In Oklahoma, when we hear sirens blow in the spring – you know the big air-raid sirens that knock you out of your seat – we usually turn on the TV to the local weather channel, grab our kids, and start making survival plans. A siren blowing in Israel in the spring is quite different. Tonight, beginning at sunset, Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Memorial Day – will begin. Tomorrow, a siren will blow at a set time and the entire nation of Israel will come to a standstill for two minutes. There is nothing like it anywhere in the world.
Several years ago my late husband and I were in Jerusalem where we had an apartment. It was spring and I had heard of Yom HaShoah day but I had never experienced it. As an American Christian and a writer, I was determined to experience the day as an Israeli would. A workman happened to be at our house at the precise time for the scheduled siren so I got into the car and drove to a busy street while my husband remained behind in the apartment with the workman. When the siren blew, I pulled my car to the side of the road, got out and stood at attention – sort of. I confess I did look around. I wanted to see just how seriously Israelis take this siren and these minutes in time. Believe me, they are serious about it.
Cars stopped. People got out and stood at attention. Residents came to their balconies and stood at attention. The entire country stopped except for the Arabs who seemed to be totally unaffected by these two minutes of quiet. I wondered what thoughts were streaming through their minds as we stood beside the roads, but that didn’t matter. When I got home my husband told me he and the workman had gone to the balcony and stood in silence while the sirens blew. Even there, it was very moving. What mattered was the remembering, the honoring, the caring. It was a time of stillness and thinking.
This year, the screams of the sirens will be even more intense as they echo throughout the land which is now a country at war because of another holocaust. I don’t know what remembrance Israel will establish to mark the October 7, 2023, murderous attack perpetrated, once again, by hatred toward the Jewish people but I do know, the screams coming forth from broken hearts will be extremely rugged, deep and haunting as all Israelis stop to listen, weep and beg for the release of the hostages held by hatred’s hand in Gaza.
While Israel mourns, the world rejoices with the uprising and growth of anti-Semitism around the world. We watch as college students, and those who are not, rampage on college campuses shouting slogans which they have no idea of the history behind. Those slogans are, in and of themselves, murderous and dangerous. Let us not forget, the God of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. While many hide behind masks and keffiyehs seeking anonymity in their hatred, there is One that is keeping track of actions.
Today, I cannot keep silent because I have heard the sound of the sirens in my heart and I must stand with Israel.
Am Israel Chai