Jerusalem – The annual Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers begins at sundown Sunday in memory of 22,682 soldiers who fell defending Israel as well as more than 2,000 victims of terror. This year,112 soldiers were added to the death toll.
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The opening ceremony is at 8:00 p.m., when a one-minute siren will wail throughout the country, and a two-minute siren will sound at 11 a.m. Monday.
Memorial ceremonies will be held at hundreds of locations, including the Western Wall, in the presence of President Shimon Peres. Thousands of Jews will study Torah at synagogues where study sessions and lectures will be arranged. The Chief Rabbis of Israel and of the IDF will attend the “Chai HaTzafon” synagogue in Petach Tikva.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin will lead a ceremony at the Knesset, where songs in memory of the fallen soldiers will be heard. Defense Minister Ehud Barak also is scheduled to attend. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will participate in a ceremony at the Mt. Herzl military ceremony on Monday. On Saturday night, he visited the gravesite of his brother Yoni, who fell in the Entebbe rescue effort.
Widows and Orphans
A study conducted among IDF widows has revealed that most children of fallen soldiers experience learning difficulties. Nearly half of the widows said that raising their children after the loss of their husbands has been the most difficult challenge for them.
The loss of soldiers and the last several years of disappointment in the political echelon were registered in a survey of the general public. Only 22 percent of respondents said they think that politicians carry out the promises they make on Remembrance Day, that bereaved families should be considered throughout the year.
There are approximately 4,800 IDF widows and 8,000 children who suffered the loss of a parent who died in the service of the IDF. The most recent widow is Shlomit Peretz, whose husband Eliraz was killed in Gaza last month.
Despite the pain, Israel will end Remembrance Day on Monday night with the beginning of celebrations of the 62 years since the modern State of Israel was established.
Before everyone starts bashing; these young men and women died as Jews dying for Jews. May we only no peace in a unified Yerushalayim.
Why don’t chareidim stop a moment to honor them?
Zechisom Yugein Ulieny all the Soldiers who died for their Jewish Land & for their Jewish Brothers should be our Meilets Yoisher & shold be Mispalel for us by the Kisy HaKuved!!!!!
22,000 holy Jews who would still be alive if there were no state of israel. time for people to wake up. how can any Jew celebrate tomorrow? These 22,000 Yidden would still be alive if not for the zionists instigation
when you see the photos of the mothers by their sons’ graves RL,it is easy to understand why so many israelis resent chareidim for not serving in the idf.
Rabbi Avigdor Miller has this to say about Zionism:
346. Let us see what they [the Zionists] have accomplished. They have succeeded in gaining for Jews the hostility of the entire Arab world and of most of the “Third World” nations. They have fomented bad relations with Russia and to some extent with France and Mexico. They have created animosity in the United States and elsewhere.
Without these brave chayalim, we’d still bet scratching in the dirt in Poland.
If that is what you see you should put down the mirror.
G-d bless those who have died protecting the Jews and the land of G-d. To those with negative comments toward these holy martyrs, I “bless” you to only know the pain that these holy people and their families have suffered until the idiocy is knocked out.