Leah in Israel: Israel at 60: Remembering, Celebrating, and Learning

Hey all...so I know it's been a while since I updated, but I'm going to try to catch up in pieces.

We last left off at the week of Israel's Memorial Day and Independence Day.

Well, I have to say that week was probably one of the best weeks, if not the best week, since I've been in Israel, for many reasons. This year, Israel celebrated its 60th birthday, and I got to be here to experience it: Yom HaZikaron (Israel Memorial Day) on Tuesday night-Wednesday day, followed by Yom HaAtzmaut (Israel Independence Day) on Wednesday night-Thursday day.

Yom HaZikaron started Tuesday night, so we classes ended early on Tuesday in preparation for the holiday. We could already sense the upcoming holiday, with Israeli flag banners being hung from the dorm buildings and all around Israel.

The back entrance of the Student Village with the Israeli flags in honor Yom HaZikaron/Yom HaAtzmaut

The front entrance to the Student Village

Tuesday evening we headed over to the Kotel (Western Wall) for the official state opening ceremony of Yom HaZikaron. During the holiday, 2 sirens are sounded: once at 8 at night to start the day, and once at 11am for daytime ceremonies. The ceremony that night at the kotel would be during the evening siren. We got a spot for the group of us that were going on the stairs overlooking the ceremony in the complex in front of the Kotel. After waiting a long time with the area getting continuously more crowded, the siren went off. It was incredibly moving to be at the Kotel for the siren, with the families of those who had died and surrounded by Israelis, soldiers, and Jews from around the world. I thought a lot throughout the night and day about how lucky we all were to be able to have this ceremony not only in Israel, but at the Kotel, which wasn't under Israeli control until Jerusalem was united during the Six Day War in 1967. I also started to realize that if it weren't for all those who have fought for Israel, I would not have been able to have any of the amazing experiences I have had so far this semester, or will have in the future. The ceremony only added to this reflection, as the prayer in remembrance of those who had died was recited, the flag was lowered, and a remembrance flame was lit. President and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres spoke, and it was cool to hear his speech, which, what of it I was able to understand, was very moving. Finally, we sang the HaTikva (Israel's national anthem), with thousands of people united to remember those who had fallen.

An Israeli soldier standing underneath the Israeli flag outside the Kotel

The Kotel set up for the ceremony

A group of soldiers near the Kotel

Soldiers coming to the ceremony - the different color berets represent different units of the army

The ceremony

The flag lowered and the lit remembrance flame

Video of the lowering of the flag...click the video to play!

The next day, we got up early and went to the Israeli military cemetery, called Har Herzl, where former Prime Ministers as well as fallen soldiers and terror victims were buried. They had a ceremony there for the morning siren, which was also very moving because we were standing amongst the graves of those who died for Israel while we remembered them. On our way into the cemetery, volunteers were handing out flowers to the people coming into the cemetery to lay on the different graves. I thought this was really nice, so that all the different graves had flowers on them, even if the people who placed the flowers didn't know the person. We went to the ceremony, and, after running into many people we knew, we walked around the cemetery for a little bit to see parts of it, including the section for the recent Second Lebanese War.

Flowers being handed out outside Har Herzl

The ceremony at Har Herzl

Soldiers praying at one of the graves

Some of the graves

One of the memorials and groups of graves

Part of the section of the cemetery for the Second War in Lebanon

That night started Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day), and it was absolute blast! I've been in Israel for Yom HaAtzmaut before, but not in Jerusalem, and there really is nothing that compares to being in Jerusalem for it. This was especially the case because it was a big anniversary year - 60 years of Israel, as well as 40 years of a united Jerusalem. I also had thought that Purim was a crazy, fun, and exciting holiday in Jerusalem, but nothing can compare to the energy, excitement, and massive amount of people who were downtown and celebrating Israel's continued existence.

We started out by going downtown for dinner at Burgers Bar, which is a very delicious and WAY better (and kosher) version of Burger King. After that, we went down to Zion Square, the main square downtown, where the roads had been closed off to cars so that a stage could be set up for a concert, followed by a laser light show and fireworks. We hung out at the concert for a while, and then went to my roommate Courtney's friend's apartment, which is right off of Ben Yehuda street. We watched the light show and fireworks from there, and also met some of Courtney's friend's friends. After that, we started heading over to a bar to meet up with my roommate Jessica's boyfriend, Yitz, and his friends. On the way there, we ran into some of our friends in the middle of Yaffo street, which I thought was really cool that we were able to just hang out in the middle of a usually very busy street, but since it was closed off there was no problem. We picked up a few new people and then headed over to the bar. After hanging out there for a little while, we went down the street to a square where they were having Israeli folk dancing. We danced for at least an hour, having fun and making fools of ourselves, but it really made it feel like this holiday was something special and uniquely Israeli. We ended up staying out until around 2:30am, but it was an amazing night.

Concert in Zion Square

Ben Yehuda St. filled with people!

