{"id":195,"date":"2010-05-30T11:36:07","date_gmt":"2010-05-30T11:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html"},"modified":"2010-05-30T11:36:07","modified_gmt":"2010-05-30T11:36:07","slug":"making-memorial-day-meaningful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html","title":{"rendered":"Making Memorial Day meaningful"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Yahrtzeit_candle.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/86\/import\/Yahrtzeit_candle.jpg\" width=\"220\" height=\"165\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span>In Israel, Memorial Day is known as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myjewishlearning.com\/holidays\/Jewish_Holidays\/Modern_Holidays\/Yom_Hazikaron.shtml\">Yom Hazikaron<\/a>. It&#8217;s a far cry from our Memorial Day &#8211; instead of sales and barbecues, much of the country shuts down for twenty-four hours, and the entire country truly does shut down for a powerful minute of silence. It&#8217;s a chilling thing to witness, as drivers stop their cars on every road and highway, get out of their vehicles, and stand in attention.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I doubt there is a parent in Israel wondering how to make Yom Hazikaron meaningful for her family. With mandatory military service, no one&#8217;s lives are untouched by the horrors of war. In our country, perhaps especially for the Jewish community, Memorial Day can be more abstract. While there are, of course, Jews who have served our country (my own father was drafted in World War Two, became a career officer and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery) I know very few Jewish families with loved ones serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, or who have strong personal connections to those who have died in service to our country.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Whatever your personal and political opinions about the work of our military, you might agree with me that holidays on our calendar, whether Jewish or secular, should be more than opportunities to eat large meals or buy large appliances.&nbsp;There&#8217;s an organization called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedomsfeast.us\/index.html\">Freedom&#8217;s Feast<\/a> doing really interesting work to help Americans infuse meaning into our holiday observances. (I blogged about them on <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/homeshuling\/2009\/11\/thanksgiving.html\">Thanksgiving<\/a>.) Here&#8217;s a link to their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedomsfeast.us\/memorial-day\/\">Memorial Day<\/a> &#8220;seder.&#8221; I&#8217;m taking a copy to the barbecue at my in-laws. Let me know what you think, if you try it out.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Israel, Memorial Day is known as Yom Hazikaron. It&#8217;s a far cry from our Memorial Day &#8211; instead of sales and barbecues, much of the country shuts down for twenty-four hours, and the entire country truly does shut down for a powerful minute of silence. It&#8217;s a chilling thing to witness, as drivers stop&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judaism","category-parenting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Making Memorial Day meaningful - Homeshuling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Memorial Day meaningful - Homeshuling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In Israel, Memorial Day is known as Yom Hazikaron. It&#8217;s a far cry from our Memorial Day &#8211; instead of sales and barbecues, much of the country shuts down for twenty-four hours, and the entire country truly does shut down for a powerful minute of silence. It&#8217;s a chilling thing to witness, as drivers stop&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Homeshuling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-30T11:36:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/homeshuling\/files\/import\/Yahrtzeit_candle.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Homeshuling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Making Memorial Day meaningful - Homeshuling","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Making Memorial Day meaningful - Homeshuling","og_description":"In Israel, Memorial Day is known as Yom Hazikaron. It&#8217;s a far cry from our Memorial Day &#8211; instead of sales and barbecues, much of the country shuts down for twenty-four hours, and the entire country truly does shut down for a powerful minute of silence. It&#8217;s a chilling thing to witness, as drivers stop&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html","og_site_name":"Homeshuling","article_published_time":"2010-05-30T11:36:07+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/homeshuling\/files\/import\/Yahrtzeit_candle.jpg"}],"author":"Homeshuling","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html","name":"Making Memorial Day meaningful - Homeshuling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/homeshuling\/files\/import\/Yahrtzeit_candle.jpg","datePublished":"2010-05-30T11:36:07+00:00","dateModified":"2010-05-30T11:36:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/#\/schema\/person\/1b9b2e04ce88132a2716a44851035cfb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/homeshuling\/files\/import\/Yahrtzeit_candle.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/homeshuling\/files\/import\/Yahrtzeit_candle.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2010\/05\/making-memorial-day-meaningful.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Making Memorial Day meaningful"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/","name":"Homeshuling","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Amy Meltzer","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/#\/schema\/person\/1b9b2e04ce88132a2716a44851035cfb","name":"Homeshuling","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b43\/b432c2f0ab4d98954004bd3ab69e377ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b43\/b432c2f0ab4d98954004bd3ab69e377ex96.jpg","caption":"Homeshuling"},"description":"I'm a mother of two girls, raised in suburban Baltimore, and transplanted to a small New England town. I teach, write, and try to create a vibrant Jewish home for my family while spending very little time in synagogue. I guess you could say we're home-shuling.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/author\/ameltzer"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}