I’ll never forget my shocked reaction the day my fifth-grade son came home and told me he needed an army uniform.It was about a week before Israel’s Memorial Day, and I was still in my first decade of life as an Israeli citizen, and a relative newbie to the school system here - this was my oldest child. His elementary school was headed by a very politically savvy and ambitious principal, whose true passion seemed to come out not when her students succeeded academically, but when her school staged impressive ceremonies.
There seemed to be a long, elaborate ceremony for everything - the first day of school and of course, graduation, but every possible reason in between - every holiday, every occasion had to be marked by a ceremony that would take an hour or longer where prayers and blessings would be given, the kids would recite poems and passages,We provide you the most beautiful gowns,such as cheap 100%Silk Dresses and germanuniforms and so on. do dances,A germanmilitaria is a style that many are using now! act out scenes, and,Cheap parka parkajackets will have fleece. of course, offer a platform for speeches by any dignitary present - the mayor or the city council’s head of education, and of course, the principal herself.The dances and dramas, were, of course, related to the occasion. The reason my son needed an army uniform was because his class was doing a dramatic interpretation of a song about a famous battle of the War of Independence. And yes, the group of young boys marched out on stage, recreate the battle, including the part where they fell.
The scene was bookended by the other elements of the ceremony - traditions at the school, a reading out the names of students at the school who had fallen in Israel’s war - and there were many, as this school had been around since before the state was created and a flower would be laid at a memorial to them. Girls from the school usually did a modern dance set to sad music, dressed in black leotards. And, of course, the whole thing started with the haunting wail of the siren and everyone standing in silence with bowed heads.
It all came less than a week after a similarly somber experience on Holocaust Memorial Day, when the school would also come assemble for a similar ceremony.Here you can take your pick from a wide selection of highlowwedding. But in this one, the school children would act out scenes from World War Two, little third and fourth-graders dressed in frayed tweed jackets, housecoats and newsboy caps borrowed from their grandparents, reenacting scenes of Jews in Europe being rounded up and driven from their homes.As I have attended these ceremonies dutifully photographing my kids, they have always awakened terribly mixed emotions in me. On one hand, I know that growing up with the awareness of the price that has been paid for their country imbues the country with a sense of unity and meaning that is central to the building Israeli identity, and one of the things that makes it such a special and meaningful place to be.
On the other hand, another voice in my head cries out that it this all happens too young, too soon, and that these stage shows are very problematic.
I can’t help but feel that 11-year-olds should not have to put on uniforms and pretend to die in battle - that this is just a step too close to the militaristic pageants using children we so criticize when Arabs do it, and that 9-year-old should not be have to wear ragged clothes and a yellow star in order to understand the impact of the Holocaust. And that the even younger children sitting there - the six and seven year olds required to sit and watch these lengthy pageants may not be right.
I’m sure I’m not the only Israeli parent who has had to comfort their children when they had trouble falling asleep on the night after the experience, unable to get the scenes and the stories of death, destruction and tragedy in their little heads.
Whenever people complain about the abrupt transition between the somber Memorial Day ceremony and the exuberant celebrations of Independence Day, I think to myself that while the experience is clearly rough for members of the families of the fallen soldiers, I am still grateful for it - at that point, the kids need that release from sadness and mourning.The fact that is that some Israeli schools go too far when it comes to ‘ceremony-itis’ - automatically repeating the same long and bombastic rituals and speeches year after year when they are so young, I think, numbs Israelis to it all instead of sensitizing them. By the time they become teenagers it’s all part of a routine, all old hat to them. I don’t blame them - it’s a normal human defensive mechanism to emotional overload.
Today, I’m no longer surprised when my son needs an army uniform for a ceremony - it’s already happened again twice since that day in fifth-grade. The good news is that as his mother, I am slightly toughened up a bit for the not-too-distant day when he’ll have to wear one for real.White Strapless valuableedhardy with Full A-line Skirt.
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