MONTREAL — On the eve of Israel’s milestone 60th birthday last week, hundreds from the community honoured the memory of the 23,000 Israeli men, women and children who were “plucked from life by war and terror.”

That was the phrase used by educator Shimshon Hamerman, who, along with Betty Elkaim, was the master of ceremonies at the annual hour-long Yom Hazikaron ceremony remembering the soldiers and citizens who paid the ultimate price so the Jewish state could live.

At the outdoor commemoration in front of 1 Cummings Square, students bearing Israel’s colours stood atop the steps of the Segal Centre for Performing Arts at The Saidye, Machal war veterans Ralph Charad and Sydney Cadloff lowered the Israeli flag, and those in attendance observed a moment of silence.

“Remembrance means never to forget,” noted Hamerman, adding that it works two ways: prospective memory, such as in the biblical exhortation to think about Shabbat every day, and retrospective memory, as in the duty to remember the past.

Those killed were “innocent souls who sacrificed their lives so that each and every Jew should have a place called home,” Hamerman said.

Israel’s consul general, Yoram Elron, said the birth and survival of Israel “could never have happened had it not been for their sacrifice.” Israel’s best and brightest were lost, he said, and that loss is contemplated in silent sorrow by Jews everywhere. “Let them continue to be an inspiration to us all.”

FEDERATION CJA president Marc Gold noted that the solemn interlude of Yom Hazikaron took place between the mournfulness of Yom Hashoah and joy of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day.

The thousands dead “remind us of what a tremendous loss of life and potential” the last six decades have wrought, he said.

The ceremony was also marked by the participation of a number of relatives of Israeli soldiers killed in action and by terrorists.

Effy Givon, whose brother Etty Givon died in combat in 1970, lit the memorial candle, while Kaddish was recited by Safir Schnaiderman, whose father, Alexander, died in 1985 when a suicide bomber detonated next to his army vehicle.

Hamerman later said to remember the “soldiers, volunteers, civilians, and our brother and sisters” who sacrificed their lives. Let us also remember, he said, “the resistance heroes, Canadian Machal volunteers, Montrealers who fought in Israel, and members of security forces and terror victims.”

During another portion of the ceremony, six relatives of fallen soldiers and victims of terror, accompanied by students or community leaders, laid wreaths: Hana Dror, for her father, Menachem Shimshon Frenkel, killed in 1948; Daliah Gladstone, for her husband, Moshe Aharonov, killed in 1967; Mordechai Lugassi, for his brother Tziona, killed in 1975; Montrealer David Friedberg, for his brother Yehoshua Friedberg, killed in 1993; Moishe Cohen, for his grandfather Yaniv Bar-On, killed in 2006; Isaac Dahan for his brother Gabriel, killed in 1956; and Avi Sulimani of Sderot, for his brother Yacov, killed in 1973.

The ceremony was also interspersed with student readings, song performances by the visiting Tzerie choir of Be’er Sheva and Meitarim choir of Sderot, and the recitation of Psalm 21 and the K’El Maleh Rachamim.

Earlier in the day, 26 Jewish school students presented Elron and relatives of the six soldiers honoured at the commemoration, with documentaries about them.

Then, last Wednesday and Thursday, the documentaries were screened for students at assemblies held at the high schools, which included Bialik, Hebrew Academy, Herzliah’s Snowdon and St. Laurent branches, and Maimonides’ Parkhaven and St. Laurent branches.

Following the ceremony at Cummings Square, an evening of Israeli songs was held at the Gelber Conference Centre.