May Their Memory Be Blessed

Today is Israel’s Memorial Day for those that gave their lives for our country.  Today we remember our 22,867 fallen men and women, 183 of whom were lost over the past year.

Today we mourn, and tomorrow, on Israel’s Independence Day, we will celebrate.  Tonight at 8 PM we go from grief to joy, an Only-In-Israel experience.

Today my daughters are mourning their friends…

Uriel Peretz — killed in Lebanon in 1998

Eliraz Peretz — his brother, killed in Gaza in 2010

Gabi Uziel — killed in Jenin in 2003

Alon Babayan — killed in the Helicopter Tragedy of 1997

Dvir Emanueloff — the first soldier to be killed in Cast Lead in Gaza, 2009

Michal Raziel — killed in the Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem, 2001

The Silver Salver

by Natan Alterman

This poem is based on a statement made by Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel, that ‘A state is not handed to a people on a silver salver.’

The Earth grows still.
The lurid sky slowly pales
Over smoking borders.
Heartsick, but still living, a people stand by
To greet the uniqueness
of the miracle.

Readied, they wait beneath the moon,
Wrapped in awesome joy, before the light.
— Then, soon,
A girl and boy step forward,
And slowly walk before the waiting nation.

In work garb and heavy-shod
They climb
In stillness.
Wearing yet the dress of battle, the grime
Of aching day and fire-filled night

Unwashed, weary unto death, not knowing rest,
But wearing youth like dewdrops in their hair,
— Silently the two approach
And stand.
Are they of the quick or of the dead?

Through wondering tears, the people stare.
“Who are you, the silent two?”
And they reply: “We are the silver salver
Upon which the Jewish State was served to you.”

And speaking, fall in shadow at the nation’s feet.
Let the rest in Israel’s chronicles be told.