22,305 Fallen: Every number a name, a face, a memory

Faith Under Fire

War Against Hizbullah, Summer 2006:
Israeli Defense Forces soldier at brief morning prayers
along northern border; smoke from a recently fallen Katyusha rocket rises in distance.
(Photo: Dave Bender - More images are here)

From the Israel Foreign Ministry:

A total of 22,305 men and women have been killed defending the land of Israel since 1860, the year that the first Jewish settlers left the secure walls of Jerusalem to build new Jewish neighborhoods.

In the past year, since Remembrance Day 2005, 233 members of the security forces - police, IDF, Border Police, Israel Security Agency and other organizations - have been killed in the service of the state.

Israel's 59th Independence Day celebrations will commence on Monday evening, April 23, when the state flag is raised to full mast at a national ceremony on Mount Herzl, at which twelve torches are lit.

Israel at 59: Statistics

Click image to view a memorial
film on Israel's fallen

Israel At 59: Orthodox Union slideshow

Ok. Shameless self-promotion disclaimer here - but hey, they asked.

So, What Does Israel Mean To You?

(Image courtesy AJC)

This?


This?


This?

Or something in between?

Comments are welcome, and many will be posted here (some with appropriate replies, so be nice...). So, c'mon - speak up.

To see an Israel beyond the headlines, go here and here for features, and here and here for images.

Israel at 59 to Hamas: you need us

Cor-ten steel sculpture on observation deck of
Tel Aviv's Azrieli Towers (Photo: Dave Bender)

From Bradley Burston in Haaretz:

To you, the leaders and activists of Hamas, on the occasion of the 59th anniversary of the darkest day on the Palestinian calendar, I offer my sympathy.

After all this time, perhaps there is only one thing more galling for you than the fact that the State of Israel still exists: the fact that you need us.

(...)You want to believe that if you wait long enough, endure enough anguish, exact enough revenge, the Jews will relent. It seems only fair, only just, that after all this sacrifice and struggle, you will come into possession of the very state for which you have sworn to give your very life.

You don't know the Jews.

Virginia Tech: heroic Israeli Holocaust survivor's last moments

An absolute must read in Newsday:

Theresa Walsh was one of the last people to see Liviu Librescu alive.

"He looked horrified, almost as if he knew what was going to happen," said the Virginia Tech math major, who had stepped into the hallway from a second-floor classroom across from his when she heard gunshots.

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From Ynet News:

Librescu was buried Friday morning at the Ra'anana cemetery. Hundreds of mourners accompanied Librescu to his final resting place.

From The Jerusalem Post:

According to Librescu's wife [Marlena], lighting Shabbat candles was his favorite mitzvah.

...[Son] Arie said his mother would now move to back Israel once she has completed the arrangements in the US.

Gheorghe Angelescu, adviser to the president of Romania, presented Marlena Librescu at the funeral with the Grand Cross of Romania - the country's highest civilian honor, which was previously granted to the prime ministers of France and Italy.

Librescu was given the award for his scientific achievements and the heroism surrounding his death. According to Angelescu, Librescu "was a very important scientist - not just for Israel or Romania, but for the world."

Professor Liviu Librescu's funeral (photo: Ido Erez)

Jews worldwide - whatever your level of observance - take an example from Librescu, and light Shabbat candles this evening, just before sunset. Here's how.

Librescu condolence page.

'Wandering Jews' get a 'Geni' map

Jewish memorial tree, Budapest, Hungary
(Photo credit)

Blogger Brian Blum is touting a new web-based genealogy app: Geni:

Every time you add a name, you can include an email address. Geni then sends a message inviting that person to join your tree and start entering data of his or her own. In that way, your family tree grows as other people do the heavy lifting. Geni sends out an email summary of every week of who's joined and allows you to enter missing addresses directly into the email.

To give you an example, I started by entering 21 names into Geni. I knew the email addresses of 15 of those people and they were automatically invited, a number of whom immediately began filling in their part of the tree. After about 3 weeks of using Geni, there are now 472 people in my tree dating as far back as the 1850s – to my great-great grandfather who lived in Berlad Romania – and as far a field as my aunt's ex-husband's sister's family. That comes out to 115 blood relatives and 356 in-laws.

Worth a visit and sign-up, I'd say.

More Jewish genealogy resources are here.

Virginia Tech slayings: A fitting Jewish response

In a response to the appalling Virginia Tech slayings, Chabad on Campus has set up the Hearts to Hokies campaign:

A National Week of Goodness and Kindness

Join the "Hearts to Hokies" campaign to spread the light of goodness and kindness in the world. Add an extra good deed, whatever it may be, in memory of the victims.

The deeds will be collected from campuses and communities across the nation and presented to the Virginia Tech community, as a tangible expression of our love and concern and our dedication to making the world a better place.

Go there now, sign in and do this.

Here is the condolence page for Liviu Librescu, the 75-year old Romanian-Israeli Holocaust survivor who was slain in a true act of Kiddush Hashem - sanctifying God's Name - as he heroically defended his students from the killer.

More on Librescu here.

Seeing terrorism against civilians - from the inside out

From the very impressive site (and turn on your speakers):

The purpose of terrorism is to create victims. The goal is to murder and maim as many innocent people as possible. It is a political tool that has worldwide appeal, because it works. We have allowed it to work by not condemning and isolating those who use it. Terrorism has destroyed thousands of innocent lives in the past six years alone. Civilized people everywhere must condemn terrorism. We must speak in one voice. There is no excuse for terrorism - ever.

They represent a broad cross-section of humanity.

They are commuters on the London subway system. And on the trains in Madrid. They are celebrants at a wedding in Amman, Jordan and at a bat mitzvah in Hadera, Israel. They are little kids eating pizza; they are tourists in Bali and Egypt. They are people praying in churches and mosques and synagogues. They are celebrating the Passover Seder.

Even doctors who try to help can become victims. In September of 2003, Dr. David Applebaum, the head of the ER deparment at Shaare Zedek Medical Center was murdered along with his 20 year old daughter, Naava. They were in Café Hillel in Jerusalem.

(I wrote about this particular terror attack from a personal, painful POV here).

Stunning Hebrew Calligraphy

Beautiful, haunting images. Go and look.

Virginia Tech: Israeli Holocaust survivor killed trying to save students (UPDATED)

Image: Instapundit

From the JPost:

As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 75-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech College that left 32 dead and over two dozen wounded.


Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter, who had attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.
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Alec Calhoun, a 20-year-old student who had been in Librescu's class in room 204, told a reporter that at 9:05 a.m. the heard screams and a loud banging sound from the next-door classroom. When the students realized it was gunfire, he said, some hid behind tables, and others leapt from the classroom's windows. Calhoun himself was among the last to jump. "Before I jumped from the window, I turned around and looked at the professor, who stayed behind, maybe to block the door. He had been killed."

Librescu is survived by his wife of 42 years, Marlena, who was with him in Virginia, and sons Aryeh and Joe who are in Israel. They intend to bury him in Israel.

More here.