April 30/Day 8

By: Naomi, Class of 2025

April 30/Day 8

By: Naomi, Class of 2025

Today was יום הזיכרון/Yom Hazikaron/Israel’s Memorial Day. We started our day with a late wake-up to recover from the little sleep we got the night before. After getting ready for the day, we had a rooftop Tefillah before having breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We then hopped on our bus and headed for the Israel National Library.

We got a tour of the library and learned about the history behind the architecture of the building and the history of the many interesting books it holds. Before leaving the library we took a moment to listen to the יום הזיכרון/Yon Hazikaron siren and speak briefly about יום הזיכרון itself.

Next we visited Ammunition Hill and saw all the trenches the soldiers hid in during the Six Day War. Then we took a moment to walk around the hill so we could take in and imagine what it would be like to fight in a war like that.

Then we went out for a pizur lunch in the Shuk—we each received money to buy the lunch we wanted— and enjoyed some Israeli food before hopping on the bus to head to the next site.

After that we headed to הר הרצל/Har Herzl to visit the graves of important people who died. We visited the graves of all types of soldiers and some civilians. Since it was יום הזיכרון/Yom Hazikaron, the cemetery was especially full of people visiting the graves of family, friends, and others important people.

Then we headed back to the hotel to prepare for a night out to switch gears into יום העצמאות/Yom Ha’atzma’ut/Independence Day. It was an incredible experience to be there for יום העצמאות/Yom Ha’atzma’ut and to see the whole country switch from mourning to celebration. After celebrating in the streets of Jerusalem we found an ice cream shop for a sweet treat before heading back to the hotel to go to sleep and prepare for the next amazing day in Israel.