Tag: Yom Hazicaron

  • Hammock for one.

    Hammock for one.

    It gets harder every year. Yom HaShoah. Yom HaZicaron. Every year the ticking accelerates. Every year I realize all over again how important it is to not take any of it for granted. Every hug, every cuddle. Every whispered secret. Every question. Every silent moment, holding hands. Feeling up-down-up-down of a tiny chest against my…

  • Thoughts on another Israeli Memorial Day

    All around, kids pick up bits and ask their parents… “What is בן האבוד בלבנון?” “What is מבצע אנטבה?” “What does רומנטי mean?” “Why is that kind of flower everywhere?” “Did that שיר really happen?” “Why do they put the flag down?” On a walk through Har Herzl (Israel’s national cemetery) this morning, hearing about…

  • New parenting level unlocked: Israeli school children on Yom HaZicaron

    New parenting level unlocked: Israeli school children on Yom HaZicaron

    Here’s the scene. A mother is playing out her son’s childhood through a laundry metaphor. First the onesie. Then the tzitzit. School uniform shirt. Pants. Teenager jeans. Button down shirt. Army tzitzit. When she gets to the army uniform, there’s a ‘knock at the door.’ She sees the soldier. She crumples. He salutes. She cries…

  • Visiting and storytelling at Har Herzl on Israel’s Memorial Day

    A colleague who visits children of friends and neighbors, acquaintances and others at Har Herzl every year invited some of us to join him today on Israeli Memorial Day. I had never been there on Yom HaZicaron itself, so the experience was new. There’s a lot to see and hear. High school students. Scouts. Foreign…

  • Yom HaZicaron 5774: A little boy asking questions

    Yom HaZicaron 5774: A little boy asking questions

    This evening at the Yom HaZicaron memorial service, my son asked a lot of questions. ‘Who is that boy?’ ‘Who is he talking about?’ ‘His older brother died?’ He asked me to explain what every speaker was talking about. I did. It made me strongly consider how I’ll look back fondly in thirteen years at…

  • The innocent on Memorial Day.

    I told Koala he could come with me to the Yom HaZicaron ceremony if he likes. I told him it’s a time where we remember all the soldiers and all the good things they do for us. “And if you want, during the siren, you can think about your uncle who is a chayal, or…

  • My own personal tekes.

    For the past few years I’ve been home on Yom HaZicaron and I’ve sat on my mirpeset and listened to the tekes that goes on the school down below. Tzur Hadassah, from my home’s perspective, is a giant amphitheater, so I hear some of it pretty well. So without yet having my children there, I stand…

  • It’s starting to look a lot like…

    The annual hanging of the flags across Israel (or Tzur Hadassah specifically): Yom Haatzmaut 64, here we come!

  • Still here.

    It confuses me that about one half of myself can’t believe we’re still here, and can’t believe things will continue the way they are – growing, productive, surviving… and the other half of myself thinks, look at the progress! Look at how far we’ve come, and how far we’re poised to go! We build buildings…

  • Family outing, Memorial Day, contributing, Israel.

    Proud that we managed to dress, pack up, and transport the kids to the Yom HaZicaron tekes in Tzur Hadassah tonight. And that my two-year-old stayed silent and un-startled throughout the siren. And that we managed to stay for the first 15 minutes. Watching all those kids socialize up until they suddenly stopped for the…

  • Remembering to remember.

    I’m lost in the new parent time warp. Completely forgot that Yom HaZicaron started last night until we heard the siren from my hospital room. Watched many of the nurses and patients stand still in the corridor while the Arabs and Charedis went about their ways.  Yom HaZicaron has the potential to take on a…

  • A small community Yom HaZicaron.

    A small community Yom HaZicaron.

    A small community Yom HaZicaron tekes is unlike the others I’ve been to in Israel. There is something about it. Maybe it sounds strange, but it’s almost like the smallness makes it more intense. At the kotel or Rabin square, you know why you are there… Or you feel the obvious magnitude of the occasion.…