Roommates! Courtney, Me, and Jessica downtown

Fireworks and Israeli flag

Israeli dancing area

The next day, I started out with my roommate Courtney at the Israel Museum. As a special for Independence Day, some of the Museums were open for free, and since I had never been to the Israel Museum (I tried to go with my dad but it was closed the day we went), I thought it would be a good day to go. Well, most of the museum was closed off because it was being renovated, but we were able to walk around the sculpture garden, see the Shrine of the Book (where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept), and see the model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period (which used to be at the Holy Land hotel but has since been moved to this much more convenient location). While we were visiting the model of the second temple period Jerusalem, we realized that it was overlooking a stadium where a big Yom HaAtzmaut invite-only ceremony was taking place, which was to include a fly over by the Israel Air Force, and paratrooping by the Tzanchanim, the paratrooper brigade in the Israeli Defense Forces. Well, from the platform with the model, we had a perfect view of the ceremony, so we waited there until the ceremony begin. We got to see the planes do all kinds of tricks, and write 60 in the sky with the plane smoke. Then we saw the paratroopers land in the stadium. They landed almost perfectly on target, which was lucky since apparently a similar ceremony in Tel Aviv had some mishaps, and a paratrooper landed on the beach on some people and there were some people injured. Anyway, it was really cool to watch with all the Israelis and see their pride in the Israeli Defense Forces.

The Shrine of the Book - the white part is supposed to be shaped like the tops of the jars the scrolls were found in, and the white and black is meant to represent contrast between light and darkness

The scroll of Isaiah (and the security guard who yelled at me for taking a picture)

Second Temple Period model

Me and Courtney in the Ahavah statue - Hebrew version of the Philly Love statue

Air Show

Paratrooper landing in the stadium

Me and Courtney in the sculpture garden

After the air show was over, Courtney and I went to meet up with a bunch of our friends at Gan Saker, or Saker Park, a huge part in Jerusalem. On Yom HaAtzamuat, everyone goes there for Independence Day BBQs (a la every American holiday). It was so cool to see all the people there, but the BBQ we went to had its own little area out of the park that we had our BBQ in, so it was nice to have a bit of privacy too. The people who were having the BBQ were a bunch of Jessica's boyfriend's friends, and they had decided to BBQ an entire lamb, which they had picked out and had slaughtered by a kosher butcher the day before. The thought of it was kind of gross, but also very Israeli, so it was kind of cool, and the meat and all the other food was pretty good. We had a great time just relaxing in the sun and hanging out until it came close to sunset and it got a little chilly, so we headed home. Later that night, Jessica and I went over to her boyfriends' apartment, where we saw a great view of Jerusalem at night from his roof, and then watched a movie. Overall, it was another really fun day.

Gan Saker filled with people

Hanging out at the BBQ - Me, Arielle, Amanda, Jessica, Yitz, Courtney, and Avi

I spent Shabbat with Jessica and some friends in Talpiot, a neighborhood of Jerusalem. We had meals together and it was a really nice relaxing weekend. Friday night and Saturday we went to a synagogue that I recognized immediately from when I went there during my senior class trip. I thought it was really funny that, of all the synagogues in Jerusalem, not only did we end up at the same one, but I was able to recognize it so easily. It was a really cool experience, especially since it was the synagogue's 20 year anniversary, so there was a special kiddush (snacks and drinks and different platters) in honor of the anniversary. There was also a baby naming during the service for a newborn baby girl, and I ended up sitting next to the baby's mother, so all through services I was sitting there while people were coming up to congratulate her.

As fun as the long weekend was, it ended bright and early the next morning with a 6am field trip. My Arab-Israeli conflict class took a full day field trip to the Golan Heights. We started off by driving along the border of Israel and Jordan, then went to the Syrian border, and finally overlooked the Lebanon border...so we saw 4 countries in 1 day! Basically, the goal of the trip was to learn about the strategic importance of the Golan Heights, which became even more interesting recently as peace negotiations with Syria have begun and Israel is apparently considering giving up the Golan Heights. This not only made me really happy I had been in case I don't have a chance to go if Israel gives it up, but also made me realize how important it is strategically. There were some parts of the Golan Heights that overlooked the Galilee to the point that, apparently, when Syria had the Golan Heights, they could actually see Israelis in their houses.

Anyway, we saw lots of the different countries and it was absolutely beautiful. We also stopped at the visitors center, and saw a couple really funny multimedia presentations about the resources of the Golan and its military history. The only problem was that our bus broke down in the middle of the freeway, as I have come to learn in my times in Israel that all busses are bound to do. We waited on the side of the road for a little while, and then got a replacement bus. The one good thing that came out of this was that our new bus driver was a retired army general who had recently finished 30 years of service in the Israeli army and began working in the tourism business. As it turned out, he had fought at the Valley of the Tears, the location of one of the battles that we stopped at that was marked with a really interesting memorial that listed all of those who died. He told us about the battle and how his commander, who was listed on the memorial, had died in the battle.