Celebrating Israel
Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life
Yom HaZikaron
At the very start of Term 2, our High School students and staff came together for a solemn and moving Yom HaZikaron ceremony. Morah Harvey’s Year 11 Hebrew students prepared a presentation invoking the memory of Israeli soldiers who had fallen since the founding of the Jewish state. The Remembrance tekes included the saying of Yizkor, personal reminiscences of family members who have lost loved ones, learning about Israel’s Memorial Hall, the singing of Israeli songs speaking to the profound loss for the families, the citizens of the State of Israel and for all Jews worldwide. Our students were respectfully engaged and together we sang HaTikvah in closing the memorial program.
Here is the personal account and heartfelt words of Morah Udovich describing the life and loss of her first husband in the Yom Kippur war. (From the Erev Yom HaZikaron communal commemoration at Central Synagogue).
Yom HaAtsma’ut
Following Yom HaZikaron our students engaged in Year Group learning sessions and discussions regarding poems and songs relating to Israel. We all then gathered together in the MPH to celebrate the 73rd birthday of Medinat Yisra’el. Please enjoy the speech below written and shared by Aaron Lemberg with his High school peers and a video of the beautiful song Al Kol Eleh by Jamie Schneider and Coby New.
Aaron Lemberg
Why do we talk about Israel?
Why do we talk about Israel? Why do we care about a country so far away? What is our school’s connection to the nation state of the Jewish people? Why did we mourn this morning and celebrate now? And how does the Israeli Deceleration of Independence of the State of Israel relate to us 73 year on?
I would like to tell you about my dad’s parents who grew up in Europe around the time of the Second World War as I’m sure many of your grandparents and great grandparents did. When the Holocaust began, they realised that they were no longer wanted in the communities that they had grown up and built their lives in. No longer wanted in a place that they had once called home!
This was not just the experience of my grandparents but rather the experience of millions of Jews who were persecuted throughout Europe for hundreds of years. After the war, my grandmother’s family moved their lives to Israel. When I went to visit them in Israel two years ago on Chavayah I was immersed in their culture. I was in awe as I watched them rejoice at Shabbat and sing different tunes to some of the amazing Shabbat songs I know. I realised that this place meant so much more than just a place that they lived in.
It meant history,
It meant spirituality,
It meant perseverance.
The values we talk about at Emanuel, the culture and history of the Jewish people, the living breathing heartbeat of everything Jewish, now has a place to flourish and that place has a name… Israel.
As I was reading some of the extracts from the Declaration of Independence, I was thinking back to all of the discussions I had with people in my Year Group on Chavayah. I remembered the instant, deep connection they and I felt as we stepped foot into the country and the first line of the declaration stood out to me: “The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance.” It made me realise the significance Israel holds for the Jewish people.
Although Yom HaAtsma’ut is a celebration of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people and its amazing achievements in science, technology, security, culture, medicine, Jewish meaning and more. It is more so, about trying to live up to the standards set forth in its Declaration of Independence.
Still today in Israel we see hatred being spread, promises of equality not being lived up to as gender discrimination, homophobia and other concerning issues are not being addressed. It is our role as Jews and Zionists to address them!
So, as much as I want everyone to think about the awesome chaos of the shuk, the deep sense of connection you may have felt as you approached the Kotel, as I know I did. I also want everyone to think about the Declaration of Independence as something that Israel still needs to strive towards, as something that can spur you on to think inwardly about whether the Israel today is the Israel that truly represents your values.
Our striving for Israel to represent the values set out in the Declaration of Independence is exactly what it means to be a Zionist! An Emanuel Zionist!
The Declaration of Independence was signed all the way back in 1948 on the 14th of May or if you go by the Hebrew calendar, the year 5708, on the 5th of Iyar. This historic event took place 73 years ago and yet today it still holds such significance to Jewish communities all around the world. While researching for this speech I realised that the Declaration brings up feelings of reassurance for me.
It speaks of widespread equality and the lack of discrimination. Seeing that written in one of the most important transcripts in the country’s history shows me that there is hope for a drive towards a better Israel and although it may seem far away, I take comfort in the words of the declaration. “Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel;
So…
Let us strive to be Emanuel Zionists
Let us strive to create Israel an Israel that aligns with our values, one that we can truly be proud of.
Yom HaAtsma’ut sameach