Today in Jerusalem, at 10: a.m. local time, a siren wailed. It commemorated six million Jews who died in the Holocaust.
Cars and busses stopped. People stood still on the sidewalk. Some stood up inside the busses. Others got out and stood silently and respectfully beside their cars.
It's likely many of the people who stood and remembered had family members who died in the Holocaust. It's hard to find someone here in Israel not directly affected by the Holocaust and hard to overestimate the emotional and pyschological scar that horror has left on this people.
For example, Israeli President Shimon Peres participated in a ceremony today at the Knesset. It was called "Unto Every Person There Is a Name."
At the ceremony, the president, the prime minister, members of Knesset and Holocaust survivors read out the names of their loved ones who were murdered by the Nazis. Below are Peres's remarks:
"In memory of the members of my family who were slaughtered along with 2,060 members of their community in the city of Vishneva in August 1942 by the Nazis and their local helpers, who gathered all the residents of the Ghetto together in the wooden synagogue and cruelly murdered them by firing on them and burning the building:
My grandfather - he walked at the head of the community wrapped in his prayer shawl, straight to the synagogue that the Nazis would light on fire.
My grandfather Tzvi Meltzer - My teacher and my rabbi, who at the moment of our separation at the train station when I was on my way to the land of Israel, said two words to me: Be Jewish.
My grandmother - Rivka Meltzer; My uncle - Michael Meltzer; My cousin - Moshe Kotler; My cousin - Eliezer Kotler; My cousin - Leah Kotler; My cousin - Miriam Kotler; My aunt - Lyova Kaplan; My uncle - Moshe-Aharon Kotler; My aunt - Feigel Kotler"
At last night's opening ceremony at Jerusalem's Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial, Peres delivered this address:
"Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators simply because they were Jewish. 1.5 million children were annihilated just because they belonged to the Jewish people. They were called Moshe, Avraham, Rivka and Leah -- even though they were yet to understand the meaning of their names. One out of every three of our people was murdered during those six cursed years. Each victim had a name. Each murdered Jew had a future. The genocide committed by the Nazi murderers was a historic crime of unprecedented proportions.
The State of Israel is our historic victory over the Nazi beast that left no stone in Europe unturned. Soul-searching about the Holocaust is not yet over and may never be over, not for us, and not for the world at large. Nazism was defeated, but anti-Semitism is still alive and well. The gas has dissipated, but the poison remains. There are still Holocaust deniers and hot-headed skinheads in the world, those who bear the sort of visceral hatred that leads to racist murder.
The conference opening today in Geneva constitutes an acceptance of racism, rather than the fight against it, and its main speaker is [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, who calls for the annihilation of Israel and denies the Holocaust.
There are also the Righteous Among the Nations. We will never forget their heroism.
Criticism of the Jewish state is also tinged with chilling anti-Semitism. Among those who collaborated with the Nazis and those who stood by and let the Holocaust happen, there are those who criticize the one state that rose to grant refuge to Holocaust survivors -- the one state that will prevent another Holocaust.
Anti-Semitism is not a Jewish disease, and its cure is incumbent upon those who perpetrate it.
It is hard to fathom why despots such as Hitler the Nazi, Stalin the Bolshevik and Ahmadinejad the Persian chose the Jews as the main target for their hatred, their madness and their violence. Perhaps they targeted the Jewish people because of its spiritual power -- a nation poor in material possessions, but rich in values -- for he who is infected with megalomania fears the power of the spirit.
The Jews did not worship idols or authority, and their God gave mankind its conscience. We were the first to believe that every person is created in God's image, and we were commanded to sanctify life and prevent murder and discrimination.
We have learned that our spiritual heritage is dependent on physical security. A people that lost a third of its members, a third of its children to the Holocaust, does not forget, and must not be caught off-guard.
The first lesson we took from the Holocaust, therefore, was the need to immediately establish a Jewish homeland -- a Jewish state. Without it, the survivors would have been left homeless, and their lives would have remained exposed and prey to destruction. The State of Israel is not merely the Jews' protective shield, but an ideal of historic import: to be a nation with a moral message.
Existence and heritage are inextricably linked. We never asked other nations to defend us, and we have made the decision that spiritual conflict will not divide us.
We must not let the memory of the Holocaust diminish, and we must ensure that the memory-bearers do not lessen in number. The Jewish state must ensure the continuity of the Jewish people, for our people have just one country.
Our forefathers gave the world the Ten Commandments over 3,000 years ago, and yet there is no need for an updated version. The greatness of the Jewish people is derived from the might of its spirit.
Israel must be an example to its children and a source of pride for those Jews who do not live here. The Jewish people helped establish the State, and the State must now help its people, preserve its identity, give its children a Jewish education and enable the Jews to ensure that their descendents remain Jewish.
The IDF has given security to the State of Israel, whose soul thirsts for peace. In Israel's eyes, peace is not just a matter of political wisdom, but a fundamental Jewish imperative.
We never set out to conquer. We did not rush toward domination. We rejected lordship, we fought discrimination, we protested slavery, we forbade violence. We believe in the preeminence of man, and we pray for Tikkun Olam [to make the world a better place] and world peace.
We are struck not just by the unprecedented horror of the Holocaust, but also by our people's extraordinary fortitude. This is also a lesson for the future -- to combine faith and power. To be a just people in a just world. Whoever tries to break our spirit will learn that the spirit cannot be extinguished. Even though our ship may be narrow, it is a mighty wind that blows through its sails.
The Holocaust will always be in our hearts, and we realize that there is much work ahead of us: to build a state that is worthy of its fathers' sacrifice and is an answer to its sons' prayers."