Yom Shleeshee
Tuesday
27 Nisan 5783
April 18 2023
Yom HaShoah is drawing to a close in Israel. It has been a traumatic day with dozens of horrific stories about what happened in the Holocaust told on Israeli television, radio, and other media.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, there are approximately 150,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel. 1,190 of them are over the age of 100; their average age is 86. 3,041 died this year–more than 8 survivors each day.
Here are some photos of this year’s Yom HaShoah in Israel:
As you know, a national siren was activated at 10:00 am this morning. It lasted for 2 minutes and all of Israel came to a silent halt.
This year the siren was activated by Holocaust survivor Miriam Tafulkarair and her granddaughter, Sgt. Roi Avital:
Miriam Tafulkarair.
Tafulkarair and her granddaughter activating the siren:
A number of IDF units participated in the remembrance:
Here the leader of the elite “Mossad” unit embraces and salutes his grandmother Bianca–a Holocaust survivor (photo Oren Cohen).
The grandson said this: “As the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, I see this as a mission to serve the country and protect its citizens, for the future of our children.”
In the next photo, three resistance fighters during the Holocaust, Chaya Kleinman, Chava Buchwalter, and Rochama Van Brill, are honored by a Border Guard unit:
As the Holocaust moves further away in time, we should all keep it ever-closer in our memory. Never again!
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.
Shooting attacks:
A Palestinian terrorist shot two Israelis near the Shimon HaTzaddik Intersection in Jerusalem. The two are now listed in “critical” and “serious” condition. A manhunt is underway for the terrorist.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire again on a homes in the Merav community. No one was wounded; the terrorists escaped.
Palestinian terrorists trapped in a house in Jenin have been engaging in a fierce firefight with IDF soldiers for the past few hours. There is no further information at this time.
“Rock”, Molotov, and IED attacks:
Palestinian terrorists attacked cars and buses on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road near Al Aruv, near Beit Omer (multiple times), at Luban Al-Sharqiya, Marda, near Azzun, and at more than a dozen other locations.
Not all high-tech supports the anti-government movement . . .
Jensen Huang, the Taiwanese CEO of the high-tech giant Nvidia that employs 3000 Israelis is in Israel this week–and issued this statement yesterday:
“No matter what the result will be regarding the reform, we will continue to invest in Israel. Israel is an excellent place; you fought for thousands of years. I don’t understand why Israelis want to leave here. The reform is an internal matter in Israel and has no effect on investments in Israel. Israelis can support or oppose the reform, but we will continue to invest here without anything to do with the reform.”
TODAY’S BLOG
The Indecent Politicization of the Holocaust
We reported yesterday on the unbelievable disturbance in a Tel Aviv Synagogue during a Holocaust Memorial Ceremony by an anti-government anarchist.
As we noted then, the anti-government movement has no decency.
That lack of decency has repeated itself today.
First, we had the egregiously unseemly announcement made by El Captain Doron Ginzburg who announced over the PA system of his 007 flight as it was landing in New York that the passengers should “remember Holocaust Day because such things can only happen in dictatorships and the State of Israel is fighting for its democracy these days.”
The clear implication was that the current government is a dictatorship likely to produce another Holocaust.
Just sickening.
Second, former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak chose Yom HaShoah to deliver a blistering interview in which he conflated the Holocaust with what is happening how in Israel: “We need to continue and increase the demonstrations against the regime coup.”
Just unbelievable.
Numerous other such incidents took place with government leaders receiving mail emblazoned with swastikas and accusing them of being Nazis.
All together, this Yom HaShoah has seen a nauseating display of indecency by the anti-government movement.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.