The theme of this year’s ceremony was “Forever Connected”. Over 7,000 attendees and hundreds of thousands of viewers across the globe, in dozens of countries, reportedly took part.
Masa Israel Journey, an organization that brings Jewish youth to Israel for educational and work programs, held its 15th annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Yad L’Shiryon Armored Corps memorial museum in Latrun on Monday. The theme of this year’s ceremony was “Forever Connected”.
The organization claimed over 7,000 attendees and hundreds of thousands of viewers across the globe, in dozens of countries, took part, making it the largest English ceremony in the world. The ceremony was also simultaneously broadcast in Spanish, French, and Russian.
Jewish leaders, including Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel Mark Wilf, President and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America Eric Fingerhut, and Steven Lowy AM, who is the chairman of the World Board of Trustees of Keren Heysod-United Israel Appeal, joined Masa Fellows and alumni, board members, Jewish Federation delegates, bereaved families, and community members to commemorate the lives of fallen Israeli soldiers and Jewish victims of terror originally from France, the US, Russia, Ukraine, and Argentina. In addition, Hakeem Jeffries, who is the minority leader in the US House of Representatives, and 12 other congressmembers members laid a wreath in memory of the fallen.
The ceremony was livestreamed to global audiences and included speeches from Major General (res.) Doron Almog, who is the chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel; Julie Platt, the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America; and Ofer Gutman, the CEO of Masa Israel Journey. David Koschitzky, who is the immediate past chair of Keren Hayesod’s World Board of Trustees, led the Yizkor (remember in Hebrew) prayer.
According to a statement, the ceremony shared the stories of Joyce Fienberg, a victim of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, who she spent her life as a child development researcher and left behind two children and six grandchildren; Second Lieutenant Carmi Elan, a Los Angeles-born pilot who died at the young age of 19 due to injuries he received during a training accident; officer Shirel Aboukarat, a 19-year-old Border Police Officer who made aliyah from France and was killed by two terrorists during an attack at a bus station in Hadera; Michael Ladygin, a Russian native who made aliyah and was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Ariel in 2022, leaving behind a wife and two children; Captain Alexander (Sasha) Schwartzman, an IDF soldier from Ukraine. She refused evacuation after being injured in battle to ensure her fellow soldiers were treated first. However, she was later killed by enemy fire; and Uriel Bar-Maimon Wolf, a Border Guard Officer who made aliyah from Argentina and fell during operational activities at the Erez checkpoint.
Nine wreaths were laid by the bereaved families, members of the Israeli government, the Knesset, and the House of Representatives delegation in honor of the stories shared.
“Yom HaZikaron, our Day of Remembrance, is an essential part of Israel and the Jewish people. At Masa, it is extremely important to us that we recognize we are forever connected people, and we must reflect on our journey. It makes us who we are. We must honor our fallen and we must mourn our losses. The individual stories shared here tonight are connected by the values of love, determination, sacrifice, and commitment. This ceremony is for us to focus on the heroes who gave their ‘last full measure of devotion’–and they gave it to Israel. To the Jewish people,” Gutman said.