Israeli Rememberance Holidays in April

Reverence.. Israel has three holidays in the month of Nissan when they honor the dead. They pay homage by sounding the air raid siren and all traffic/moment comes to a halt. Per, the info we received from our relocation team, "A couple of words about the sirens on these two days: both pedestrians and drivers will honor this silence and even drivers on roads and highways will pull over on the side of the road, get out of their car and stand silence. So if you are driving at the time, please be aware of this and pay attention to the cars around you. The sirens are long constant sirens for this purpose and should there be a need to sound an emergency siren at the same time, this will be an intermittent siren (up and down)."
 
I have been in three different settings for each of these remembrances.

Day of Remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism and Independence Day -  24-26 April:

On 24  April, the eve of the Day of Remembrance, from 6pm , all restaurants, places of recreation, supermarkets and shops will close until the next morning in remembrance of the soldiers of Israel soldiers killed in wars .

At 8pm there will be a  1 minute siren  indicating the beginning of memorial day  and on 25 April at 11am a 2 minute siren will be heard around the country and once again, the population stands for two minutes of solemn silence 

3)  25 April at 11am a 2 minute siren - I was walking down the street. So I observed the buses and taxis who had pulled off the road and seemed to just be waiting for the signal to sound. But then as the siren was going off a scooter zoomed down the road. As my hackles raised and I started to note that it wasn't following tradition. It stopped and in the middle of the street. Rider dismounted and removed helmet.

The feeling that I had twenty minutes after was one still of reverence.

The sound of the air raid siren is not easy to erase from your memory. It's not annoying like the testing of the emergency broadcast system at home.

2)  At 8pm there will be a  1 minute siren - We were at home and having dinner with the Ross Family.  All of us stood and payed tribute. 

Holocaust Memorial day - 19 April:

On the eve of 18 April, all restaurants places of recreation, supermarkets and shopping centers will close at 7pm and re open the next day. On the 19^th at 10am , there will be a 2 minute siren where the entire population stands in silence to commemorate the 6,000,000 Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazi’s .   

3) I was very touched by this siren too.  I was at my Pilates class.  It was very meaningful for me to be in class at this time.  One of my classmates shared with me that she had family that she lost during the Holocaust.  And she had family that successfully hid during the Holocaust underneath the ground in a friends barn.  The wife was pregnant when they went into hiding and had a child underground.  But sadly due to the cries of a newborn they had to kill their own child to not draw attention to their hiding place.  I can't even imagine! But the good news is they survived and therefore I had the opportunity to be touched by a very incredible Jewish woman who I consider myself blessed to know.   

My Jewish blessing Khaya (Hiya), amazing woman!

We had a lot of fun goofing around over the last six months!