D IS FOR...

D is for a different day...

I thought of so many words for the letter D...daughter...donuts...my brother David fondly known as Dovidle.

But then at 3:30 in the morning it came to me. D is for a Different Day. At three thirty in the morning I still didn't know just how different it would be!!!

Last night at sundown marked the beginning of Yom HaShoah in Israel...Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a difficult twenty-four hours here. This morning a siren will go off throughout the country and everything will stop as almost six million Jews stand at attention with their heads bowed remembering. Interesting number. Every Jewish child born is a spit in Hitler's face...may his name be erased forever!!!

Traffic stops. People get out of the bus or their cars and stand at attention in the middle of the road with their heads bowed.

I cry. I can't help it. The tears simply flow down my cheeks. They are tears of sadness and tears of pride. I am proud to be an Israeli. I am proud of a people who stand in the middle of the street and remember. Sabras...prickly on the outside but sweet inside.

The television only shows things which are related to the Shoah. Movies such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas!!! The Courageous Heart of Irene Sendler...that's the one that had me up so late. She saved 2,500 children!!! See these movies if you can. Of course there is also The Paper Clip.There's a new version of The Diary of Anne Frank...I like the old one. Sophie's Choice has haunted me since the first time I saw it. Schindler's List...can you forget the little girl in the red coat? Life is Beautiful...the Benigni film that took my breath away. The Reader. Sarah's Key. The Counterfeiters. The Devil's Arithmetic. 


These are just some of the films I have seen and think everyone should see.

D is for Davka!!! He tried to kill us and Davka we survived!
D is for Divine Intervention.

Today is a different day. Today we remember. We remember so that we can never forget! No one should ever forget!!! In Israel we remember good. Our survivors speak out at schools and on television. They live with us.

I remember Goldie. She was a woman in our Ulpan class. Goldie was gorgeous...slim with thick rich hair and skin like Holland butter. One day she came back to our apartment on HaPalmach Street. Soril and I sat and listened to her talk. I don't remember it all. One sentence has stayed with me forty years. She said," I love buying clothes. For so long I had nothing to wear and I love buying clothes. Then I give them away. I can only keep enough to fit into one suitcase."

Goldie...I remember you.

And today is a different day. Today America rid the world of another mamzer...Bin Laden is gone!!! I am glad and I am thrilled that America did it! Yahooo America, YOU DID IT...and the world thanks you.

And finally...D is for DING-DONG...and where he's gone there are no virgins waiting for him.
See...we remember. And we will never forget...not the Shoah not 9/11.

Fitting it happened on Yom HaShoah. There is no such thing as a coincidence.

Have a good day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.