Memorial Day Reflections

So, in Israel right now, it is Memorial Day for all of those who have lost their lives in trying to establish the State of Israel.  That includes fallen soldiers, the young men and women who built Israel from the ground up, and victims of terror attacks.  It is amazing to me how almost everyone I know has literally taken a moment to stop and reflect on this and what it means for them.  Israel follows Memorial Day immediately with Independence Day, which I also think is really cool.  Honor those who made it possible and then celebrate Israel turning a year older.  Have I mentioned that I'm super excited about being a part of this so very soon?

I, too, have taken my time to stop and reflect on the heavy meaning of today.  I'll share a story of my first, tiny experience with having the Israeli Memorial Day hit close to home.  I lived in Be'er Sheva during the Second Lebanon War.  I'm sure many of you recall this, as everyone was begging me to come home due to the danger, but I refused because I was so far from it and so insulated from the whole thing.  I remember when the soldiers were kidnapped, Gilad Shalit in the south and Udi and Eldad in the north.  It was a long summer after that, reading daily of the names of those killed in Lebanon and truly being scared out of my mind because I was in a new country...that was at war.  But I stayed and continued my great non-profit work, which was so important, and I had some of the best experiences ever.  I left the day before the war ended, and when I arrived at home and snuggled up in my bed, I read the news, as I had been every day since, and there was a list of names.  Towards the bottom of that list was a name that I, in fact, knew.  I had spent quite some time that summer with Oz's brother, Yossi, who had been a soldier on my Birthright Israel trip and who had become a close friend by that point.  I spent time at their house, even borrowed Oz's bed one night when it was too late to get a bus back to Be'er Sheva.  But there was his name, Oz Tzemach, listed as one of the soldiers killed that last day of fighting.  I called a friend immediately and confirmed that the worst was true.  And all of this was before I had a huge network of Israeli friends and "family."  How easily one can be affected in such a small country.  I guess it's because of that that everyone so fervently takes a moment out of their day to reflect on the true meaning of a Memorial Day.  May all those fallen be of blessed memory.