Every year on Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of hostilities, we visit the graves of our loved ones, our beloved. Last year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we could not commemorate their memory in the cemeteries. We could not meet at the monuments and in the ceremonial plazas. The social distancing imposed upon us, sharpened the pain and greatly intensified the longing for the daughters and sons who are no longer.
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Coronavirus has presented the world and also the family of the bereaved in Israel with many challenges. We, the family of the bereaved, were also asked how to safeguard their memory and legacy from a distance? How to do it without seeing the faces of the friends who visit the house and the gravesite every year?!
To this end, we enlisted technology in the service of remembrance and heritage. In recent months, as a result of the conclusions from the previous year, the two representative organizations, the Widows and Orphans Organization and the "Yad LaBanim Organization', set up a new digital platform that allows the citizens of Israel to enter a virtual commemorative area for each fallen victim, and to be part of an online visit to a specific room. If you can't come to the cemetery, you can come together online at the a designated web page.
The site is launching this Memorial Day with our hope that this will be a way to continue to uphold the commandment: to remember and not forget. We invite you to visit the site, Zochrim ("We Remember"), and to meet there too. In their honor and memory.
And to you members of the bereaved families: we do not need a specific day of remembrance or a website to remember. We remember every day, every hour, all year round. At every birthday, at every celebration, at the Shabbat table, during the joyous holidays, and during the daily routine. Every day, we die a little with them. Every day, they live with us. 23,928 daughters and sons - Israel's fallen in its wars. Brave, beautiful, forever young. Our beloved, so dear to us. And they are sorely missed, who know that better than me?
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The State of Israel in its 73rd year is a strong and solid country. But it is also a country where there are many divides and disagreements. The family of the bereaved unites within it Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bedouin, and Circassians – all in one beam. Everyone fought together and fell together, side by side, shoulder to shoulder.
Precisely during these complex days, we must safeguard the testament that our loved ones left us, a strong country in which everyone is responsible for each other. I promise that their name and legacy will never be forgotten.
"He who makes peace in his high places
He shall make peace upon us
And upon all of Israel"
Blessed be the memory of the sons and daughters.
