You may have noticed that Israel celebrates a number of holidays, both religious and national, and they tend to come all at once (Brian recently marveled to me that Israel has any economy at all, for all of the breaks dut to holidays.) So, in the aftermath of Pesach, we marked three very important days; Holocaust Remembrance Day, Memorial Day, and Independence Day.For Holocaust Remembrance Day, our school had an assembly where my classmates sang, prayed and read poetry. It was quite a somber experience, but very appropriate. In the morning, the emergency siren rang and everyone stopped in the streets, completely silent. It was an eerie feeling to see the normally jostling, rushing, loud Israelis stopped and quiet in Rembrance.My friend, Lana, had her Dad visiting from home that weekend, and we decided to take him to Yad Vashem, which is the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. I had gone on my last trip, but had not spent a long enough time looking at the enormous amount of horrifying and touching information. The sheer mass of resources, showing the absolute worst and depraved of humanity, but also the most atruistic and heroic, makes for an incredibly emotional experience. The museum is one of the best curated and archived museums that I have ever seen. Perhaps most meaningful was the fact that Lana's ancestors had been confined to the Kovno Ghetto during the Holocaust, and the museum had a special exhibit on Kovno, a ghetto in Lithuania. It was moving to see she and her Dad read the accounts of the people there and what they went through.

Almost a week later, we marked Memorial Day, and in preparation, enormous flags were hung all around the city. The apartment buildings where I live each exhibited a 80-foot flag, and almost every car had a small flag waving outside their window. It is a staggering amount of patriotism, made stronger by the fact that Israel just fought a war last summer, the four soldiers who were kidnapped have yet to be returned, and everyone (men and women alike) serve in the military. There was a ceremony at the Kotel that night (all holidays begin and sunset) and the following day at Mt. Hertzl, the equivalent of Arlington Cemetery, where the President and Prime Minister spoke.Israelis comment on the strange attitude of these days; Monday- Memorial Day- is known as the saddest day in Israel, and Tuesday- Independence Day- is known as the happiest, with only a minute in between.

In this interim, my friends and I walked down to the main street in Western Jerusalem in a sober mood, but then Independence Day began, and we instantly felt happy. The roads were blocked off for a giant concert and people danced and cheered in the streets under blue lights hung for the occasion. The music was not wonderful, but the company certainly was. Over the course of the eveing we ate our favorite foods on Ben Yehuda, drank "snake bites" at one of our favorite bars, and danced until late in the eveing.

It seems that many countries mark Independence Day with barbeques, known as "mangals" in Hebrew. The following Day, we headed to Socar Park with Israeli friends to eat a huge barbeque- there was barely an inch of grass- thousands of people picnicked and sprayed each other with shaving cream (also a weird tradition!). The people we went with cooked a ton of meats and we also had Pita and assorted salads. My favorite is purple cabbage soaked mayonnaise, which I guess is just a rendition of coleslaw. My friend Sam ate two kilos of meat himself and looked like he might yak. We also toasted marshmallows. Because they are up to Parve standards here, marshmallows are really gross- Mom, put that on the list of things we should eat when I get home, and a big "Thanks!" to the Smith gals that sent me Peeps for Easter- I have been rationing them.

These days offer a range of emotions that I found to be very much in-line with the Israeli experience. Israel was founded (in large part) out of the ashes of the Holocaust. Since then, there have been a number of wars in which a large amount of people have lost their lives, reaffirming the commitment to the country,which continues to celebrate the sweetness of Independence and a Jewish State, even though threats remain. It was a thought-provoking time to be part of here. I'm still trying to experience as many things as I can, and then spend the plane ride figuring out exactly how I feel about it all.