Hundreds of participants arrived Wednesday for a memorial service for the fallen of Bnei Brak in the city's Ponevezh cemetery.
Rabbi Yitzhak Drexler, a hero of the Yom Kippur War, who passed away a year ago, would annually visit the graves of the dead. He and council member Yaakov Wieder initiated an annual memorial service for the haredi martyrs in the cemetery. In light of Rabbi Drexler's request in his will to pray on the grave of his friends on Memorial Day even after his death, his family requested that this year the pilgrimage to the graves of the martyrs be continued, even though the Defense Ministry announced that it had taken upon itself to hold an official memorial ceremony in Jerusalem for haredi soldiers. Fulfilling the request in the will was Rabbi Drexler's son, Hezi.