3 Important Days

May 1st was Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). One of the fifth grade classes at my school led a ceremony. They sang a few songs, did a few dances and read some things in Hebrew that I didn’t really understand. The part that really had an impact on me, though was the beginning. At 10:00 am, exactly, a siren went off for a minute. Everyone was already standing and quiet, ready for it. Remember, this the country where nothing ever happens exactly on time. And this large school was on time. The second the siren sounded, every single kid (even the 1st graders!) and teachers put their head down. The incredible part about this is that a siren was sounding in every neighborhood around the country. For that minute, every single person in the country (except maybe the Arabs) was standing silently. Even on the highways, people had pulled over and gotten out of their cars to stand for the siren. Imagine doing this in America. There would be absolutely no law that could pass that could make everyone in the country do the exact same thing at the exact same time, even if it was in remembrance of something. The impact of this minute was intense. I had chills. However, the rest of the day, at least at school, was normal.
The next week were two abnormal days. In fact, I had off from Wednesday to Saturday! Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day) was Wednesday the 7th, but like all Jewish holidays, it started the night before. In the States, Memorial Day equals shopping at sales and barbeques because most people are not directly connected to or effected by losing someone that was in the military. However, in Israel, since everyone has to serve in the army in a country that is rarely in a completely peaceful state, every person has had to experience the loss of someone. It is an actual day of mourning. There was a ceremony at Allie’s school down the street, so the three of us went. At 8:00 pm, to start the ceremony, there was another minute-long siren and again, everyone was already standing and ready. In the morning, at 11:00 am, there was a two minute-long siren. We were standing in our apartment, looking out our open window waiting for it. Below us on the street, busses and cars stopped. People got out before the siren and stood silently when it sounded. Luckily, we are on the third floor and people did not look up to see that I was disrespectfully taking a video of it on my camera for 30 seconds.
That evening the entire tone of the country changed from mournful to joyous. May 8th was Yom Ha’atzma’ut (Independence Day). Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, but since all Jewish holidays follow the Jewish, lunar calendar, sometimes the date on the secular calendar is different. The government purposely scheduled Yom HaZikaron the day before so that the country can remember why and how it exists and have that contrast. We hung an Israeli flag outside our living room window that faces the street to add one more to the thousands up around the country. At about 9pm, there was a HUGE celebration in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, full of singing, dancing, fireworks and other excitement. We had a pretty large group of and went down to the street parties on Florentin in very south Tel Aviv. Of course, it’s hard to keep up with that many people and most of the night was spent finding each other. Later, I met up with Keith and Mike (from TASP) and their friends at a reggae party on a rooftop. After, we took a very scenic walk back to kinda south Tel Aviv and I continued my walk home to the old north of Tel Aviv as the sun was coming up. The next day, some people from TASP got together for a potluck BBQ/picnic in the large park in north Tel Aviv. I truly feel like I got the whole experience of the holiday and have a whole new appreciation and connection to this country.