by Israel National News
At Mount Herzl, President Herzog honors terror victims, links generations of loss, and says Israel’s true victory lies in rebuilding life.
The state memorial ceremony for victims of terror was held on Tuesday at the monument on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, and Supreme Court President Itzhak Amit participated in the ceremony.
President Herzog addressed the ceremony and stated that "this year as well, with great pain, beautiful and beloved faces and names have joined the too-long list which we remember here today. With great sorrow, more and more fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, and loved ones joined the family of bereavement, entire families, broken-hearted."
According to Herzog, "The Zionist enterprise built the country, with tremendous strengths of growth and fulfillment. And for the 78 years that this state has been here. And when we look upon this place, we can not recognize nearly anything that was, except one thing that burns the heart, again and again: that our enemies who seek our destruction continue to use the same cruel terrorist methods, in attempts to prevent the house from being built."
Isaac Herzog presented what he described as a story of closure within Israeli bereavement, recounting the history of the “Red House" in Jerusalem’s Motza neighborhood, built more than a century ago by his great-grandfather Yechiel Michel Steinberg and his brother Yerachmiel. Herzog said the home and its brick factory became part of Jerusalem’s renewal, before recalling the 1929 riots, when residents of nearby Kalunya attacked Motza, killing 11 people, while children from the neighboring Maklef family survived by hiding in the Steinberg factory.
Herzog said the survivors rebuilt Motza “brick by brick on the road to building the state," drawing a line from those events to the October 7 massacre and arguing that the methods of terror have repeated across generations.
The president then recounted a more recent encounter with the Wolansky family, whom he visited after the death of IDF Sgt. Aviad Elchanan Volansky in combat in southern Lebanon. He said the family had already endured previous losses, including relatives killed in terror attacks, and that he was struck to learn their lineage traces back to Rabbi Abraham Shlomo Zalman Zoref, whom Herzog described as the first victim of hostile acts 175 years ago.
According to Herzog, the family’s story reflects not only a continuity of bloodshed but also a continuity of life, construction, and hope. He said that despite generations of attacks, including missile strikes from Iran and Lebanon, Israel has continued to build, grow, and transform loss into resilience.
Herzog concluded that after two and a half years of war, Israel stands at a new historic chapter, having endured hardship while defeating enemies and strengthening alliances. “Our victory is not measured only by defeating the enemy," he said. “Victory will be complete when life is restored to its course," adding that true victory will be the ability to keep creating, growing, learning, and building.
Israel National News
Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/425853
No comments:
Post a Comment