We will bow our heads, but stand tall - Opinion

In typical Israeli nonchalance, where the improvisation of a moment becomes an eternal fact accompanied by scholarly explanations, the painfully close Remembrance Day and Independence Day become one single day that begins with grief and brokenness and continues with dancing, hope and celebration of our independence.

Over the years, this closeness has turned them into one day that begins with the memory of the high price and the life that was cut short, and continues with celebrating the rebuilding created from the ruins. It is no longer possible to imagine Independence Day without the silence and pain that make the vision and hope precise.

But this wonderful nation, wounded and full of burns from pogroms and wars, already thought it had seen everything. It is quite difficult to surprise us, we know pain, bereavement and shattered dreams. We already thought we had seen everything - until we reached our 76th year. 

On October 7, the State of Israel entered a new era it had never known before. Since that black and terrible day, Israel has been living one long Remembrance Day. The longest Remembrance Day in the country's history has not yet ended. We've known severe wars in the past with a large number of casualties, but the reality imposed on us this year is different and unique. 

The fact that there are 133 hostages in different circumstances still in the hands of a terrorist organization alongside the fact that Hamas has not yet been completely defeated and so many civilians are still evacuated from their homes without a return date, creates a reality in which the war and the sense of grief and pain are mixed together and prevent us from returning to normal life.

In many ways, the entire Jewish people became one, big, bereaved family. We hurt together, cry for the loss of life, and admire the heroes who fought for our country. The word 'brother' has never been more tangible because towards each and every one of those who fell, we feel a sense of brotherhood and solidarity.

According to science and psychology, the loss and the feeling of being torn apart should have increased the internal rift and led to crumbling from the inside, but our people have unique, incomprehensible qualities. Bereavement has the opposite effect on us - it creates glue, connection, and mutual responsibility. In two words – a partnership of fate, or like we say in Hebrew "Shutfut Goral."

Precisely after the appearance of one of the most difficult and conflicted years in Israeli society came the time of war in which we became united as we had not been in many years, perhaps ever. The shared pain turns into a shared fate. The loss produces solidarity, the shock produces the insight that we will never give up on our country. Fate indicates destiny. We will never be able to escape from our Judaism, we will never be able to escape from the great part that we must play in history.

This long Remembrance Day, which began in the fall and continues into the summer, is a memorial day for the entire Jewish people and not just those living in Israel.

In the face of great and chaotic crisis, Diaspora Jewry mobilized with all its strength and wealth, with an open heart and deep solidarity out of the feeling of a shared fate. In recent years there has been a clear trend of the younger generation in Diaspora Jewry moving away from Israel and its values, as well as a convergence of Israeli society in its internal problems. But during the greatest crisis that has befallen us since the Holocaust, the Jewish communities mobilized in support of Israel. The sense of shared fate also comes in light of the direct connection between anti-Israel sentiment around the world and anti-Semitism, which proves the deep affinity between every Jew in the world and the State of Israel.

But - just as this long and painful day of remembrance was imposed on us, we must also prepare for a longer and more significant Independence Day than we have experienced.

Already during our military service this winter, as reservists in the IDF's paratroopers fighting in Gaza, we felt that we were fighting Israel's second independence war.

Along with the many fronts that Israel is currently fighting together with the uncertainty, we were exposed to a tremendous social mobilization, which indicates that we are in historic days, days of brotherhood, companionship and an opportunity for correcting our society and bring hope.

Just as we were privileged to see the great mobilization of Diaspora Jewry in a display of partnership of fate, aiding the war efforts and the bereaved, so do we have the opportunity and duty to build together the partnership of destiny.

In Israel's Declaration of Independence, it is written "We appeal to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel".

After years during which every community, from New York through Paris to Tel Aviv, dealt with its own internal affairs, we must once again engage in a common task of securing the future of the Jewish people.

The center of the Jewish people is in Israel; this was the ambition and deep desire of generations of our ancestors. The future of Diaspora Jewry lies in the ability to create a strong and stable bond with Israel and Zionism, not because of the fear of anti-Semitism but out of choice and destiny.

The pioneers will make Aliyah and the majority who remain in the communities should maintain a continuous and intensive connection with Zionist history and with the Jewish state, a state that is unparalleled in the world.

This responsibility lies with us, Israelis, first and foremost, but also requires the participation of the Jewish communities around the world to create Zionist education and a deeper involvement in Israel and its challenges.

This year, we felt the pain of our shared fate in the most painful way.  

Now is the opportunity to build our second independence together and accept the covenant of destiny.

In an order issued by the commander of the 401st brigade of the armor on the outskirts of Rafah on the night of Remembrance Day, he called on his soldiers to bow their heads - but also to stand tall. The generation destined by fate to bow its head is the generation that will draw strength to stand tall.

Major (res.) Nerya Meir is the head of the Diaspora Department at the World Zionist Organization.