They resonate, they reverberate, they blare telling a story of where we were in the past but also where we are in the present.

By David E. Kaplan

A stranger who is totally unfamiliar with Israel’s customs and history visiting Israel during these trying times could be excused for asking:

 “Why is there a siren blaring now?”

Try explaining we have sirens sounding for the past and for the present. For the past an air raid siren sounded at 10.00 a.m. on April 23 throughout the country on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) observing two minutes of solemn reflection for the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust during WWII.  Days later, on April 29, the first siren is heard heralding in Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s day of remembrance for its fallen soldiers and victims of terror and again the next morning, a second siren sounds at 11.00am, when most Israelis, wherever they are or whatever they are doing, stop and stand in silence.

Then there are the more frequent sirens that have been blaring for some 20 months at all times of the day or night that contrary to the abovementioned sirens where you stand in silence, these sirens you run as fast as you can for cover.

If the former sirens commemorate past deaths, these erratic sirens warn to prevent future deaths as we wait for incoming missiles from Gaza, from Lebanon, from Iran or from Yemen – yes, that could be from the north, from the east, from the south west and from the south. Israel is surrounded by enemies determined to extinguish Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East. The first thing people in apartment blocks ask when they collectively huddle in the bomb shelters is:

“Where is this missile coming from?”

Either in clothes or pajamas – depending on what time of day –  the anxious are quickly on their cellphones to come up with the answer!

While to the unacquainted visitor from abroad it may be confusing, to the average Israeli it is all part of a routine. Even my under 6-year-old grandchildren understand when it is time to stand and when it is time to run. All associated with violent death, the sirens are either to remind of those killed in the past or they are to prevent being killed in the present.

As I type, I suddenly withdraw my fingers from the keyboard, swivel off my computer chair to hurriedly call my brother living on a moshav in the north of Israel because a siren had gone off in his area warning of an incoming ballistic missile from the Houthis in Yemen – an enemy over 2,211km (1,373 miles) away who nearly two years ago, most Israelis had never even heard of! The breaking news later confirmed the missile attack with this headline:

 “Missile debris falls on kindergarten in northern Israel after interception of Houthi launch.”

The debris pierced the kindergarten building’s roof and ceiling but thankfully no children were present at the time and no injuries were reported. Yes, survival in Israel can depend on luck but most certainly on sirens.

As there are enemies unhappy with Jews in Israel there are today enemies unhappy with Jews anywhere – in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, South Africa and Australia. There may not be sirens sounding in these countries, but the warnings are clear – Jews are under threat everywhere. It is the hunting season and Jews are the prey. My daughter’s dancing students who have this year won competitions in Israel qualifying them to compete in competitions in Europe – London and Paris – cannot realistically consider going – too unsafe, particularly for young girls! However, it is not only Israelis, who are today precautionary as when they travel abroad that might switch languages or tone down the volume when they speak Hebrew. Jews generally, are lowering or disguising their religious, ethnic or cultural profile by removing:

–kipot (skullcaps)

–Magen David (Star of David) necklaces

– Menorahs from the front doors of their homes

– when holding community events, only notifying of the venue at the last moment so as to minimize the danger of attacks

– increasing security at synagogues.

Australia, once considered a “Jewish paradise” is no more. Earlier this year, two men with covered faces, dressed in black, came to a house in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and sprayed the garage with red paint, set the cars parked in the street on fire, and added antisemitic graffiti. Their target was the former home of Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the representative body of the country’s Jewish community and a contributor to Lay of the Land. They erroneously thought Ryvchin still lived there.

In an interview with Globes, Ryvchin related:

“My wife and I woke up early that morning, because we received the security camera recordings from our old neighbor who lives opposite. On the cameras, we saw a car pull up and two men pouring gasoline on the road leading up to the house and setting two cars alight. On one of the cars, they wrote ‘Fuck Israel’ on one side and ‘Jews’ on the other side.”

Their choice of parlance reveals to them as it does to across the world that Israel and Jews are synonymous.

Only a month earlier in Australia, a children’s daycare center next to a Sydney synagogue was set on fire, and in December, a Molotov cocktail was hurled at a synagogue in Melbourne.

Data reveals that the number of antisemitic incidents in the “Jewish paradise” jumped to 2,062 in the twelve months following the October 7 massacre from just 495 in the previous year. There is no shortage of reports from harassment to physical attacks. Two highly publicized incidents that majorly rattled the Jewish community was when a Jewish-owned business in Melbourne was sprayed with the words “Gas the Jews” and then followed when two nurses from a Sydney hospital Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, refugees from Afghanistan, related in a conversation on TikTok that when it comes to Israeli patients, Ahmed said “I won’t treat them, I will kill them,” and “I want you to remember my face, so you can understand that you will die the most disgusting death,” with Nadir chiming in with, “You have no idea how many Israeli dogs came to this hospital and I send them to Jahannam (hell).”

The “siren” for Australian Jews should have been when a few days after the October massacre in 2023, a demonstration took place outside the Sydney Opera House, with participants recorded shouting “Where are the Jews” and “Gas the Jews”. While the world was horrified, the Australian government besides condemning the incident, did little to curb the outbreak of Jew hatred that has only grown in momentum and contributed to the global pandemic.

At least in Israel, Jews do not ask as they might do when traveling abroad:

“I wear a kippah. If I were to come, would that be dangerous for me?”

If they have to ask that question, the siren is already sounding.

EPILOGUE

One writes in Israel as it is happening. As I conclude this article I am compelled to UNEXPECTABLY add an epilogue.

It is 9.40am Sunday 4 May and suddenly I was drawn away again from my computer only to return 15 minutes later from the shelter here in my apartment block in Kfar Saba.

Yes, another SIREN!

My wife WhatsApp’s me that she stopped the car and has run into a supermarket for cover! This is followed by my Lay of the Land co-partner, Rolene Marks living in Modiin, WhatsApping me:

 “WOW! That bang was loud…in the shelter at gym – whole building shook.”

I could understand why as the news breaks on Ynet:

“Houthis target Israel in ballistic missile strike, hit Ben Gurion international airport”

The airport is close to Modiin and it was the fifth missile fired by the Houthis in two days.

Israelis will wait another year for the sirens to sound once more for Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron but in the meantime, we can expect many more sirens ‘screaming’ at us to run for cover.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).