22 May 30 • 2019
jn
A
community commemoration
for Yom Hazikaron, Israel’
s
Memorial Day, was held
May 7 at the Berman Theater at the
Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield with about 400 attending.
This year, 23,741 soldiers were
remembered for their sacrifice in
defending the State of Israel as well as
3,150 victims of terror in Israel.
Hazzan Daniel Gross of Adat
Shalom Synagogue and Rabbi Shalom
Kantor of Congregation B’
nai Moshe
chanted prayers for the soldiers of
Israel. American and Israeli commu-
nity members read selected poems,
and Avital Granot, accompanied
by pianist Linda Permut, both of
Huntington Woods, sang two Hebrew
songs.
The ceremony featured two guest
speakers, Chief Sgt. Omri Ohayon
from Herzliya, a guest of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
and the Friends of the Israeli Defense
Forces, and Roz Ohayon from
Nazareth Ilit, Detroit’
s partnership
region in Israel, a Federation guest.
Omri, now a student at Yeshiva
University in New York, spoke about
his experience during the 2014
Gaza war. Just two hours after the
war began, Omri lost a close friend
from home, Eitan Barak and, by the
week’
s end, he lost another friend, Gal
Bason, from his special commando
unit. Omri’
s unit was responsible for
destroying 11 of the 32 terror tunnels
dug by Hamas in Gaza. After the war,
Omri became a paramedic and served
on the Syrian border treating refugees
from the Syrian civil war.
Roz Ohayon paid tribute to her
late husband, Hanan Ohayon, the
father of her two children who attend
Tamarack Camps from the partner-
ship region. Hanan served in the
Israeli Prison Service when his unit
was called to fight the devastating
2010 Carmel Fire. Hanan died while
fighting the fire, along with 43 others.
In her husband’
s memory, Roz joined
the Israeli Prison Service to continue
his legacy and has served since.
The Hillel Day School Choir con-
cluded the ceremony with singing
of the American and Israeli national
anthems. ■
jews d
in
the
section
BOSMAT DOVAS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Honoring the Fallen
at Yom Hazikaron
IDF Chief Sgt. Omri
Ohayon of Herzliya
speaks of losing two
friends in the 2014
Gaza war.
Eighty-five religious, civil rights and
higher-ed organization signed a letter
that was sent to University of Michigan
President Mark Schlissel, among oth-
ers, lauding U-M’
s adoption of a Blue
Panel Report that states decisions, such
as letters of recommendation, should
be based “solely on educational and
professional reasons,
” not politics.
The panel was established last year
when U-M Professor John Cheny-
Lippold withdrew a letter of recom-
mendation from a qualified student
because the recommendation was for
a program in Israel.
The panel was charged with
answering the question: “What ought
to be the intersection between polit-
ical thought/ideology and a faculty
member’
s responsibility to students?”
The letter sent to U-M called out
the decision’
s importance to combat
anti-Israel bias held by some faculty
members and said, “We hope that
universities across the county will
follow your lead and adopt their
own version of this very important
statement.”
Letter Applauds Michigan for Rebuking pro-BDS Faculty
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