National Memorial Hall for Israel's Fallen

The hall stands at the entrance to the Mount Herzl National Military and Police Cemetery in Jerusalem, next to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.[5][6] It serves bereaved families, visiting heads of state, and the general public as a central memorial complementing the hundreds of monuments elsewhere in Israel.[1] Its purpose combines remembrance of each fallen person by name with a collective state commitment to the dead and their families.[3]

The commemorative framework extends from 1860 to the present and includes personnel from the army, police, Mossad, Israel Security Agency, and Israel Prison Service.[4] Equal recognition is a guiding principle: the fallen are commemorated in the same way regardless of rank, role, or background.[4] Individual names and dates of death form the building’s memorial walls, while anniversary lights and daily services connect the national space to each person’s annual memorial date.[4][7]

The surrounding cemetery provides the hall’s immediate setting within Israel’s military remembrance landscape.[5] The main IDF cemetery occupies Mount Herzl’s northern slope; it was established in November 1949 and designated that year as the principal cemetery for IDF members killed in the line of duty.[5] A cemetery for police officers killed in the line of duty is also located within the complex.[5]

The idea of a national memorial hall dates to Israel’s early years, when David Ben-Gurion identified a need for a “Hall of Heroism.”[7] In the early 2000s, development of the concept and plans was led by Aryeh Moalem, then deputy director general and head of the Ministry of Defense’s Families, Commemoration and Heritage Department.[7] The Ministry of Defense commissioned the architectural project in 2006, and planning extended over approximately a decade.[8][9]

Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced a national memorial project in April 2010.[3] On April 22, 2012, the government approved construction inside the Mount Herzl military cemetery and assigned the Ministry of Defense responsibility for carrying it out.[7] A cornerstone-laying ceremony attended by the president and chief of staff followed in April 2014.[3] Construction began in 2015; the Ministry of Defense dates its commencement to March.[1]

The ministry’s Engineering and Construction Division commissioned the project and selected architects Eitan and Michal Kimel-Eshkolot, with Liran Tzchachik and Nitzan Klush joining later.[8] Planning proceeded with the ministry’s unit responsible for commemorating soldiers.[8] Construction lasted approximately two and a half years, with a reported construction cost of NIS 89 million.[8] Interactive commemoration received an investment of NIS 14 million.[3]

The Defense Ministry publicly revealed the hall on April 27, 2017.[6] It was inaugurated on April 30 at a ceremony attended by the president, prime minister, Knesset speaker, defense minister, senior security officials, and bereaved families.[10] Families first entered the hall on May 2 while final construction work was still under way.[5]

The project responded in part to parents’ anxiety about who would remember their children after the parents themselves had died.[3] In 2017, approximately 3,000 names on the official list of more than 23,000 fallen people were not represented at memorial sites around the country.[3] Bringing the names together at one national site also created a place where foreign dignitaries could pay their respects.[3]

An approximately 18-meter-high, torch-like central structure defines the hall’s interior.[1][5] The building was conceived as a “mountain of stone,” with exterior terraces echoing the landscape architecture of the surrounding military cemetery.[3] Part of the building is excavated into the hillside, while its upper portion rises above it; a central cascade of light brings daylight into the dim interior.[11]

Visitors descend broad stone steps into an entrance corridor where projected footage shows soldiers from different periods, beginning with the pre-IDF Palmach forces.[12] The corridor opens into a space lined with benches beneath the tall central structure.[12] Natural light enters through gaps between its bricks, and a spiral route supported by concrete pillars carries visitors around it.[12]

The Wall of Names follows the spiral, placing an individual name and date of death on each memorial brick.[3][11] The route was described as 260 meters long in an early account, while later architectural coverage described a 250-meter wall.[3][9] Names proceed chronologically from the most recent deaths toward earlier ones, with equal commemoration regardless of rank, role, or background.[3][4] A 2018 account described the walk as ending with Aaron Hershler, identified there as the first fallen soldier, killed in Jerusalem’s Yemin Moshe neighborhood in 1873.[11]

