Observing Memorial Day and Indepence Day in Israel

Observing Memorial Day and Indepence Day in Israel
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During the past few days, I have been fortunate to commemorate Memorial Day and Independence Day in new ways which have been inspiring and uplifting.

Since 1963 the state of Israel has set the 4th of the Hebrew month of Iyar (which is usually in May) as Memorial Day and the next day, the 5th of Iyar, as Independence Day. This year they took place on May 11th and 12th. They are back-to-back days of commemoration during which we who live here experience radically different emotions -- from extreme sadness to supreme joy.

On Tuesday night, May 10th, on the eve of Memorial Day, I attended, for the first time, the 11th annual Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day in Tel Aviv, together with my wife, a friend from New York, and a visiting professor from Vienna. We attended along with about 3000 other Jews and Palestinians from all over the country (some of the Palestinians came in from the West Bank). In addition, the ceremony was podcast so that people from Palestine and from many other places in the world (Boston, San Francisco, Berlin and more) were in solidarity with this commemoration.

This somber and emotional event was co-sponsored by two courageous and committed Israeli-Palestinian NGO's-- Combatants for Peace and The Bereaved Families Forum. Both organizations support reconciliation and tolerance between Israelis and Palestinians, and both engage in non-violent dialogue as a way to achieve peaceful coexistence, as I have done for the past 25 years with the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, now a department of Rabbis for Human Rights.

The commemoration - which was sensitively moderated by a Jewish woman from a kibbutz in Israel and a Palestinian man from Jericho -- was a moving and memorable experience, combining songs, music, dance and reflections. Bereaved parents and siblings from both sides of the conflict spoke painfully and poignantly about their tragic losses of family members over many years of our protracted conflict. The highlight of the ceremony were two serious presentations by two young men -- a Palestinian and an Israeli -- about the loss of their sisters -Smadar and Amir --at young ages, one in a suicide bombing and the other in a raid by the Israeli army on a Palestinian village. As one of the speakers said:

In most memorial ceremonies in Israel one doesn't mention both Amir and Smadar in the same breath

.As another speaker said, everyone else is in denial. They do not acknowledge the suffering on both sides of the conflict, only on one side.

The ceremony ended with the singing by a mixed Palestinian and Israeli women's choir of an alternative version to the traditional Passover "Chad Gadya" song, adapted by Hava Alberstein in 1989 during the first Intifada. This haunting and powerful song asks important questions:

Why are you singing this traditional song?
It's not yet spring and Passover's not here.
And what has changed for you? What has changed?
I have changed this year.
On all other nights I ask the four questions, but tonight I have one more:
How long will the cycle last?
How long will the cycle of violence last?

The chased and the chaser
The beaten and the beater
When will all this madness end?

The moderators of the ceremony--which was secular-cultural in its tone and ambiance-- announced that singing this song at the end of the evening has become a "tradition". Indeed, all 3000 people joined with the Palestinian-Israeli choir in singing with the fervent hope that the cycle of violence can somehow be brought to an end.

On the way back to Jerusalem in the car, my Catholic friend from Vienna told us that she felt a yearning for peace on the part of all the people who attended this ceremony. I couldn't agree with her more. I just wished that more people in Israel and Palestine shared this yearning, with a greater sense of urgency.

On the next night, on the eve of Israeli Independence Day, I attended--with members of my family -- a transitional religiously inspired ceremony, to help navigate us from the depths of Memorial Day to the heights of Independence Day. It was beautifully led by Rabbi Tamar Elad Applebaum, the rabbi of a new three-year-old Masorti (Conservative) congregation in Jerusalem known as Kehillat Zion. It helped me be mindful of the miracle that is the modern state of Israel and at the same time I was constantly reminded of the challenges we still face to achieve peace and to make this country live up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence (which was part of the liturgy for this ceremony) which, among other things, states:

THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

We have a long way to go to achieve these lofty goals. I was inspired--along with thousands of other people this year on these two days--through two very different but both very important ceremonies--not to just keep this vision in mind, but to continue to engage in dialogue , education and action to bring the reality closer to the ideal.

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