Remembrance and Thanksgiving: We gave our today for your tomorrow

For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today
(John Maxwell Edmonds 1875-1958)

November is a month punctuated by the solemnity of Remembrance Day November 11, and the joy, and epicurean delightfulness of Thanksgiving. How do we bring these two days together as American Jews who are proud citizens of the State of Israel?`

The somberness of Remembrance Day, was always a dull, grey, and cloudy day which reflected the mood that permeated my youth in Canada. Each of us children, teachers, and almost every person I encountered wore a red felt, plastic backed poppy pinned to a lapel, near the heart. And, each year we students were required to memorize the poem by the Canadian physician, John McCrae written on May 3, 1915 at the funeral of a fellow soldier who died at the Second Battle Ypres. That poem began,

“ In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses , row on row,…”

Did I understand any of it? Was it relevant to an elementary school child in the 1960’s whose knowledge of World War I was negligible? At that time, the tragedy and the overwhelming losses of World War II, and its personal significance to me, were yet to be acknowledged as being the conclusion of World War I. Today, in 2024, the Royal Family continues to don their red poppies, and attend commemorative ceremonies to honor the memory of those lost not only in WW I, but in WWII, and other military campaigns. I wonder whether the school children of today still memorize that poem ? And, more importantly, do they understand it any better than I who was born ten years after the conclusion of WWII? Or does it remain, as are most holidays today, merely an opportunity for a special sale?

“Thanksgiving Day” in the Canada I grew up in the 1960’s coincided with Columbus Day in the United States and had no significance to me or my parents, recent immigrants and Holocaust survivors. It was unclear to me if it was celebrated at all, or how? Or why? I assumed it was the same in the US. Imagine my utter surprise, that on our first American Thanksgiving in the 1980’s, all the stores were closed, there were no cars on the roads, and not a pedestrian to be seen. This was a significant aberration to the usual hustle and bustle of Los Angeles. And then the next day, a rush to the stores for the “ Black Friday” sales. What was this all about? As newcomers to the US were inundated with questions such as “ With whom did you celebrate Thanksgiving? What did you serve on Thanksgiving?” It took us some time to acculturate to the “ Thanksgiving culture” which overwhelmed our time in the United States. It was difficult to get a handle and appreciate of the history of Thanksgiving with the birth of the US and its part in the legendary epic of America. I was unable to connect with the stories of the first settlers and their encounters with neighboring Indian tribes. It was only the poignant words of Abraham Lincoln`, born of war which made me able to embrace this holiday:

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States… to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving… And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him… they do also, with humble penitence for national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers….and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the Nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony,tranquility , and union.”

This proclamation, I could understand. This I could embrace.

This year, I am proud to celebrate an American Thanksgiving of hope and prayer. Thank you to the United States, who did not abandon the beleaguered State of Israel in our time of need and sorrow. They could have done much more, effectively, and with more strength .But, we are ever mindful that their voice was solitary. But, to my place of birth Canada, there can be no such gratitude. You have abandoned your loyal and hardworking Jewish citizens, and the State of Israel. So happy am I, that my parents, faithful citizens,and thankful to the shelter provided them, that they should not live to see the horrific and abhorrent anti-semitic and anti- Israel gestures and rhetoric that has been spewed by both its government and its citizens.

And Remembrance Day, it remains as poignant as it from its beginnings. The overwhelming sacrifice of the “best and the brightest”, and their ultimate disillusionment in the trenches, eventually lead Chamberlain to waive the paper flag of surrender that marked the beginning of the end of European Jewry. We remember their sacrifice with honor that is due to them.

In Israel, we have lost so many, each a bright and shining stars, and for us, John Macrae’s poem continues to resonate:

“We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

And so it is, that war, cruel and atrocious as it is, has for us, in Israel, meaning and purpose.We embrace those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. We shall remember, and we shall give thanks.