RJ Blog

by Loui Dobin As I am writing these words, I am on a plane home from Israel. We took off a couple of hours ago and have just crossed the coast of France. Now that we are “feet-wet” over the North Atlantic, I have had a little time to think about my trip. I landed on the eve of Yom Ha’atzmaut and was picked up at the airport by Amira Bar-Shalom, during Yom Hazikaron (Israeli memorial day) just in time to stand in silence as all of the sirens in Israel sounded for two minutes to commemorate those who had died. That evening, I found my way on the [...]

Sirens were sounded throughout Israel at 8 PM on Sunday night and 11 AM this morning in Israel, in memory of the more than 25,000 fallen Israeli soldiers and terror victims. As the Jewish state ushered in Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, the nation, and indeed the Jewish world, paused to reflect on the cost of freedom. In a solemn address during a national ceremony, Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Monday, “We salute the fallen, our loved ones, the heroes of the State of Israel. May they rest in peace.”

Celebrate Israel’s birthday with the Reform Movement! You’re invited to join friends from across the world for a special celebration of Israel’s 65th Birthday, broadcast live from Kehillat Yozma in Modi’in, Israel. On Monday, April 15th, ARZA and the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism will host a special online “Havdalah” ceremony to mark the conclusion of Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror and begin Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day) celebrations. The program, led by Rabbi Kinneret Shiryon and Rabbi Nir Barkin of Kehillat Yozma, will be done in both Hebrew and English. It will include prayers and [...]

It’s no secret that there are a lot of funny Jews out there: Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, Sara Silverman, the Marx Brothers, Chelsea Handler, Woody Allen… the list goes on and on. I’d like to add another name to that list, one you may be slightly less familiar with but who will make you laugh just as hard – Benji Lovitt. I’ve long followed Lovitt on Twitter, and his 140-character musings on life in Israel often make me giggle. Lovitt, an American, made aliyah five years ago after what he calls “a life-changing year in Israel” and post-collegiate experience working [...]

Tonight and tomorrow, we celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day. It is observed on or near the 5th of Iyar in the Hebrew calendar, which usually falls in April. On May 14, 1948, soon-to-be Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion issued a declaration of the State of Israel – which means that this year marks the 64th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state. Here at RJ.org, we’ve been blogging all month with a special spotlight on Israel, including a few special posts about Yom HaAtzmaut, in particular, and we’re featuring the Reform Movement’s many resources and programs. This week also [...]

In the 20th century, three new holy days were inserted to the Jewish calendar based on the massively significant events of the Shoah and the Establishment of the State of Israel: Yom HaShoah v’Hagveurah, Yom HaZikkaron, Yom HaAtzmaut. Yom HaShoah v’Hagveurah is the Memorial Day for the Shoah and the Resistance and was placed on the 27th Day of Nissan because that was the day on which the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising started (1943). Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day) is the 5th of Iyyar because Israel was declared a state on that day in 1948, when the British Mandate ended. Yom HaZikkaron [...]

Haggai. I danced at his wedding in the fall of 1971. He was a proud member of the IDF Tank Corps. The wedding was at Kibbutz Na’an not far from Rehovot. My first Israeli wedding. We laughed and danced. He embraced me into the “kibbutz family” into which my sister would marry in February. On the first day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Haggai was killed on the Golan. He is buried not far from where he fell. Haggai was born on the 29th of November 1973, an auspicious day in our Zionist/Israeli history. He was the first child on Kibbutz [...]

I usually spend Yom HaAtzmaut here in New York, but when the day comes, I am always sorry that I am not in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. I have been a proud Israel activist all of my life, but the problem with being an activist is that when you spend so much time focusing on Israel as a cause, you sometimes lose touch with Israel as a place. Thus I always find myself thinking how much I would prefer to be there for this day—for the sounds, the smells, the arguments, the passions, and the language of the Jewish state. [...]

The weight of Israel’s Memorial Day is almost too heavy to bear. Regardless of the deep political divisions in the Jewish state, there aren’t separate cemeteries for the fallen soldiers that were affiliated with different political parties. Profound grief cuts across the full spectrum of Israeli society. Memories of so many unfinished lives are held close by all of us who love Israel and understand the enormous sacrifice 64 years of statehood has required. In his book “Death as a Way of Life,” Israeli writer and peace activist David Grossman writes, “Today I ran into a reservist who served with [...]

By Hanan Cidor Being an Israeli, one of the hardest things to deal with, and as far as I know it is unique to Israel, is the seemingly unbelievable and immediate passage between sorrow and celebration, as portrayed in the pairing of Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day) and Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day). The idea behind this is that the day before celebrating our independence, we are reminded of the price and sacrifice made by so many in order to keep us free. If you’ve never been in Israel during those two days, nothing can possibly explain the experience and [...]

Pesach is celebrated by more than 90% of all Jews. We recall the story of our liberation from slavery, but we often forget that we were freed in order to be a holy people. Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, is celebrated by most Israeli citizens, but less than a third of the Jews of America? Why? In the play The Fantastiks, there is a song about vegetables and children. The opening line is, “Plant a radish; get a radish, never any doubt.” The song goes on to the subject of children. “While with children, it’s bewilderin.’ You don’t know until the seed [...]

by Marc Rosenstein(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Order Now! Blessed are You O Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who differentiates between light and darkness, between Israel and the nations, between sadness and joy, between war and peace, between Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzma’ut; blessed are You O Lord, who differentiates between the holy and the holy.         -impromptu Havdalah blessing for Yom Ha’atzma’ut It is a tradition at Shorashim to observe Yom Hazikaron (memorial day for fallen soldiers) with an afternoon tour of a site of historical significance from Israel’s wars, which segues at [...]

by Rabbi Daniel AllenExecutive Director, ARZAAlso published in Ten Minutes of Torah Chag Sameach. Today, we celebrated the newest holiday of the Jewish people- Israel Independence Day. Our efforts to re-establish a Jewish sovereign state are the culmination of nearly 2,000 years of prayers but of just over 100 years of political activism. It is Jewish/Zionist activism more than prayer that was the tipping point allowing for the creation of Israel. It was not always easy externally or even internally within the Zionist movement. In 1939 the British issued the infamous White Paper which restricted Jewish immigration and the rights [...]

by Miriam Farber Shabbat and Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. On the surface, these holidays have little in common. One has existed literally since the beginning of creation, the other since 1948. Shabbat is observed in mostly religious ways, while Yom HaAtzmaut is a more secular holiday, to make a broad generalization. What do these two have in common? My teacher at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, Rabbi Levi Cooper, taught me last year at this time that although the other 364 days of the year are meant for working and struggling to make the State of Israel the [...]