Jerusalem, Israel - Apr. 13, 2021  - The sun was shining over Har Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel on Tuesday afternoon. Groups of young people were listening to stories, some in Hebrew, others in English of Israel's fallen soldiers. A group of yeshiva students stayed behind as their group was leaving from Yonaton Netanyahu's grave, to make a minyan for a man to say kaddish for his twin brother who was killed at age 19 and is buried nearby. 

Lone soldier Michael Levin's grave is piled high with items left by visitors. All military graves have a flag and memorial flower, and a stool to sit nearby, some have additional flowers or a stone or a photo of the young life lost. Another lone soldier from California Alex Sasaki had over 1,000 attend his funeral two years ago. 

Next to Alex, lies the grave of Zechariah Baumel, who in June 1982, during the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in Lebanon went missing. Finally, in April 2019, Baumel's remains were handed over to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an official ceremony at the Russian defense ministry in Moscow, to return to Israel. Tuesday afternoon, not long before the sun went down, Zechariah's brother from Ramat Gan stood by the grave to say Tehillim and place a small stone at his brother's resting place. Each grave a story of a life cut short. 

In Israel, Yom HaZikaron - Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror is from Tuesday night, April 13, 2021, until Wednesday night when Yom Haatzmaut, Israeli Independence Day begins. Yom HaZikaron is marked each year on the 4th of Iyar, or before as this year, so celebrations are not on Shabbat.  It is always marked one day before Independence Day, emphasizing and symbolizing the connection between the fallen and their devotion, and with the establishment of the State of Israel.

The Knesset established the day within the Heroes' Remembrance Day (War of Independence and Israel Defense Army) Law-1963. The law was renamed in a 1980 amendment as the "Memorial Day for the Fallen of Israel's Wars Law." The significance of this change was in its expansion from a memorial day of the fallen soldiers of the state to a memorial day that includes all those killed in action during pre-state battles. In recent years, victims of terror were included.

In the past year, 43 names were added to the list of fallen soldiers, and 69 disabled veterans died as a result of injuries incurred while serving in the Israel Defense Forces.

Memorial ceremonies will be held throughout Israel, communities, and at Yad LeBanim. On erev Yom Hazikaron at the Kotel President Reuven Rivlin is to speak after the lighting of the memorial torch and siren sounds at 8:00 pm. 

Har Herzl Military Cemetery and local military cemeteries will see families at the gravesites of their loved ones for the two-minute 11:00 am memorial siren on Wednesday, April 14th. Numbers will be limited, but people will not be restricted like last year when the coronavirus infections were rising dramatically.  

Included in the photo essay, at the site for the National Memorial of Fallen Soldiers, which was set for the Yom HaZikron ceremony are two uniformed memorial guides allowed to pose for photographs. 

In memory of the 23,928 victims of the Israeli military