At 10:00 this morning, Jerusalem time, a siren was sounded throughout the land. For two minutes the heartbeat of the country quickened as the pace slowed to a standstill. Children stopped their lessons and stood in silence by their desks. Traffic on every street and highway stopped as people got out of their cars and stood in silence. This scene went on throughout Israel . Wherever they were, at the beach, the grocery store, in living rooms, Israelis stood at attention as the collective and historic memory of a nation and a people focused on the personal, the private and the public sadness and horror of the death of six million Jews just a generation ago.
This occurred at 2:00 AM CST, about three hours after President Obama’s announcement that a US Special Forces team had successfully tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden. All day, Americans have been taking to the streets, not in silence but in jubilation. But it is important to remember: Bin Laden was never the military operations leader of Al Qaeda, nor was he Al Qaeda's spiritual leader. Those people still exist and are hard at work. He was the charismatic thought leader of a movement dedicated to the belief that the highest obligation and the holiest expression of Islam is Jihad. And in their ideological system of belief, Jihad is an armed struggle dedicated to the elimination of the men women and children, wherever they lay - in their beds, in their classrooms, on vacation on luxury ships, at work in their offices, at play in their kindergartens and in every common marketplace. Bin Laden is dead – but his ideas live on. Today, as Israelis stand in silence to remember the Holocaust and as Americans rejoice in this latest victory, in the Gaza Strip Hamas condemns the killing of their ideological leader and declares him a martyr.
War is somber. Even when we are victorious, war is somber. We are a people dedicated to the simultaneous pursuit of justice and peace. And we are a people whose highest value is memory. May we never forget the victims of terror. May we never forget that evil ideas can bring evil actions. May we never forget the courage and bravery of our armed forces who dedicate their lives to safety and freedom. May we never forget the unmarked graves scattered throughout Europe and the graves marked in central Manhattan , and in a field in Pennsylvania , and in every town small and large where in the cemetery a solider is buried.
We are commanded to remember. This day is Holocaust Memorial Day. And this is the day we declare the death of Osama bin Laden. And on this day may we light a memorial candle and remember dark days. And when we see the flame may we think of the souls of so many who yearned to love, to live, to work, to create, to be secure. And may we be ever committed to pursue justice and to pursue peace so that the light may banish the darkness.
Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar