Remembrance
On memorial day 2013, in the ceremony held in the Knesset, the subject was “in their Death they told us..” which brought the stories of families that in their commemoration of their loved ones they built something for the best of the society, for helping those in need and doing something for the greater good.
“A people remember” site was one of the stories in the ceremony. The next clip was shown in the ceremony (In Hebrew) to the thousands who came as well as to those who watched the ceremony on Israeli TV channels 1, 33 and 99 (The Knesset channel).
"A People remembers" web site is the winner of 2008 prize from "Inbar Fund"
In the book of Joel, in chapter one it is written: "Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation."
Those verses are etched over the main entrance to "Yad Vashem" In Jerusalem. Just as it is an obligation to tell and retell of the Holocaust that the Jewish people suffered and as we tell our children in the Passover Seder about the Exodus from Egypt, so is it our duty to tell about all those that have fallen in the establishment of the state of Israel, that have fallen to secure the sane existence of Israel, its right to exist like any other state in the world.
I chose to present in the site's home page a quote by Winston Churchill "A nation that forgets its past has no future" because it summarizes the purpose of this web site. To remember and never forget is the motto of this site and everything that is documented in it.
For more than a hundred years there has been a deadly war in this small piece of land, a war for the right to live here in peace. The state of Israel chose to count its fallen people beginning in 1860, the year considered by most as the year that the settlement of the land started. In this year the first settlers went out from Jerusalem's old city walls and started to build houses in what is now known as "Mishkenot Shananim". This is also the year when the murders, robberies and massacres of Jews by Arabs started, often with the silent acceptance of the Turkish or the British ruler.
Amongst the fallen there are the famous and less famous, there are those whose bravery is well known, for example Joseph Trumpeldor who went to settle in the Galilee and was killed with seven others. All eight were commemorated at the lions statue in Kefar Giladi and in the border town named for them, Kiriyat Shmona.
There are those who were remembered for their work and creativity, for example the writer Joseph Chaim Brener who was killed in a massacre in Jaffa in 1921. He was commemorated in numerous places and a Kibbutz "Givaat Brener" was founded after his name.
The state of Israel knew periods of terror from its very first days. Attacks from the Gaza strip in the fifties before and after the Sinai War, terror in the settlements in the Chula valley in the years before the Six Day War and from Lebanon in the seventies.
Since the fall of 2000 the home front war is raging in our streets, on our city buses and in the restaurants. The fallen casualties are men and women both young and old, youth, children and even infants. The whole Israeli nation is facing the enemy in this war.
Family members of the fallen in this war are not willing to accept their loved ones are gone and want to see continuation and commemoration. The commemoration is almost an uncontrolled need, family members and friends are building monuments, play grounds, sport courts and many other forms of memorials, all in order to make sure that the fallen will never be forgotten.
As the verse from Joel says, the story of our life in this country and even more the story of our death in this nation must be passed onto the next generations, the story of the wars in this country will be passed to coming generations through the commemoration sites that are scattered all over this agonized land.
This site brings commemoration sites for fallen Israelis from terror attacks in Israel and around the world. Every Commemoration site was documented and photographed, its place in the country was recorded. The pictures and the stories are displayed in the site.
There are still many commemoration sites that were not found and I hope that with the help of this web site this will be the single complete list of sites for those that should never be forgotten.
The full story of this site is brought in the site under the link "About"
Last but not least, many thanks to the one family fund for their generous help that made the English version of the site possible.
Yossi Zur, Asaf's father
Asaf (Blondi) Zur was almost 17 years old when fallen on board bus 37 in Haifa on March 5th 2003.
Haifa 2007
