Memorial Day | Imamother

MagentaYenta

Tue, May 31 2016, 2:04 pm

I noticed that there was no mention of Memorial Day yesterday, and I'm wondering how involved American Jews are in their local Memorial Day commemorations. I know when I lived on the east coast my towns parade would have a large contingent of Jewish war veterans. Even here we had a sizeable number turn out for our local towns memorial. In the past I've joined them with planting flags at the Jewish cemeteries our area. Did you do anything yesterday to honor the fallen?

MagentaYenta

Tue, May 31 2016, 3:08 pm

madys wrote:

We went to the parade - both my father and my brother are US Veterans

I thank them for their service. I'm always surprised at the indifference the Jewish community has to the US military who have fallen. My parents were grateful to be Americans, and family members voluntarily served in the military. Locally the Reformationist congregation, offers an evening program on Memorial Day. It features local Jewish war veterans who share their stories of loss, and just what it meant for them to serve. I'm always amazed at the scope of the program, men and women in their 70s and young people just out of their 30s.

sky

Tue, May 31 2016, 3:10 pm

DH's grandfather fought in Europe during WWII. For some reason he didn't want to be remembered as a vet. He asked that he not have a funeral with all the honors and specifically said no flag should be placed by his grave, so we don't.

madys

Tue, May 31 2016, 3:23 pm

Magenta - Thank you!! My father is very involved in his local chapter of the Jewish War Veterans. He goes every week to the VA hospital and spends time volunteering there with the hospice unit (and my dad is 79!!)

mommy3b2c

Tue, May 31 2016, 3:23 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

I did not commemorate the soldiers yesterday, but I am certainly not indifferent. I greatly admire and thanks them for their service to our country. In fact my husband and I were in Manhattan a couple of weeks ago and we saw a homeless soldier. We specifically went over to him, gave him some money, made some small talk and thanked him for his service.

MagentaYenta

Tue, May 31 2016, 3:29 pm

sky wrote:

I think his decision is a valid one. My father had a friend who served in the 6th armored division that liberated Buchenwald. In those days there were no issues with tank personnel wearing tallits while on duty. His descriptions of those survivors as they saw him get out of his tank with his tallits kept him going for many years, and tempered his disillusionment with war.

greenfire

Tue, May 31 2016, 4:10 pm

this is america but I don't know any people who fought if anyone - so for me it's just in my thoughts ... I did watch the president lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldiers

my heart & prayers are always with those who went to war ... sometimes I feel their deaths were needless

p.s. I take it back - my cousin was in the army, my other cousin's step son died several years ago in the army, and my uncle was a veteran ~ "make love not war" clouds my mind from reality

Tue, May 31 2016, 5:23 pm

Our local Jewish community is involved with the municipal ceremony.

In general, Memorial Day in the US is less about the origin of the holiday and more about the long weekend.

MagentaYenta

Tue, May 31 2016, 8:11 pm

greenfire wrote:

I'm definitely an anti war pacifist and get sickened when friends of my kids go off to war.

I think I cling to Veterans day and Memorial day because my father was so darn proud to be an American citizen and raise his kids in American. I also have dear friends who are Vietnam era veterans who volunteered to serve and shared their stories with me. So I hang on to it. It would be nice if we didn't need a Memorial Day.

greenfire

Fri, Jun 03 2016, 5:22 pm

found this picture & thought I'd share - guess there are jews out there who take part of memorials

http://shmais.com/chabad-news/.....-copy