Last night and today was Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day for all of the soldiers who have been killed in Israel's various wars. Last night I went to the ceremony in Ra'anana. There were thousands of people there and it was pretty moving. They read the names and showed pictures of all the soldiers who have been killed going back to 1948 from Ra'anana. There were 230 of them, I think. The most moving part was when the father of a soldier who was killed a few years ago spoke--I didn't quite catch exactly how she died, but she was in the air force and the father was an amazing speaker. Memorial Day here is very different from Memorial Day in America. I, personally, have never actually associated Memorial Day there with anything more than a day off from work and the beginning of summer. I'm sure that's not the case for families of soldiers, but I think the difference is that here, you see soldiers everywhere and Israel's wars are fought here, so you can't help but feel some connection to the soldiers.
Apparently, in Simon's gan they talked a little bit about the soldiers and remembering them. There was a siren at 8pm last night for Yom HaZikaron. I wasn't home because I was at the ceremony, but David and Simon opened the window so that they could hear it better and they had the following conversation:
David: the siren is going to go off in a minute, so let's get ready
Simon assumes the position (feet together, hands behind the back, head down) and then says: is it ok if I keep my eyes open and lift up my head so I can look around?
David: sure, but we have to be quiet during the siren
Simon: ok.
Simon stood very still and seriously during the sired and then afterwards...
David: Remember when we went to the tank museum a few weeks ago and we saw soldiers there?
Simon: yup, they are all dead now.
Today, there was another siren at 11am to mark the start of all the memorial ceremonies at the various cemeteries across the country. I was on my way to Tali's school for their ceremony, but I got stuck in some traffic and was on Ahuza for the siren. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. As soon as the siren went off, all the cars just stopped and people got out and stood silently next to their cars. I had my camera with me and really wanted to take pictures but it just felt inappropriate. Once the siren stopped, everyone just went on their way. I've never seen anything like that before.
The weird thing about the somberness of Yom Hazikaron here is that it ends abruptly because it leads right into Independence Day which started tonight. This is a special year because it's the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence. Simon will tell you "it's Yisrael's birthday...Yisrael is 60 years old...." Eli is getting into the spirit of the day as well--he LOVES waving a flag around. I have a flag on the car and Eli insists on taking it off the car and bringing it with him wherever he goes.
Tonight there was a huge party in Park Ra'anana that we went to with some friends. It was very crowded, but lots of fun. Deborah told me that last year there were really good toffee apples, so I was very excited about that. Turns out what British people call "toffee apples" are really candy apples and not the kind with caramel, so I was disappointed but the rest of the food was good. We participated in the worldwide singing of HaTikvah that apparently is going to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people singing a national anthem at the same time. We had to leave right after that because our babysitter (along with most peoples' babysitters) gave us a curfew because all of the teenagers go out at 11:30 or 12. Apparently we are now too old to be cool. Sad.
In other news, the other morning, Simon and Eli were playing in the playroom and I was getting dressed. I heard them talking to each other and it sounded cute so I went to see what they were doing--they were sitting together on the couch doing a puzzle. Simon was telling Eli where to put the pieces. Very cute.
Also, yesterday, we went out for pizza with Tali, Boaz and Uri (for a change). The kids were all running wild and being crazy, but they did pose for a cute picture!
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