MONTREAL — Considering Israel’s small population, the numbers of its war dead staggers the imagination.
Moshe Cohen, right, lights the Yom Hazikaron memorial candle at the Gelber Centre, assisted by co-MC Eldad Hochman.
But at a May 8 Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) commemoration ceremony, Federation CJA president Jack Hasen made those figures starkly clear: almost 23,000 Israeli soldiers, and almost 3,200 others, victims of terrorism and other violence, have sacrificed their lives in the continuing struggle to have Israel survive and flourish as a nation.
“For our right to live like any people,” Hasen stressed.
“Each person was an entire universe,” he said. “Every live lost was a part of our community.”
Yoram Elron, Israel’s consul general in Montreal, said the sacrifices deserve the, “sorrow, humility and gratitude” of the Jewish People.
Each of the dead “had a name,” he told the crowd.
“No other nation has had to pay such a high price,” he added, vowing that Jews will never give up the fight for survival.
On the eve of a much more joyous commemoration – Israel’s 63rd birthday – a standing-room-only crowd assembled inside the Gelber Conference Centre to pay homage to Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror – among them, as Elron noted, 11 Canadians, part of the Machal forces killed during the War of Independence.
The annual event’s organizer – Israel’s consulate general – has since last year opted to hold the ceremony indoors, because, in the words of one official, it provides “greater intimacy” between audience and participants.
Whether inside or out, however, the event included the customary trappings, including the lighting of a memorial candle and a moment of silence.
Ilan Ben-Brith, Yarden Holzer, Tamara Ohnona, Mor Sa’ar, and Kevin Shustack delivered student readings, which were interspersed with emotionally charged songs performed by Kathleen Reiter, Linoy Bilick and Noam Lessner, as well as performances by the Shaare Zion Congregation Choir with Cantor Shmuel Levine under director Shimon Radu.
Also performing was a member of the Meora Tel-Avivi vocal group visiting from Israel for Yom Ha’atzmaut.
Levine recited the K’el Maleh Rachamim, while Maurice Shoshan, whose sister, Monique Soussan, was killed in 1977 while en route to Jerusalem from her Be’er Sheva army base, recited Kaddish.
The consulate’s Peter Subissati, who was master of ceremonies with Eldad Hochman, also delivered a message from Israel’s chief of staff, Benny Gantz.
As in previous years, the climax of the commemoration came during the wreath-laying ceremony.
One was laid by Elron and Hana Dror, the daughter of Menachem Frankel, killed in 1948 during the War of Independence.
Another was laid by Hasen and David Friedberg, brother of Yehoshua (Joshua) Friedberg, a Montrealer kidnapped and killed by terrorists in March, 1993.
The event concluded with Reiter leading the choir in the singing of Hatikvah.
