And this is what kept our forefathers, and what keeps us surviving. For not only one arose and tried to destroy us, rather in every generation they try to destroy us, and the Holy One, Blessed is He, saves us from their hands.
The history of the Jewish people in Europe is filled with tragic events – expulsions. blood libel. pogroms, massacres, but none were so vicious as the deliberate act of attempted genocide. Because the Nazis did not want to push the Jews out of Germany or out of Europe; they had a dream of a Judenfrei world.
But the Jewish people still exist as a strong and vibrant people. As we know, three years after the end of World War II, The State Of Israel was founded. And to defend the state, 23,544 young people have sacrificed their lives for the Jewish nation. This is the cost of having our own country. Not having our own country – well the cost of that was 6,000,000.
On this day, Memorial Day in Israel, we are in a kind of holding pattern. There is no one who has not been touched directly or indirectly by the loss in war. When one soldier is a casualty, the entire country mourns. It is not :your” child, the soldier; it is “our” soldier.
The Jewish People are interconnected. We always were, and we always will be interconnected. We are bound by our common history and our common beliefs.
That is why we remember the past. That is why we remember the memory of our soldiers. That is why Memorial Day in Israel is a day to remember. And it is a day to look to the future.