The Embassy of Israel in Wellington has been approached by the Navah Organisation regarding a new initiative called “Stones with a Human Heart”. It’s a wonderful and very warm project which honours the fallen soldiers who lost their lives and are buried in Israel – giving family members from overseas the opportunity to lay a stone on the graves of their loved ones from afar on Yom Ha’zikaron.

Here’s some more information about it…

The Corona Heart – Stones with a Human Heart project enables volunteers to place thousands of stones in dozens of cemeteries across Israel for bereaved families of fal len IDF soldiers.

This project was launched in 2020, due to travel restrictions caused by the Corona crisis, which prevented these relatives from visiting the graves of their loved ones.

Soon after the project launch, we successfully collaborated with the Moscow Embassy, which reached out to Jewish communities in Russia and collected and transported personalized stones from family members in Russia to Israel.

The volunteers were privileged to hear personal stories about the fallen soldiers, pay their respects, delivering the stones while sharing
live ceremonies to the families abroad on the Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers, a significant day for every Israeli.

In addition to placing personalized stones and reciting Kaddish and Psalms (at the family’s request), we want to form a more personal connection between the volunteers and the families.

We understand that there will always be families and friends who, for various reasons, will be unable to travel to Israel and visit the graves of their loved ones. In light of the project’s success in 2020, we want to expand this project to additional countries around the world, connecting families and friends of IDF soldiers, who live outside of Israel, to our national Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers.

We would be sincerely honored if you would participate in this important project, which honors the fallen soldiers for their sacrifice for the people and the land of Israel, and deepens the connection between Jews all over the world to the State of Israel
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“In their death they commanded us to live” [H.C Bialik]