As most of you know today was the funeral for Shimon Peres. I feel like I can't even give him a title, because he has held (almost) every job here. I watched the first hour and a half of the funeral on a live feed, which oddly enough I could only access from the website of the Atlanta Jewish newspaper. So thanks to that random newspaper for a good feed.
It was a fascinating thing to watch. So many dignitaries that I recognized and lots that I didn't recognize. And as a friend and I assessed, probably every single ear piece (and sunglasses) that Israel owns was at that funeral today.
I saw a few awkward moments between heads of nations and spotted Prince Charles wearing the most awesome kippah out of all of the Christians there :-)
But what really stuck out for me from what I saw, was the way everyone spoke about Peres. To me, the best speaker was actually current President Ruby Rivlin. I really don't know much about him at all. But what I really liked was the way he was seemingly addressing Peres. He kept looking over to the coffin as he spoke. And even though I did not understand everything that he was saying I understood enough. (thank you ulpan) One thing that he said that really was poignant was that now Peres is being returned to the land that he has always loved so much.
And actually everyone who spoke, spoke not only of the many accomplishments of Peres, but also of how he was always looking ahead. I don't remember who said it, but it might have been former President Bill Clinton, who said that Charlie Rose was once interviewing Peres and asked him what he would like his legacy to be. And Peres said that he is not worried about his legacy, but about what will be in the future. Perhaps one day his hard work and dreams of peace will come to fruition.
May his memory be for a blessing.
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