Israel’s anglo community to mark Remembrance Day in Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Post, the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization (IDFWO), the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, and the Margaret and Sylvan Adams Family Foundation will hold a special ceremony on Sunday to mark Israel’s Remembrance Day. 

For the second year in a row, the event will be held at the Museum. It will open with the memorial siren at 8:00 p.m. and include a performance by the IDF Rabbinical Choir.

Anat Meir will light the memorial torch. Anat’s husband David, 31, was a fighter in the special unit Sayeret Matkal and fell on October 7 while he was fighting to protect Kibbutz Be'eri. 

Meir, a police officer, will be accompanied by Deputy Superintendent Efrat Oren, a close friend and her commander, who lost her nephew, First Sergeant Amit Must, a medic in the Egoz Unit of the Golani Brigade.

The Kaddish will be recited by Liav Shlomo, the son of the late Senior Sergeant Adir Shlomo, head of the logistics headquarters at the Sderot Police, who fell in the fierce fighting at the police station on October 7. Adir, 47 years old, was killed in the attack along with six of his fellow police officers.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, co-chair of the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem and the founder and dean emeritus of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, will then recite the special El Maleh Rachamim - Prayer for the Soul of the Departed.

The former head of Mossad, Yossi Cohen, who currently serves as the president of the Friends of the IDF Widows and Orphans organization, will also speak at the event.

“This is a difficult year for all of us, and sadly, many widows, widowers, and orphans, have been added to the list of the bereaved families of Israel. Too many,” said Cohen. “On Remembrance Day, like on every day of the year, we will stand with the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization alongside the families, sharing the memory of the fallen and the intense pain of their loss.”

“Together, we will continue to support, embrace, and show our unwavering commitment to care for widows and their children throughout their lives, hoping that our sacred activity will serve as a beacon of brotherhood and unity for all the people of Israel,” he added.

The ceremony will be held in English and include interviews with lone soldiers who will discuss their experience serving far from their families.

Iris Haim, the mother of the late Yotam Haim, who was kidnapped by Hamas in Kfar Aza and killed by mistake by Israeli soldiers after he had managed to escape, and Yasmin Margolis, whose husband Sa'ar, a member of Kibbutz Kisufim fell while fighting the terrorists on October 7, will also share their testimonies.

"This Remembrance Day, we honor not just Israel's fallen heroes, but the legacy they leave behind,” Shlomi Nahumson, CEO, IDF Widows & Orphans Organization said. “Their sacrifice reminds us of the profound cost of our freedom. As we remember, let's also remember their families, who carry their absence every day.”