PICTURES SPEAK LAUDER THAN WORDS and POETRY SPEAKS TO THE HEART
These two pictures — juxtaposed — tell the Jewish People’s history
 Yom HaZikaron |  Yom Ha’Atzmaut |
May 3, 2022, marks Yom Hazikaron on the English calendar. We join world jewry in mourning with the bereaved families of the fallen soldiers, whose lives were cut short “Al Kiddush Hashem” giving their lives to secure Israel’s independence.
It is thanks to their sacrifice that Israel was established, and not because of the Holocaust. The Holocaust happened because there was no Israel.
On this day, we also mourn the victims of terror attacks, many of whom served in the IDF, young brave men and women, whose blood was shed by vicious - evil enemies of Israel, bent on wiping her off the map.
BUT THEIR EFFORTS ARE DOOMED TO FAILURE. ISRAEL IS STRONG, RESILIENT, AND HERE FOREVER!
AM YISRAEL CHAI!
A HISTORIC DAY — THE TIDE IS TURNING YOM HAZIKARON COMMEMORATION IN ABU DHABI
"Amir Hayek, Israel’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, led a ceremony to commemorate Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday evening.
It was the first official Memorial Day ceremony to be held in an Arab state. The ceremony included the recitation of a number of traditional Jewish memorial prayers, including Yizkor and Kaddish.
Speaking at the event, Hayek affirmed Israel’s goal of working with the UAE, and all those who “strive for peace and strive for a better world.”
Speaking to radio 103FM on Wednesday morning, Hayek said he was overcome with emotion during the ceremony. “I do not remember a speech in which I stopped so many times to digest, and to wipe away tears of sadness, hope and emotion,” he said. Read the full article here
THE FOLLOWING POEM WAS COMPOSED SHORTLY BEFORE THE DECLARATION OF ISRAEL’S INDEPENDENCE.
The Silver Platter by Natan Alterman
And the land grows still, the red eye of the sky slowly dimming over smoking frontiers. And the nation arises, broken-hearted but breathing, to receive its miracle, the one, there is no other. The nation prepares for the ceremony. It arises in the moonlight, standing erect before dawn, wrapped in terror and joy. And then, a lad and a maiden step out and slowly march toward the nation. Dressed in battle gear, dirty, shoes heavy with grime, they ascend the path silently. They haven’t yet changed their clothes or even wiped their faces from the remnants of the terrible battle. Bone weary and deprived of rest, The dew of their Hebrew youth shimmers. Silently they approach, and stand motionlessly. And there is no sign to indicate if they are alive or shot. Then the nation, full of tears and wonder, asks "Who are you?" And they answer, "We are the silver platter on which you were given the Jewish state." Thus they will say and, wrapped in shadows, they collapsed at the nation’s feet. And the rest will be told in the chronicles of Israel…
YOM HA'ATZMAUT
Fireworks light up the sky above Jerusalem’s Old City in celebration of Yom Ha’Atzmaut
We take strength, courage and, hope from Rabbi Sack’s writings…..
"Wherever Jews were, they built synagogues, each of which was a symbolic fragment of the Temple in Jerusalem. Wherever they were, they prayed about Jerusalem, facing Jerusalem. They remembered it and wept for it, as the psalm had said, at every time of joy…….
"The Hebrew language has two words for strength: koach and gevurah. Koach is the strength you need to win a war. Gevurah is the courage you need to make peace. Israel has shown both kinds of strength. But peace is a duet not a solo. It cannot be made by one side alone. If it could, it would have been made long ago.”
"IT is so ironic that Israel should be called an imperialist power. Israel is the only nation to have ruled the land in the past four thousand years that has not been an empire and never sought to become one…."