Time to remember
How do say thank you for selfless acts of courage? How do you say thank you for protecting our Israel? How do you say thank you for letting each one of us say, “Hineni” — Here I Am?
In Israel, the butcher, the baker, the investment banker, the drivers on the highways, the shop keepers, and the shoppers all wait for a siren to announce “This is the time, this is the place now we can all stand and remember. Yom Hazikaron has arrived.”
On April 21, the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Metro-West NJ, Leslie Dannin Rosenfeld, addressed many of us at the JCC in West Orange as we, too, heard the siren and had a chance to remember and say thanks. Leslie shared one vivid moment she had in Israel when the siren sounded. She stood in the middle of a highway for two minutes and remembered. Steve Flatow ended the program with the story of his daughter, Alisa, killed 20 years ago by a terrorist’s bomb. Such memories are rough to hear but necessary. They reconnect us to the threads of our Jewish souls and energize us to do more than just remember.
There is a time when new Israeli soldiers stand on top of Masada and pledge their loyalty to the Jewish people and the State of Israel. I truly believe that every volunteer in MetroWest should also have
an opportunity to be part of our community Yom Hazikaron annual program so they can hear the siren, stand, and say “Here I Am.”
The Yom Hazikaron ceremony has been offered to our community by the Israel Program Center of MetroWest for many years. The lay leaders and professionals have consistently produced top quality
programming. They deserve our gratitude for a job well done.
David Dranikoff
Livingston
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