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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