughout Israel. Additionally, there are many private ceremonies. For instance, each year there is a remembrance ceremony held in our neighborhood in memory of Dror Barashi. This service takes place at the local kindergarten that bears Dror's name. Dror was the eldest son of our neighbors, Shalom and Simah Barashi, who live directly across the street from us, only a few steps from our door.

The village where Josa and I live, Maoz Zion, was settled in 1951 by Jews fleeing northern Iraq. Shalom and Simah are descendants of the original settlers. Those settlers, who arrived only three years after Israeli statehood, lived for many months in tents along both sides of a muddy street. Noted for their hospitality, the Kurdish Jews of Maoz Zion have received us warmly--several neighbors regularly send us food. Simah, acknowledgedly the best cook on the block, sends her 13-year-old daughter or 12-year-old son with dishes of food once or twice a week.

The Barashis have also invited us to join them for family celebrations and Jewish feasts. So it was that in the fall of 1995 Josa and I celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, with the Barashi family. Also present on that occasion was Dror, Shalom and Simah's pride and joy, a deputy company commander in a Golani infantry brigade. Dror was home on leave from his unit, which was serving in Southern Lebanon.

Two weeks later, in the middle of the night, there was a knock on the Barashis' door. A representative of the army informed the family that Dror had been killed in a Hizbollah terrorist ambush. Dror would have completed his three years of compulsory army service only three weeks later.

Though they have four other children, Shalom and Simah have never recovered from the loss of Dror. The mourning, especially that of Simah, even seems to intensify with the years.

Here are three views of this year's memorial service for Dror:




The service at the Dror Kindergarten. Beyond the fence and down below is where we and the Barashis live. On the horizon is the area where the Ark of the Covenant rested before being brought into Jerusalem by King David.

Simah Barashi lights the memorial flame at the beginning of the ceremony. Beyond her can be seen a portion of the painting of Dror that was used in the ceremony.

Dror's cousin, who is now doing her two years of compulsory army service, reads a poem she composed for Dror.