Honouring Israel’s fallen
'We all wrap ourselves in silence and from every direction we hear the whispers of weeping and the wiping of tears'
THE 2569 Israeli soldiers who died in the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago were among 24,213 victims of war and terror who have paid the ultimate price during Israel’s 75 years – all of the fallen remembered at this year’s Yom Hazikaron (Israel Remembrance Day) in Melbourne.
The solemn commemoration, hosted by Zionism Victoria (ZV), drew a capacity audience at Monash University Clayton’s Robert Blackwood Hall on Monday night, with extra gallery space opened. They saw the Israeli flag lowered and heard the siren’s wail.
Ori Pearl, senior defence representative of the Israeli embassy, read from a reflection of Miriam Peretz, who lost two sons defending Israel, about the moment of the siren. “We all wrap ourselves in silence and from every direction we hear the whispers of weeping and the wiping of tears.”
One of the MCs was IDF officer Stefani Dodin, 25, who flew to Australia for the event. The daughter of olim was the first in her family to enlist in the IDF.
Community figure Jack Hines, a relative of olim Lucy Dee and her daughters Maia and Rina, who died after a terrorist attack in the West Bank this month, observed an intimate memorial candle-lighting for families, which included a candle for the Dees.
And on the podium, Ido Cohen lit a candle for his grandfather IDF Captain Avraham Ben Aziz, who fell in the Yom Kippur War. Memorialising Corporal Yair Kiriati, a victim of a 1977 IDF helicopter crash, his brother Koby Kiriati and cousin Rachel Sayag lit candles. Jonathan Goldberg lit a candle for 1st Sergeant Amit Ben Yigal, killed in a 2020 rock-throwing attack in the northern West Bank. Ben Yigal’s father Baruch had rescued Goldberg during the 1997 Maccabiah bridge collapse. Hila Yitzhaki Kwiat lit a candle for her friend Sergeant Adi Osman, who died in a Hamas attack on her IDF unit at Netzarim in 2003. Chazan Dov Farkas chanted Kel Malei Rachamim.
Noting the half-century anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, ZV president Yossi Goldfarb related a personal memory. His father, who had served in the IDF in the 1950s, returned to Israel to fight in the 1973 war. After coming back to Australia, Goldfarb recalled him repeatedly playing Yehoram Gaon’s stirring Hamilchamah Ha’achronah (The Last War), a lyric expressing Israelis’ hopes. “Sadly though, while the Yom Kippur War was the last comprehensive regional conflagration, it wasn’t the last war that Israel was forced to endure.”
Acknowledging Anzac Day, Goldfarb offered “our respect to the generations of Australia’s diggers, for whose eternal contribution we will always be grateful. Lest we forget”.
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