Monday, May 2, 2011

Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day here in Israel. This morning at 10am sirens sounded for two minutes all across Israel. Everyone stopped and stood at attention for those two minutes. Everywhere in the country all activity stopped. Those two minutes were a silent memorial to all those who lost their lives while the Nazis were in power.

This morning Rothberg International school held its own ceremony to remember those lost. Students from the school had volunteered to participate. The ceremony was only thirty minutes long but it was very moving. At intervals during the ceremony six candles were lit I think to symbolize the six million jews who died.

Students read poetry and selections from memoirs of survivors. Several students sang in Hebrew the school provided a program with the translations. It was truly an international ceremony students read their selections in English, Spanish, French, German and Hebrew.

One of Israel's heroines that I have learned about during my studies in Modern Hebrew was Hannah Senesh. I invite you all to learn more about her here. She is also known for her poetry. Some of her poems have been set to music. My favorite is Walk to Caesarea the lyrics to this song can be found at the above link. I don't want to post them for fear of copyright laws. I really like this song so I found a link you can listen to it here

I'm writing this during a break between classes at school. I wanted to get this post up on the actual day of the memorial.

2 comments:

  1. The senseless and massive lose of six million lives during the Holocaust will forever be a sad chapter for all humanity. I followed the link to read about the Israeli heroine Hannah Senesh. Senesh was an amazing woman whose courage and strength proved crucial to ending the Nazis rein. Listening to her poem, Walk To Caesarea, set to music captured the pain and hope she must have been feeling. Watching the current students of Rothberg International School participate in a Holocaust Remembrance Day would be very emotionally moving for all involved. While not much time has passed since this horrific time people shouldn't forget. I appreciate your timely post.

    Love,
    Mom

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  2. What made them decide on 5/2 as the day to honor this? Is it really the anniversary of anything or did they just want to spread the holidays around a bit more? I remember last fall was so chock-a-block full of feasts and festivals that I don't think they could've stuffed another one in there. I guess the Jews have made it 4K years or so this far. If they add a new holiday every 100 years they'd already have 40. Maybe they need to recycle a few days to make room for new ones.

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