Yom HaShoah

Today is Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Memorial Day. Ceremonies began last night at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem, televised throughout the country. (All other television programs and forms of entertainment -- movies, theatre -- are suspended for the evening by law). It was a beautiful ceremony, featuring speeches, the lighting of 6 torches by survivors who told their stories (thankfully subtitled), music played on violins belonging to children who perished, an extremely moving rendition of El Malei Rachamim (a prayer for the dead) by an army captain, and the singing of Hatikvah by a chorus of schoolgirls. For more about the ceremony, read this article in the Jerusalem Post.

Then this morning at 10 AM, sirens were sounded throughout Israel for two minutes. During this time, people cease from action and stand at attention; cars stop, even on the highways; and the whole country comes to a standstill as people pay silent tribute to the dead. I walked up from our apartment to a nearby major street to see this. Cars and trucks come to a stop on the street and the drivers get out. People stop walking right were they are. Everything is silent. Then, when the sirens stop, everyone resumes what they were doing. It was amazing to see.

For an idea of what this looked like, watch this video on YouTube.