Shalom,

 

At 10:00 the  siren went off and I hurried to close myself in the safe room bolting the inside metal door of the window and shutting the security heavy door behind me.  After twenty seconds or so I realized that this is not the familiar sirens of post October 7th warning us to head to shelter but rather the wailing two-minute siren that is blasted on Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Day) here in Israel and will be heard again on Yom HaZicharon (Israel’s Rememberance Day) here in Israel.

 

I stood completely still in my apartment corridor with my cell phone in hand silent for the remaining one hundred seconds as I was thinking of the documentary I watched the night before of a group of young Israeli adults who visited the concentration camps and gas chambers in Poland. These young people were all in complete disbelief of what they saw and horrified how this could have happened to our Jewish people.

 

We the Jewish people are united in remembering our history of the Holocaust yet divided in many ways about our present “state” of Jewish identity.

 

Just a few days ago I taught an English lesson on Zoom. I was discussing with my twenty-year-old Israeli female student the meaning and the use of the word “tradition”. She explained to me that without it, we do not have an identity. She further told me in fluent English that after her family lights the Sabbath candles on Friday night they sit around the table blessing each other and telling stories.

 

We have heard so many stories of our hostages who have returned and how in the thrusts of the horrors and despair of their captivity, they turned to their belief in our Jewish tradition and many turning to the Almighty in their times of deep suffering and distress.

 

My late father Leon Broitman z”l  served in the Russian army along with 200,000 other Jewish soldiers. He was shot in his left arm defending Leningrad.  He suffered injury and great losses.  All his family were murdered and perished in the Holocaust. Everyone  except his older brother Abe who miraculously survived.  Our Aba (Father) often asked with tempered rage: “And where was God when one million children were murdered?” 

 

My beloved Aba proclaimed that he did not believe in God yet so loved our Jewish tradition especially sitting around the Shabbat table, celebrating Jewish holidays, attending brit milah (circumcision) ceremonies as well as Jewish weddings and Jewish funerals.  He  proudly considered himself to be a “Committed Jew” donating to many synagogues and to projects in Israel.

 

And for that exact reason it is that commitment to our Jewish heritage as vibrated in my Father’s Neshama (soul) that we find ourselves whether we like it or not, committed to our heritage and identity. This is why we continue to remember, memorialize the Shoah, honor and eternalize our fallen soldiers and victims of terror and continue to grieve post October 7th and so dreadfully want all our hostages home.

 

We stand strong in believing in our ancient tradition, practicing our customs and pray and recite “Next year in Jerusalem” in Hebrew prayer books worldwide. Soon our young Jewish state of Israel will be 77 years old. The day before Israel’s Independence Day we will remember those that committed themselves to army service to defend Israel and sacrificed their lives. And again the two-minute siren will be blasted all over the country.

 

As the sun will set after Israel’s Remembrance Day, we will rise again to sing and dance joyfully in the streets of our Jewish nation.