Arlene Kushner | April 22, 2026
As I write, I am approaching the closure of Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day).
This is a day that merits great celebration. Incredibly, we are both 78 years young and 3,000 years old.
That festivities have been somewhat muted because of the war that still hangs over us diminishes the importance of this day not a whit.
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Yesterday was Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. It is a day of mourning for those who have died defending Israel and those brought down by terrorists.
War – initiated first in response to the searing inhumanity of October 7 – has been with us for over two years now, and so the pain has been immediate and intense. Mourning was not only for dear ones lost years ago, but also those lost perhaps a year ago, or a month ago.
People flocked to the military cemeteries – on Har Herzl and across the country – for official ceremonies and in mourning for loved ones—family and friends and comrades in arms.
Since October 7, 2023, 1,150 Israeli soldiers, police officers, and security personnel have been killed.
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At 8 PM on Yom Hazikaron, a single siren sounded, and the mood shifted. In the blink of an eye it was Yom Ha’atzmaut, and the nation pivoted from mourning to celebration.
For many years now this startling transition – which I doubt is seen anywhere else in the world – has made sense to me: The soldiers who lost their lives in battle did not die for nothing: They died for the protection of our state. They made it possible for the state to endure. And so there is great meaning in celebrating Israel, which has been able to flourish because of their sacrifices.
This year the traditional transition brought with it an insight of enormous significance for me.
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Rabbi Leo Dee’s life was shattered three years ago when terrorists murdered his wife Lucy and two of their daughters, Maia and Rina. He has been speaking a great deal lately about how recovery worked for him, and in his perspective I find great relevance to the strength of Am Yisrael.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-seven-facets-of-healing-with-rabbi-leo-dee/
Many people advise that it is wisest to live in the present. But Rabbi Dee says no, we are either living in the past or the future. After a trauma occurs in our lives, we need time to mourn and process what has happened, but then it becomes time to transition, and start focusing on the future.
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And I thought, hey! That is what we as a nation do, but in a most powerful and extraordinary fashion.
We do not live in the past, but we neither brush it away nor try to forget it. There is Yom Hashoah, of course. We remember our suffering in slavery at the seder. We mourn the destruction of the Temples and other calamities on Tisha B’Av. We have not forgotten the Inquisition or the pogroms. We learn about the expulsions in past centuries, from England and Spain, and elsewhere. On holidays, times that are happy, there is still Yizkor recited during services for those we have lost.
But we are not permitted to focus on these losses. Quite the contrary. For holidays, especially Sukkot, we are bidden to be joyous. Overt signs of mourning are forbidden during Shabbat, which is a time of happiness. And there is even the dictum of the Beslov Rabbi Nachman, over 200 years ago, that it is a great mitzvah to always be happy.
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At its core, I believe what I am describing is a readiness to choose life, as the Almighty has bidden us to do.
I have seen this again and again here in Israel, where there has been so much pain: The mourner who asks what he or she can do to help others or who is eager to establish something meaningful in memory of a loved one taken down by a terrorist or who perished in battle: a park, an agency that helps people in need, a school.
I am often in awe of this impulse: this desire to make the world better as a response to horrific loss.
We see this same impulse in the choice of many who have lost their spouses, whether to acts of terrorism or war, to marry again. This perhaps most of all is a choice for life. It speaks volumes for the spirit of Israel.
Here we see Leo Dee, who married Aliza Teplitsky last August.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-865899
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Nor can we forget those who have been wounded in the war since October 7. Figures are not entirely consistent, but there are at least 6,000, with a great many requiring rehabilitation.
One of the most seriously injured has been Ari Spitz, who was not expected to live; he lost both legs and one arm. Last night, he was honored with the lighting of a torch at the Yom Ha’atzmaut ceremonies.
See him light the torch and witness his indomitable spirit.
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DXZ6UXEDNWF/ (make sure you turn on your sound)
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Even with the war, Israel once again ranked eighth in the World Happiness Report published last month.
This seems counterintuitive. How could it be? The US is ranked only 23rd.
Anat Fanti, a happiness policy researcher at the Program in Science, Technology and Society at Bar-Ilan University, says, “…Israelis have a sense of meaning and purpose, which contributes to their overall satisfaction with life.”
She said it wasn’t surprising to her, nor was it to me. The spirit, the energy, is in the air. It is intimately tied to what I describe above.
Even during the war, Israeli women have continued to have babies at a rate that exceeds that of all other OEDC states. This is a mark of faith in the future. It is, quite literally, a choice for life.
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Israel is now far stronger than she was in October of 2023 and will continue to flourish. This war will end and will result in many benefits for us.
But that determination, that resilience, that faith in the future and readiness to be part of it, are not new. It has all been with us for 78 years. It could not have been otherwise if David Ben Gurion was prepared to declare a state when not one country supported his move and the Arab League was waiting to finish us.
Ben Gurion acted and look what we have become today!
I am so very proud to be Israeli.
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I ask, as I always do, that you please pray.
©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
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