‘we Are One’: Israelis, World Jewry Unite At Memorial Day Ceremony

(JNS) A hush fell on the packed outdoor amphitheater on May 12th at Yad L’Shiryon—the Israeli Army Armored Corp Museum—on the outskirts of Jerusalem for a ceremony at the start of the country’s most somber day of the year: Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day which this year took on added significance. Under the open sky on a temperate spring night, thousands of participants from around the world had gathered in the fields of the Ayalon Valley that date back to the biblical battles of Joshua and then the modern-day State of Israel’s 1948 War of Independence in remembrance of the fallen Israeli soldiers and the victims of terror. Huge banners hung on the stage with the words “We are one”—this year’s theme of the country’s largest English-language Yom Hazikaron ceremony, which was organized by the Masa Israel Journey and held in the backdrop of the seven-month-old war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and an uptick in antisemitism worldwide making the event especially poignant. The 90-minute ceremony, which, like hundreds of others across Israel, got underway following the national siren that sounded at 8 p.m.