When I first moved to Israel in the mid-1980s, the novelty of Independence Day celebrations was intoxicating. My wife and I would venture into the heart of downtown Jerusalem as thousands of joyful celebrants would be pounding each other on the heads with blow-up balloon hammers and spraying each other with liquid confetti amid a mass of humanity on the streets.
It was such a change from the somewhat detached beer and burgers scenes of July 4th in our native United States… not only a cathartic release from the somber 25-hour Memorial Day that had just preceded it, but an unleashed act of exuberance that emphatically made the point that after the Holocaust, after the multiple wars or survival and terror attacks, we were still here, in our own country in our homeland. And if we want to act like children, what are you gonna do about it?
Of course, we quickly grew tired of the crowds and the confetti, and over the years, began marking Independence Day in more subdued manners of controlled fun, as Monica Geller would say.
Unfortunately, we haven’t had an unbridled, joyful Independence Day for a while. Last year, the country was barely able to celebrate, as ruinous wildfires in the Jerusalem area extinguished many festivities for Israel’s 77th Independence Day.
The year before that, we were some six months into the October 7 war, with hostages being held in Gaza, soldiers dying, and the country still in a state of shellshock. The grandiose celebrations were replaced by muted, smaller formats focusing on resilience and solidarity.
This year? Who knows? We may be barbecuing through vents in our bomb shelters (not recommended).
The two-week ceasefire in the war with Iran was due to expire on the morning of Independence Day Eve, during the heart of Memorial Day. But as of this writing, it’s impossible to know where negotiations between the US and Iran are headed.
The North has also seen some respite from incessant bombings, but that too may not last. Although wartime restrictions on holding large events have been rescinded, most local municipalities already canceled the massive outdoor events that usually accompany Independence Day celebrations, which feature the country’s top entertainers fanning out from North to South in cities and towns alike.
Even if the skies remain quiet, one thing is certain: for yet another year, Independence Day has been diminished in its physical manifestation by circumstances beyond our control.
But what about its spiritual and national manifestation?
After the last three-plus years of internal strife over the judicial reform and the haredi draft issues, the cataclysmic October 7 massacre and its harrowing aftermath, and the subsequent two deadly and potentially world-changing confrontations with Iran and Hezbollah, do we still have the will to celebrate?
The country is not in good shape, yet it still stands and has somehow reached 78. Anyone who watched the Holocaust Remembrance Day evening ceremony last week can understand why. The testimony of the torchlighters, all survivors, said it all.
After experiencing such unbelievable horrors and witnessing the lowest depths of humanity, they not only survived but made their way to the fledgling Jewish state and rebuilt their lives. They raised families whose numbers today are in the dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and to a one, they owe their gratitude and their rebirth to Israel.
Former chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, himself a survivor with a remarkable story, related to the fracture in Israeli society at the ‘Zikaron b’salon’ (home-based Holocaust remembrance gathering) gathering at President Isaac Herzog’s residence. The main lesson that modern Israel forgets from the Holocaust, he said, is that the Nazis considered the Jews one people. They didn’t distinguish between political or religious preferences or what kind of Jew they were. We were all ‘am echad’ – one nation.
That’s a lesson that needs to be retaught and remembered as Israel marks 78 years of independence. We can argue, disagree vehemently, take to the streets in protest, but at the end of the day, what unites us is stronger than what divides us. That unity, which shone so brightly in the months after October 7, stems from the belief that Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, is worth fighting for.
We can disagree as to what kind of country we want Israel to be, but Iran has made it very clear, that like the Nazis, it doesn’t really matter to them.
Sitting on my porch in the Judean hills, as seen in the accompanying photo, the tranquility can be overpowering. It’s almost unfathomable that the blue skies were only days ago sliced by missiles and the silence was pierced by shrill sirens and the rolling thunder of war.
A new tradition of ringing sirens
Were you, like me, taken aback when the Holocaust Remembrance Day siren started blasting at 10 a.m. last Tuesday? Although we knew it was coming, that first second triggered the reflex to run to the shelter as we’ve been trained to do.
Sirens can mean many things – the Holocaust Remembrance Day and Memorial Day sirens that remind us of the painful losses the Jewish people and the Israeli people endured; there’s the siren that’s an alert to run for safety; and, like the Shofar on the High Holidays, there’s the siren that’s a wake-up call to attention.
Maybe we need that last one as a new tradition of ringing another siren at the beginning of every Independence Day – an alert that we are part of a very special country, infuriating and impossible, but one that we call home.
As we bring in the holiday tonight and tomorrow in makeshift ways, with friends, family, small gatherings or hikes in nature, and for 24 hours anyway, bask in the glow of the messy miracle that is Israel, and focus our hopes that one day, in the not-too-distant future, things will get better and the raucous celebrations will return.
When that happens, I may even head back to the Jerusalem midrehov (Pedestrian Street). If you see me, plan on getting bonked on the head with a big rubber hammer.