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Dear Friends,
Beginning tonight through Wednesday we will celebrate Yom Hazikaron - Memorial Day for those lost in acts of terror, war and defense of Israel, and then Yom Ha’atzma’ut - Israel’s Independence Day. Yom Hazikaron gives families and friends, Israelis and those of us in the diaspora an opportunity to mourn, remember and celebrate the lives we have lost. May each of their memories be a blessing. Yom Ha’atzma'ut allows an opportunity to celebrate; despite the adversity that Jews have faced over the millennia leading up to the establishment of Israel in 1948 and in the 78 years since, we are still here, and we are fortunate to live in a time with a sovereign state of Israel.
The roller-coaster effect of the Jewish calendar around now helps us make meaning of our collective and personal experience. The Exodus from Egypt we celebrated on Passover was an event that solidified our existence as a people. Yom Hasho'ah recalls the time when enemies succeeded at stamping out the lives and lineages of six million of our people (and millions of others). Yom Hazikaron helps us remember the sacrifices and tragedies that Jews have endured for so long to help create the agency and resilience that we have today, and Yom Ha’atzma’ut celebrates the joy, relief, and purpose that we often need to look hard to find among the disappointments and worries we see everywhere in our world. It’s important to celebrate what we can.
Celebration does not imply completion. Indeed, the Jewish community (to say nothing of the broader world) reflects a multitude of views on Israel’s past, present and future, and on the appropriate implications for and responsibilities of Jews in the diaspora. We have much work to do as a people – and key next-generation leaders who will do that work are at Yale right now.
At Slifka, we consider it an imperative to encourage student engagement with all these facets and emotions of Jewish identity. We aim to engage as many students (Jewish and non-Jewish) as we can in our commemorations and celebrations so that they can find their place in the Jewish story.
This evening we will host a Yom Hazikaron commemoration in the Sylvia Slifka Chapel, which will provide an opportunity for members of our community to share memories of those they have lost, including victims of the October 7th attacks and the Nova Festival, events which hit our community particularly hard. Our Israeli students take the lead, and our community joins them in sorrow and memory, accompanied by the traditional memorial prayers.
Tomorrow night the mood will shift as our annual Yom Ha’atzma’ut celebration - hosted by Yale Friends of Israel - gets underway at Slifka. Our lobby will transform into an Israeli street, featuring Aroma Coffee, decorations, and gift bags for those who wish to join in. The dining hall will feature Israeli fare, and Campus Rabbi Alex Ozar and his family will host a Yom Ha’atzma’ut barbeque.
At the same time, finals loom, Bulldog Days will proceed, and life will continue on. The roller-coaster will take us up and down the emotional scale and leave us ready to face whatever will come next. That’s the beauty of the Jewish calendar: it reminds us periodically that there is gratitude to show, sadness to feel, anger to tap into, joy in which to elate, fasting to observe, food to eat, commemorations and celebrations we should not miss.
Celebration does not imply completion, and it does not remove the heartache all around us. Still, celebration impels us to connect with others, find cheer and gratitude, and once again embrace hope as our own people’s eternal flame.
As Ecclesiastes famously says in Chapter 3:
“To everything there is a season, and a time to purpose under the heaven… a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance;... a time to lose, a time to keep, and a time to cast away… a time of war…”
May this be the year that the final words of this famous passage come true lastingly:
“and a time of peace.”
May it be a meaningful week for all of us.
Uri
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