Yom HaZicharon (Day of Remembrance)

27 April 09 19:28 in Israel, the zOhn
Tags: Culture, honor, Israel, Israeli, remember, sorrow

This is the day on which all of Israel remembers everyone who has fallen for her, soldier and bystander.  Television and radio stations carry special programming, or go off the air,  and entertainment is closed.  Nationally, we know the name and the face, of every casualty, as it happened; few of us do not have a personal loss. 

At eight o’clock in the evening, and again at eleven in the morning, the siren sounds, and the world . . . stops.  Immediately and in place.  Cars and buses, people in the grocery store, crossing the street, working, talking, all movement,  it all stops.  Stops.  Every year, I am overwhelmed.