On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, sirens sounded across Israel. Cars on the motorway, shoppers in the malls, and hurried professionals in skyscrapers all came to a halt.
For one minute at night and two minutes the next morning, they stood silently, remembering the fallen of Israel’s wars on what is called in Hebrew Yom Hazikaron, in short, or in English, Remembrance Day for the Fallen Soldiers of the Wars of Israel and Victims of Terrorism.
Israel has always needed not only full-time conscripts but also an army of reservists, defending not just its borders against hostile states but its own streets from terrorist attacks.
The threat is fueled by a deep, pathological hatred towards Jews, Israelis, and the very existence of the state itself. This is not conventional warfare but a total assault on civilian life. Wars and terrorism are not sporadic events in Israel. They are a daily threat, a lived reality.
Every secondary school, college, and university has its own wall of plaques commemorating teenagers and alumni killed in action. But these are not distant echoes of old wars. They are fresh, painfully new, with names of 18- and 19-year-olds killed last year, last month, or last week.
Since October 7, families have produced bumper stickers bearing the photos and mottoes of their lost loved ones: “Always smile,” “Never forget, we are here to give to others.” These smiling faces, now lining park benches and lampposts, are reminders of lives cut brutally short.
The wars waged in Europe
Britain, too, knows the solemnity of remembrance. After the Great War, it established Armistice Day to honor its fallen and white stone monuments in its towns and cities. Europe, once convinced that the bloodshed of the 20th century would never return, now faces its own uncomfortable reckoning.
Trenches have been dug once again on European soil. The war between Russia and Ukraine has resurrected the horrors of the past, including trench warfare, mass shelling of cities, conscription, and sieges.
Drones and cyber warfare add modern terror to ancient brutality. Across the continent, defense budgets are climbing fast as governments, from Germany to Lithuania, scramble to rebuild armies left to dwindle since the Cold War.
Strategic thinkers increasingly speak of Europe decoupling from America’s military umbrella. “Going it alone” is no longer a hypothetical but a mounting reality. Political discourse has fractured. Social media accelerates polarization. Strongman politics rise.
In many countries, far-right parties are surging in polls. Jewish communities in Europe, sensitive to the earliest tremors of instability or extremism, are once again watchful. History has taught them to be.
On Remembrance Day, Israel stood silent, mourning its young people who died defending its population. Europe, whatever its politics, too, would do well to pause. To remember that wars are not things of history but real, raw, human costs. The horrifying scenes from Ukraine to Sudan are on our screens and headlines, and the current damage from bullets and bombs.
When the sirens sounded in Israel, tears flowed for a nation still trapped in the valley of the shadow of death. In Europe, where the specter of war once again gathers, we should listen and learn, or at least pause.
The writer is president of the Conference of European Rabbis.