Transitioning from grief to celebration on Israel's 60th birthday

From Holocaust Day to Memorial Day one week later is not a happy time around here, and the sadness is intensified by the mess our leaders are in. So entered Karen Alkalay-Gut in her Tel Aviv Diary yesterday.

On this week that Karen describes, I —

• Broke my silent reflection, on Holocaust Martyrs' and Heros' Remembrance Day, and accepted Stephanie’s sensitive, thoughtful invitation to join her, in Atlanta, in a Skype-recorded conversation with me, now in Israel. And she posted Holocaust Remembrance Day: A Conversation on her blog in hopes that visitor-listeners might reflect on the gruesome realities of the past. Gruesome realities that continue to threaten everyone, everywhere, always.

• Am remembering my cousin Noam Yaakov Mayerson today, Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of terror. His parents will be arriving soon at the Mount Herzl military cemetery, joining other families and friends at the graves of their loved ones. August 7, 2006, Noam was killed when Hezbollah terrorists opened fire on an Israel Defense Forces unit in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil.

• Finally, will join Shimon this evening in one of hundreds of ceremonies nationwide when Israeli flags will be raised from their half-mast positions — marking the transition from grief to celebration. After sunset, the start of a new day, we are commemorating this Israel Independence Day sixty years since the rebirth of the state of Israel in its ancient homeland, the land of Israel.

Tonight, we celebrate what is so easy to overlook, to miss, to scorn, and to despise in this dazzling country bursting with the bitter and the sweet.

Happy, happy birthday, Israel. And endless more. Never ending. Everlasting. For eternity.

!יום עצמאות שמח