"Do you care even about the holocaust, or do you think it never happened?"

Israel is such an amazing place. Where else in the world does an entire country stop (literally) for a total of 5 minutes spread out over a week and three different occasions?

Of course, I'm referring to the 2 minutes of silence for Holocaust Victims which we remembered this morning at 10am and then the one minute of silence next monday night at 7pm for our fallen soldiers and then once again for 2 minutes the following morning (tuesday) at 11am.

Even in the US they dont have the entire city of NY come to a standstill on September 11th. This is something so special because it is something all Jews can identify with. It doesn't matter who you are (a taxi driver, garbage collector, merchant in Machane Yehuda or even a construction worker) or where you are (see photos) you stand still and observe this silence.

When I was in the army 12 years ago, I was on leave in Machane Yehuda and was amazed how everyone turned into a statue the moment that siren started to wail. The place didn't look as crowded as usual because of the fact that you could see thru the gaps of statue-like people and just see more people with solemn looks on their faces.

This morning, I left for work late, because I wanted to stop off and see J-cop Jr. I spent about 30 minutes with him, and then I headed off to work.

At 9:58, I was still on the Jerusalem-T.A. highway and decided to pull over to the side in order to be outside during the siren. Every few seconds, another car would stop and the driver (plus any other occupants) would get out and stand on the side by his/her car.



I saw religious people, non-religious people, people in taxis, people in cars with hi-tech logos on the bumper all get out and share those two minutes in silence for 6,000,000 of our bretheren who were slaughtered by our enemies in Europe.

No cars went by and the usually-busy highway was empty of any cars or trucks.

When the siren ended, I quickly snapped these two pics.




What's interesting (and sad actually)is that as soon as those two minutes are up, everything goes back to the way it was beforehand. Within a minute I was stuck in traffic and then I saw an accident (I decided not to show pics of the guy on the motorcycle sprawled out on the ground), assumedly caused by lack of patience on someone's part.

As the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Have a solemn one...

J.

Todays quote is from Deconstructing Harry (1997)
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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
– Abraham Lincoln