Update

Crystal writes, "What is Yom HaZikaron and why is it important"?

Ice Viking's Israel Independence DAy post

Rachel Ann's Yom HaZikaron post

Celestial Blue's post

Imshin's post

Bernice notes that Think Israel has an orange header describing Yom HaZikaron.

Air Force pundit posted on Jewish Blogburst.

Aaron of Pardon my English:

We participated in the memorial service at the Golani Brigade Memorial [for
Yom Hazikaron]. The siren went off and everything. It was very interesting,
though some cars didn¹t stop. [The memorial service was different from any
other memorial service I¹ve ever seen. It¹s not like in the United States
where in most cases, Memorial Day doesn¹t mean much for anyone. Here,
everyone knows someone who died in a war. It¹s a different feeling here.
Stores aren¹t open, and people actually mourn.]

---

Barbara.

Esther of Urban Kvetch writes:

Today I’m working in an office in Times Square, and wondering what a Yom Hazikaron siren here would sound like, how the hordes of tourists might pause for a minute of silence in memory of the lost, the martyred, the brave, and if I’d be able to notice a difference from the 25th floor.

Hidden Nook writes:

Perhaps the only country in the world that appreciates the fact that many of it's own citizens have died as a result of defending this nation's right to exist...

Justin R writes on Israel's perserverence re Lag B'Omer:

Regardless of prophecy and Messiahs, the Jews have endured without a nation. They survived the Romans, the Christians, the Moslems, and the Nazis, and returned to their homeland. The Bar Kochba revolution, though not successful in freeing Judea from the Romans, stands as a testament to the perseverance of the people of Israel.

Ben Chorin writes:

Those who glibly answer that they wish to continue to play the role of the passive, persecuted and alienated Jew even in Israel would do well to remember that they are casting their fellow Jews in a role they may neither want nor (always) deserve. And those who glibly answer that life as a full-fledged comfortable-in-my-own-skin citizen of Mayberry suits them just fine would do well to consider that they might be sacrificing more qualities of character that follow from outsidership than they can anticipate or afford...

Just Barking Mad writes:

don’t think that any of us in America truly understand how very hard it must be knowing that just miles away is an enemy that has chosen terrorism as its diplomatic arm, the murder of innocent women and children its diplomatic calling card and the elevation of murderers to saintly status the basis of their religion. And all of that is directed at you.

Bamapachyderm also has a compilation on Yom Haatzmaut information.

David Gerstman writes:

It was a society that destroyed and its people exiled nearly two thousand years ago.


Fifty seven years ago those people reconstituted a new society. This rebirth is something that hasn't happened any other time to any other nation in the history world. Most dispersed people lose their identities and assimilate.
Perhaps this is possible because Jews constitute both a nation and a religion. Even without the land we still have practices that allow us to maintain our identity.
But fifty seven years ago, through an unlikely combination of events - including recognition of the nascent state by the Soviet Union - a new Jewish state was founded. It is a state that has had to fight for its life since it was founded. It is a state that even nowadays must justify its existence to the rest of the world - ironically and outrageously because of the claims of organized despots and monarchs who do not rule with the consent of the governed.
The Palestinians do not simply claim Israel's land. They deny Jewish history. And usurp it for their own