The spiral emerged after the architects considered more than ten alternatives, resolving the problem of fitting a very long name wall into a limited site.[8] The design also changed as the memorial’s ceremonial requirements developed.[11] An initial open-air concept had no roof or entrance doors and included a pool below; when the architects were asked to accommodate memorial assemblies, a transparent roof was added, the proposed pool became a speakers’ platform, and multimedia displays were incorporated.[11]

At the center is a large memorial bell formed from more than 6,000 bricks developed and produced by the Merkava and Armored Vehicles Directorate.[6] Its design was linked to the biblical verse, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”[6] The entrance plaza was planned with a perpetual memorial light and an Israeli flagpole, while official ceremonies would take place inside.[6]

The entrance inscription reads, “And the rest will be told in the history of Israel...,” the closing line of Natan Alterman’s poem “The Silver Platter.”[3] Individual name-bricks set within a shared architectural space unite personal recognition with collective remembrance.[3] The stones also carry an intergenerational symbolism: the Hebrew initials associated with the stone evoke father, son, and grandson, or mother, daughter, and granddaughter.[4] Their mutual support expresses the interdependence of members of the security forces and the collective effort on which the state depends.[4]

The building received international architectural recognition.[8][9] It was among 62 finalists for the Royal Institute of British Architects’ 2018 international building award, and Kimmel Eshkolot Architects received the 2019 Dedalo Minosse International Prize for the project.[8][9]

A memorial light beside each person’s name is illuminated on the annual memorial date, and all the lights are illuminated on Israel’s Memorial Day.[7] Names are added to the walls within 30 days of death and only with the family’s approval.[4] This timing parallels the Jewish tradition of erecting a tombstone.[4] The hall’s design connects these personal acts of remembrance with the national promise, “We shall remember all of them.”[1]

A daily service is held at 11:00 a.m. for those whose memorial date falls that day.[7] Thursday’s service includes those whose memorial dates fall on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.[7] The observance includes a military formation, Izkor, a chapter of Psalms, Kaddish, El Malei Rachamim, and the singing of Hatikvah.[4] Bereaved families and other visitors may participate, and a recording is sent to the families of those commemorated that day.[4]

The central plaza hosts official annual state memorial ceremonies.[7] In 2023, Memorial Day events opened at the hall with a reading of the names of the fallen; the central state ceremony for those who fell in Israel’s military campaigns took place at Mount Herzl after the two-minute siren, with senior national officials attending.[13]

Computers along the route help visitors locate a particular name and access brief biographical information.[11] Digital applications were also planned to provide life stories, photographs, and other personal material, including the ability to leave a dedication and light a virtual candle.[3][6] Commemorative displays near the top of the route show photographs and information about people whose date of death falls on that day of the year.[6] Behind the name wall, a second wall houses the computing, control, electrical, and wiring systems used to operate the lights.[11]

Guided tours follow the Wall of Names, explore artistic and historical elements, and visit the Bell of Light.[4] Tours are free but require advance arrangements and at least ten participants.[4] Visitors are asked to coordinate their attendance beforehand, and a hall soldier accompanies bereaved families.[4] The daily service is usually held at 11:00 a.m., although its time may change when larger memorial events take place.[4]

When the hall opened in 2017, contemporary accounts described more than 23,000 names or memorial bricks within it.[3][6] An April 2018 architectural account recorded 23,646 names along its walls.[11] A total of 24,068 fallen military personnel was reported for the period 1860–2019; that figure represents a historical count rather than the hall’s current total.[14]

The hall continues to receive new memorial inscriptions under its policy of commemorating fallen defense and security personnel.[4] In November 2024, the Ministry of Defense, IDF, Israel Police, and Israel Security Agency unveiled 394 commemorative plaques for people who had fallen in the ongoing war.[15] The plaques honored soldiers, police officers, and Israel Security Agency personnel, with a personal memorial service to be conducted for each person on the anniversary of their death.[15]

The hall’s commemorative scope was challenged in court in 2013, when the Organization of Casualties of Terror Acts in Israel appealed to the Supreme Court against the Ministry of Defense and Yad Lebanim.[16] The organization argued that victims of terrorism should be included because the hall was an official state site.[16] The ministry and Yad Lebanim maintained that fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism should be commemorated separately to preserve the distinct symbolism of military remembrance.[16] The court dismissed the appeal and ruled that commemoration of victims of terrorism would remain separate.[16]