Our son, Dr. Zechariah Haber z”l, a devoted husband and father, talented agricultural scientist and talmid chacham (Torah scholar), was killed on reserve duty in Gaza in January 2024 at the age of 32. We miss him and mourn him every single day to an extent that is hard to explain to someone that has not experienced the loss of a child, but this week was particularly hard for us and for many other people in Israel because it was Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. 

This was the third time we experienced Yom HaZikaron as a bereaved family so we realized in advance that it would be very difficult. We also tried to learn from our prior experiences to choose ceremonies that would provide us with comfort and resonate with us. The first ceremony my husband, Aharon, and I attended was the annual Yom HaZikaron ceremony at Hebrew University’s Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot, where Zechariah earned his bachelors’ and masters’ degrees. The faculty honors the memories of all of its graduates, students and employees thereof who died in battle or in terror attacks. Unfortunately, the 7th of October and the ensuing war took a relatively high toll on the faculty community, since many graduates and students were farming in the Gaza envelope on October 7th and many others serve in the army, in either regular and reserve duty.

Being on the pastoral campus where Zechariah started his journey in agricultural science, and hearing the........

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