There are moments in life where time is divided into before and after.
Israel’s Remembrance Day, Yom HaZikaron, is one of those moments.
Thousands of families measure time in exactly these terms. Before the ultimate loss, and after it.
Starting tonight, an entire nation bows its head, stands still, remembers, and mourns, both collectively and individually.
We remember the fallen. The soldiers. The victims of terror. The names that once filled the news cycle, and those that have quietly faded from it. On this day, they all return to the forefront. We owe it to their memory. Their sacrifice has allowed us to go on, year after year.
This photograph of our beloved Chemi Erlanger, Z”L, was taken exactly one year ago.
In it, Chemi stands along side another United Hatzalah volunteer, proudly representing the organization that he was so dedicated to. He stood their solemn yet composed, laying a memorial wreath at the annual Yom HaZikaron ceremony in his hometown of Harish, memorializing those “Angels in Orange,” United Hatzalah volunteers who were killed in the line of duty while serving their country.
This is the “before.”
It is almost unfathomable that just one year later, we now mourn his loss. Chemi was killed while serving on IDF reserve duty, killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. He was en route home from his army base going to celebrate the first night of Chanukah with his family.
Founder and President of United Hatzalah, Eli Beer, recalls:
“I remember both days clearly. I remember the before. The day captured in this photograph. I asked him to represent us there. We met there just before the ceremony, talking, laughing. This was simply who Chemi was. And I remember the after moment too. The moment I heard he was killed. And now, one year later, we stand at another Yom Hazikaron ceremony. Only this time, without him.”
There is a weight to that absence that words struggle to carry. The realization that someone who stood among the living, honoring the fallen, now lives on only through the echoes of his actions and the lives he touched.
On this Yom HaZikaron, as the siren sounds and the country once again stands still, we will remember all those who fell for the State of Israel. And now, with hearts heavier than before. And now we will remember Chemi too.
Not only in grief, but in the moments that defined him. The lives he saved. The kindness he gave so naturally.
“Chemi, each year we will stand here again and again. We will tell your story and remember, not because we have to, but because we need to,” Beer concludes.
יהי זכרם ברוך
May their memories be a blessing.
