,N1 V

Coyer Story

We're With You, Israel!

Massive outpouring of solidarity drives

Detroit's Yom HaZikaron commemoration.

HARRY KIRS BAUM
Staff Writer

T

Above: Col. Snir of the Israel Air Force
lights one of the nine memorial candles.

Above left: Yaffiz Shevach of West Bloomfield
is moved during the service.

Left: Avi Levine, 13, of West Bloomfield and
Aron Sandler, 17, of Huntington Woods
stand during the national anthem.

4/19
2002

14

he numbers told the story.
In previous years, Detroit
Jewry's Yom HaZikaron
(Israel Remembrance Day)
commemoration rally normally would
draw 500-700 people. This year, on
Monday night, more than 3,000 people
packed the sanctuary at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek in Southfield for the 90-,
minute event.
The parking lot filled up an hour
before the event, and some people had to
park their cars two miles away and walk.
Originally planned for the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield,
the event had been moved to accommo-
date the huge numbers of community
members expected to attend.
The reason for the outpouring
support was simple.
"I really think that peo-
ple are thirsting for these
opportunities, said
Lawrence Jackier, Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit president. "When
you're sitting by yourself or
with a spouse or friend and Lawrence
Jackier
watching the events from
Israel on television, it gets
a little overwhelming at
times. When you can come together
and see all these people of like mind,
being together, I think it's very help-
ful."
More than 400 people stood in the
back of the sanctuary, and more stood
in the lobby. The sanctuary proper
seats 2,000. Many used their event
program to fan themselves in the
noticeably warm room.
The somber mood was punctuated I
by images and biographies of some of