Commemoration Is My Journalistic Mission - Each and Every One of Them Is Worthy | Moshe Cohen

Moshe Cohen, a Maariv correspondent, describes his personal journey covering dozens of funerals of fallen soldiers of the Iron Swords War and civilians who were murdered, and his sense of journalistic mission in commemorating their memory. He speaks of his ongoing connection with bereaved families, of commemoration projects across the country, and of the unity that prevailed at the start of the war versus the social rift that returned afterward. Cohen stresses the moral duty to remember and commemorate every fallen soldier and murdered civilian, without distinctions of politics or sector.

Moshe Cohen, a Maariv correspondent, describes in a personal article his journey as a reporter documenting the legacy of the fallen and the murdered since October 7. He has covered dozens of funerals of regular and reserve soldiers and civilians, and keeps in touch with bereaved families even years later. Cohen stresses that commemoration is a journalistic mission in his eyes, and that he sees it as the little he can do for memory. He describes commemoration projects across the country, such as naming streets and gardens after fallen soldiers in Ramat Gan, memorial benches, and the Nova memorial site. Cohen notes that at the start of the war a sense of unity prevailed between right and left, religious and secular, but with time the social rift returned. Nevertheless, he stresses that in the cemeteries lie side by side fallen soldiers from across the political spectrum, who fought together. He tells of a family that initially asked for privacy but two months later approached him with a request to write about their son, so that her children would know who their uncle was. Cohen ends with a call to remember and not forget, and to continue accompanying the bereaved families.