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Daniela Shames is doing her National Service requirement working for the OneFamily Fund, the central organization helping Israel?s victims of terrorism.
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By Daniela Shames
May 1, 2006
So here we stand, just a number of hours before the sun will sink below the horizon, and the day that embodies all our organization stands for will be at hand.
For us at the One Family Fund, the day won't be all that different. All year we've been hopping from cemetery to cemetery, memorial service to memorial service, from one victim riddled in emotional and physical pain to another. We have been living Memorial Day every moment of our lives for as long as we've been working in this organization.
On the eve of Memorial Day, however, all paths we have been following will meet; all rivers of pain will adjoin; and all wails of sorrow will combine into one call -- the two-minute memorial siren. The whole country will freeze. Cars will skid to a stop on the highways; bustling shopping malls will fall silent. Every Israeli will stop in his or her tracks. Every man and woman, boy and girl will be jerked out of his or her daily routine, to join together with the rest of the country in one thing....
Memory.
Thousands of names. Thousands of faces. Thousands of families left behind. The sheer dimensions of it are staggering. So many wars, so many tears. So much blood and pain. All year we've been dealing with these stories one by one, or at most a few at a time. But in a few hours, all will hit at once. Every single name, face, and story we have dealt with in our work will come rushing into our minds, into our hearts.
But we're not in it alone. It's not only us, and it's not only the victims we help. The entire country will be standing with us during those two minutes of memory. All our brothers and sisters will be behind us, sharing our pain. Every Israeli will stand still in reverence for those we have lost in this seemingly endless existential battle we're fighting ... knowing that the very ground on which we stand is below us because of their sacrifice, and nothing else.
When I stand in memory for you today, my lost brothers and sisters, I will know that you are there with me. And when the sun sinks again below the horizon just twenty-four hours after that siren, I will know that I am celebrating Israeli Independence Day only thanks to you. With your blood, you have given me this land... and my life. I salute you, my lost brothers and sisters. You died for this country; and in doing so, you gave me the strength to live for it.
"And I passed by and saw you wallowing in your own blood... and I say to you, in your blood -- live!" (Ezekiel 16:3)
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