On a cold and windy Tuesday night, Northwestern students sang softly to remember those who died fighting for Israel.
Members of the Northwestern-Israeli Public Affairs Committee and other students commemorated Yom Hazikaron, the Israeli national memorial holiday. About 15 people attended the event at the Fiedler Hillel Center and The Rock.
Avi Rosenblit, president of NIPAC, said the memorial holiday is a solemn contrast to Wednesday’s celebrations of Yom Ha’atzma’ut, the Israeli independence day.
“We remember all the soldiers who died fighting for Israel and for the Jewish homeland,” Rosenblit said. “It’s an important event.”
Participants first watched a movie about an Israeli military unit’s experiences in southern Lebanon, where Israel has maintained troops since 1982. Israel recently announced the withdrawal of its forces from Lebanon, scheduled for July 7.
“Right now the situation with Israel and Lebanon is very precarious,” Rosenblit said, “and educating the public about the situation and why Israel chose to withdraw is important.”
Medill junior Marissa Kay met one of the soldiers featured in the video during her Fall Quarter in Israel. When she first saw it, the movie made her flinch.
“It really upset me when I saw it, seeing what he actually goes through,” Kay said. “As a good friend I was more interested in his well-being at the time, but taking a step back from it, I know what he did was important.”
Following the video, participants walked to The Rock, where they read stories and poems about Israeli veterans and the prospect of peace. They sang songs in Hebrew, including the Israeli national anthem, to commemorate the dead veterans of Israeli conflicts.
Rosenblit said the holiday is more about peace than about war.
“I think that the idea of the holiday is really to raise awareness about the push toward peace,” Rosenblit said. “As a group we always focus on how we are going to achieve a peace in the Middle East.”
Dan Golden, Weinberg freshman, said the video and the ceremony brought Israeli politics home to him.
“There’s a new story every day about a soldier dying or a mission in Lebanon,” Golden said. “You read it and you can become desensitized to it. But this put a face on all the stories.”
NIPAC members said Wednesday’s observance of Israeli independence day will be more of a joyous occasion. They will observe the day by reading the Israeli proclamation of independence at The Rock, followed by a party that evening where the group will announce its new name.
Eric Lynn, Weinberg senior and former president of NIPAC, said the two Israeli holidays are symbolic of Israel’s history.
“The two days, one being the memorial day and the next being the celebration of the independence day, are really indicative of Israeli life,” he said. “You don’t know if one day you’ll feel the sorrow and the next day you’ll feel the joy. I’m glad that we can bring both the memorialization of the soldiers’ deaths and the celebration of the State of Israel itself here to Northwestern.”
