It is in a most unfestive mood that I stand before you on this Shabbat preceding Yom Haatzmaut… Would have liked to speak to you of Hope, of the brightness of the Future beckoning to us through the dark skies of the Present so overcast with war-clouds. I would have liked to remind you of another crisis 8 years ago when things then too seemed so bleak and we were nearing desperation, but when we forged a State with sheer determination and with an iron faith that The Lord God of Israel would honor His promise to Abraham and His pledge to the seed of Abraham. I would have wanted to share with you my faith that God will do the same even now, as the rumble of war drums comes rolling from the Near East and frightens us, of how the waters are darkest at the very shores of Hope. I still believe that with all my heart and my soul. All Israel believes that else they could never keep their composure and would crumble in the face of danger. But I cannot speak of that as I had intended to because of the news this past week which you read as well as I did. I refer specifically to the raids of the savage Fedayeen, the murderous Arab gangsters who invaded the heart of Israel and this week killed three young Yeshiva students, aged 19-25, and their teacher in an unprovoked and barbarous assassination while they were in the midst of their Mincha Prayer.

We are happy on the occasion of this birthday, yes, but who can be expected to express merriment and joy in the midst of such unparalleled tragedy? And even if it were humanly possible to express happiness when in sorrow, it is impossible when added to this is the element of bitterness. Our people are bitter today, bitter at the pious hypocrisy of the whole western world which has not raised its voice in indignation, bitter at the callousness of a world eager to pick out every occasion to lecture Israel, but which remains dumb when Arab murderers kill three youngsters and their young teacher who have nothing in their heads but siddurim and nothing in their hearts but prayer.

The State of Israel is an isolated state today. It is being treated as the Leper of the nations. East and West have combined to force her into a rarified loneliness. And when her young are murdered at prayer, their blood is soaked into the ground and no voice is heard in the capitals of the world – nor even in its churches. The Lepers of whom we read today in our Haftrorah, Gehazi and his three children, were also isolated from the rest of the world. And they turned to the great capital of Aram, Syria, the combined Washington and London of that day, and there was no answer then too. And here is what they reported: banu el machnei aram… vhinei ein ish… vekol adam… ki im ha’sus assur, v’ha’chamor assur… business as usual, normal and unalarmed diplomacy… v’ohalim ka’asher heimah… and the homes as they were, unconcerned, not caring, undisturbed.

How difficult it is to be melamed zechus on the Western world, how difficult to explain or excuse the behavior of the leaders of Washington and London, and especially Washington. Three young children, born in the Mellahs of Morroco, nursed in poverty and weaned in a world of hatred and prejudice and bigotry, three children who had finally found comfort and love and solace in the Holy Land and in a village of Hasidim where love and care were given to them, where they were taught Torah so that their lives would be meaningful, and agriculture so that they would be productive and self-supporting.

Three children and a teacher were killed in cold blood by three blood-thirsty Egyptian murderers who opened the door, closed the lights and fired their machine-guns, three assassins sent by a country armed by communists and coddled by Americans put an end to four lives – while they were silent, while they were standing erect in the silent shmoneh esrei of Mincha.

Heart-breaking? Of course it is. But not half as heartbreaking as the reactions that have come forward to greet the silence of the fresh graves where these young Israelis died silently, during the silent Shmoneh Esrei.

I read the press and heard the radio, and that stark, heavy silence outraged me.

• Editorial writer Springfield Union – to whom Arab-Israeli affairs is a horse race, and who is so quick to accuse Israel in order to defend its faded champion for res, the Springfield Union is still SILENT.
• I awaited word from the Augusta golf links, but except for the cry of the caddies, the President of the United States, who worships so regularly, was silent about the three youngsters murdered whilst they prayed. I wonder, I wonder how loud his voice would have resounded in condemnation had Israelis done the same in a Mosque!
• And the churchmen, the pious, devout churchmen. Rev. Ellson, President Eisenhower’s private pastor, who condemns Israel because he is desperately patriotic, and who compares Zionism to the German Bund, the holy reverend who preaches the gospel of love, he is SILENT. And in Springfield the Unitarian Minister who announces with bravado that he is always for the minority and THEREFORE favors the 40 million Arabs… He is SILENT: and A.IC., the great citadel of liberalism…
• And of course, that pious, deeply religious Secretary of State, that gallant statesman who is one of the most important lay-church leaders in America, who was consul for the German Bund and for Franco, who made slurring remarks about NY Jews, whose attitude to Jews expressed… Freudian slip…Mohammed, the Secretary of State who speaks with his chief, of America as a deeply religious country, who invokes the name of God wherever he feels his diplomacy slipping, who will not arm Israel because he doesn’t want an arms race and therefore arms Saudi Arabia, the Secretary of State is SILENT.

Ki doreish damim ossam zachar, lo shakach tzaakas anavim… the avenger of bloodshed remembers them, he does not forget the cry of the humble.

In honor of the Holy Silence of these young Israelis martyred during the silent shmoneh esrei, in memory of the dreadful silence into which they have been placed, and in indignation and protest against the ugly silence of the western world, let us rise for a moment of reverent silence.