100419 Yom HaAtzmaut 2010

Life Returns to Shdema
As Yom HaZicharon ended in the evening, the celebration of Yom HaAtzmaut began as the night sky filled with blasts of fireworks. For a couple hundred loyal Israeli patriots, Independence Day started as they returned that same night to Shdema for fun, music and food with the soldiers who are steadily on duty to check out the surroundings.
Once the music started and the food was spread out on the table, no one hesitated to jump in and fill a chunk of pita bread with falafel balls and salad followed by cakes and coffee.
The sing-along was led by our gang’s personal accordion wizard, Eli Gilboa, and the singing group, Shirat HaLeviim
Even though we have something to rejoice about, the return of the IDF to Shdema after our two-year struggle to maintain a Jewish presence in the midst of chaos, for some of us, a part of our hearts will remain on the premises. As I walked around it was as though even the vacant buildings were relieved that Jews had returned. For without the life that Jews bring to the Land, it lays desolate and forsaken.