At 8pm tonight, the Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day began. Almost all programming on television is dedicated to the Holocaust, and sirens are scheduled to sound at 10am tomorrow morning for a moment of silence. We have a special Holocaust remembrance assembly scheduled for immediately after the sirens tomorrow morning, featuring the testimony of a Holocaust survivor. My colleagues have told me that there is a very somber mood throughout the country and at school tomorrow, as a number of students and teachers at our school are the descendants of Holocaust victims and survivors.

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Interesting tidbits read in Ha'aretz today:

• A study conducted by the University of Haifa's School of Public Health found that male Holocaust survivors were 2.4 times more likely to have cancer than similarly aged men who immigrated to Israel from Europe before WWII. Female Holocaust survivors were found to be 1.5 more likely to have breast cancer than those who had not experienced the Holocaust. In addition, the incidence of large intestinal cancer among male victims of the Holocaust was nine times that of pre-war immigrants. For women, the rate was 2.25 times greater.
  
• A recent BBC World Service conducted survey of 28,000 participants in 27 countries ranked Israeli PM Olmert's Israel, along with Ahmadinejad's Iran, as the countries having the most negative influence on the world.

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School starts up again tomorrow. It's been a good break. Six more weeks and the year is over!