Yom HaZikaron outside of Israel is always a difficult day. Unlike in Israel, where virtually every family has in some way been personally affected by the loss of a loved one or a close friend, many if not most of our students have thankfully not had that experience. As such, it is a unique challenge to convey the serious nature of the day to our students.
As in the past, our commemoration of Yom HaZikaron began with the recitation of the tefilla on behalf of the safety of the Israeli soldiers, and the kel malei rachamim in memory of the more than 22,000 young men and women who have given their lives defending our homeland. We were then privileged to hear from Yoni Bleichbard. Yoni, a young and dynamic speaker, is a security officer in Chevron who shared with our students the importance of having Jews in Chevron and the trials and tribulations of daily life there. He then gave our students an in-depth look at an incident that occurred seven years ago, when three terrorists attempted to raid the Jewish settlement area of Kiryat Arba on a Friday night. Yoni's interactive slideshow depicted, minute-by-minute, how the Chevron security forces handled the situation, and how unfortunately several of them gave their lives in protecting the welfare of the Jewish people in that vital area.
We are grateful to Yoni for helping us to more acutely feel the spirit of the day. May the memory of those who died defending the Land be a זכות for all of us, and may we merit the day when we will no longer have to teach our children how to fight.
