Left:
Members of the
bat mitzvah class
wave flags.

Lower left:
A dance breaks out at the
end of the ceremony.

Bottom left:
Ruth Beckman, 10,
of Oak Park listens to
a speech with her mom,
Bedonna Beckman.

R A DI T ION A L

EXPRESSION

Program at Akiva
combines
mourning
and celebration.

DON COHEN

Special to the Jewish News

he Israelis have a song .
about it: Al ha dvash v'al
ha oketz (the sweet and the
bitter). It applies to the
Jewish experience as a whole as well as
to the State of Israel.
Such was the Yom HaZikaron and
Yom HaAtzmaut program at Yeshivat
Akiva on Tuesday night. Following the
example of the Israelis, who mourn
their war dead until sundown and
then switch emotions to celebrate the
State of Israel, the evening started with
mourning and ended with merriment.

-

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The program, sponsored by Akiva
and the Young Israel Council of
Metropolitan Detroit and supported
by a broad group of community organ-
izations, drew almost 500 community
members to the Southfield day school.
For Danielle Platt, a 15-year-old
Akiva student from Southfield with
family in Israel, the mix was just right.
"It was a rush going from one
extreme to the other," she said as she
cruised the halls of Akiva with her
friend Leora Schostak, 15, of
Southfield.
Platt said the memorial service was
"meaningful and satisfying."
"We owe them [the Israeli Defense