Ultra-Orthodox brigade holds Memorial Day ceremony after report it wouldn’t do so

The IDF’s Hasmonean Brigade for ultra-Orthodox troops held a Memorial Day ceremony this evening at the unit’s training base in the Jordan Valley, despite a report claiming that the Haredi soldiers would not participate in such an event.

The ceremony included reading the Yizkor memorial prayer, lighting a flame, lowering the state flag to half-mast, and singing the Hatikva national anthem, according to the military.

Speaking at the ceremony, Hasmonean Brigade commander Col. Shemer Raviv says, “On this day, we pause our daily routine, bow our heads, and unite in remembrance of the fallen, those who gave their lives so that we may live here, in this land, in safety.”

“This day expresses the deep spiritual bond between all parts of the nation, a day on which an entire people gathers around a shared memory, shared pain, and immeasurable gratitude,” he adds, according to remarks published by the army.

In Lebanon, where some Hasmonean troops are deployed, the army says Memorial Day ceremonies were held “in accordance with operational activity.”

Channel 13 reported earlier that the ultra-Orthodox unit’s troops would not participate in Memorial Day or Independence Day events in an effort to prevent their exposure to Zionist content, which could be unsuitable for a Haredi audience.

Addressing a separate ceremony in memory of Israel’s fallen ultra-Orthodox soldiers, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich compares the country’s war dead to the students of the second-century Mishnaic sage Rabbi Akiva, whose followers are traditionally said to have died in a plague, but who some commentators believe died fighting against Rome during the Bar Kochba revolt.

“Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 students who have been joined by 25,648 students. Students of Torah and students of valor,” Smotrich says, referring to the 25,648 people who have died during service to the country since 1860, the year from which Israel, and, before it, the Jewish community in the region, began counting its fallen soldiers and defenders.

The ceremony is also attended by ultra-Orthodox politicians affiliated with the Shas party as well as former Sephardic chief rabbi Shlomo Amar and cabinet secretary Yossi Fuchs.

In a post on X, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri says that he is “lighting a candle and offering a prayer for the ascent of the souls of the IDF soldiers and security forces personnel, who bravely gave their lives to defend the nation and the land, and for the ascent of the souls of the victims of terror who were murdered in sanctification of God’s name.”

Deri has been a harsh critic of efforts to conscript ultra-Orthodox men, pushing hard for the passage of a bill to exempt yeshiva students from military service, despite an ongoing manpower shortage.