Memorial Day ceremonies to take place without audiences
Memorial Day ceremonies will be held without audiences and many smaller ceremonies will be canceled due to the continued coronavirus crisis, the Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday morning.“In order to preserve the health of the public on the one hand and to uphold national traditions, the defense minister instructed the Defense Ministry and the IDF’s Manpower Directorate that the main ceremonies at the Western Wall plaza (on Memorial Day eve) and Mount Herzl (Memorial Day) will be held without an audience and instead to be broadcast live,” read a statement released by the ministry.In addition, local ceremonies in the 52 military cemeteries across the country will be canceled in their usual form. In their place, soldiers will hold a candlelight vigil as well as a salute by a commander and military cantor saying the kaddish.The decision was taken following the recommendation of ministry director-general Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam; head of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate Maj.-Gen. Moti Almoz; and Aryeh Moalem, deputy director and head of the ministry’s Families and Commemoration Department, who consulted with the chairpersons of Yad Labanim and the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization.Moalem told reporters that several smaller ceremonies would also be cancelled, including the commemoration ceremony at Yad Labanim in Jerusalem on the eve of Memorial Day, as well as Memorial Day ceremonies at several sites across the country.
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