This post introduces the individuals that will be honored with lighting the torches at the official 2019 Torch Lighting Ceremony that marks the transition from Yom Hazikaron to Yom Ha’atzmaut at the burial site of Theodor Herzl in Jerusalem. The twelve torches symbolizing the biblical Twelve Tribes of Israel – plus one for Diaspora Jewry – are lit by people who have made an outstanding contribution to Israeli society, with the specific theme of 2019 being “Israeli Spirit,” focusing on those who have turned their personal struggles into inspiration. Produced by i24NEWS, the video (02:34) shows the rehearsal for the ceremony and introduces a handful of the inspiring individuals chosen. Below, see a brief introduction to each of the 2019 torch lighters:
- Moran Samuel is an Israeli Paralympic basketball player and world champion rower who became paralyzed in her lower body following a spinal stroke in 2016. She went on to become a physical therapist and worked with the Paralympic Sports Association team on the re-establishment of the Israeli women’s basketball team on wheelchairs.
- Dr. Hila Hadas is the CEO of Enosh, the Israeli Mental Health Association, who lost both her partner and daughter to cancer.
- Yehuda Poliker, iconic Israeli singer, songwriter and musician, is the son of Greek Jewish Holocaust survivors. As much of his music deals with the Holocaust, the second generation of survivors, and the legacy of Diaspora Jewry, he will light the torch in honor of both the children of Holocaust survivors and Israeli musicians.
- Dr. Salman Zarka, a Druze Arab-Israeli, is the director of the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, an IDF reservist in the rank of Colonel, and a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health at Haifa University and the Department of Military Medicine at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Under his direction, Ziv Medical Center has treated hundreds of Syrians wounded in the Syrian civil war.
- Avi Nesher is Israel’s most acclaimed filmmaker, director and screenwriter, whose works have been successful in both Israel and abroad. After his son, Ari, was killed in an accident in September, Nesher and his family donated his organs, saving the lives of five people.
- Col. Shai Siman-Tov is a Battalion commander who returned to IDF service just one year after being critically wounded in Operation Protective Edge, when a tunnel collapsed on him, breaking five vertebrae in his spine and paralyzing him from the neck down.
- Gil Shlomo, a high-school student from the rocket-battered city of Sderot and a leader in the Hebrew Scouts Youth Movement, is a social activist who works to strengthen the resilience of children and youth in the Gaza border communities. She will light the torch in honor of the residents of the Gaza vicinity and the Hebrew Scouts Movement, which is marking 100 years since its founding.
- Menashe Zalka, a soccer star and Ethiopian-Israeli activist, is the only soccer player in the Premier League to serve in the IDF reserves.
- Hodaya Oliel is a recent medical school graduate with cerebral palsy who fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming a doctor, against all odds.
- Marie Nahmias is a 92- year old Holocaust survivor who has fostered 52 special needs children.
- Iris Yifrach, Bat-Galim Shaer and Rachelle Fraenkel, the mothers of three teenage boys who were kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in 2014, will light a torch together. The three women have become a symbol of Jewish unity and resilience in Israeli society.
- Morris Kahn and Kfir Damari, two of the central figures behind the recent SpaceIL attempt to land on the moon, will light a torch together.
- Jeffrey Finkelstein, president of the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, will light the torch for Diaspora Jewry in memory of the eleven people killed in the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue on October 27, 2018.