"This is a departure from the last consensus." One by one, the crowds who spend long hours on the streets of London in order to have time to stand for a few moments in front of Queen Elizabeth II's coffin before she is buried, report a similar feeling. Britain will bury its beloved queen today (Monday) in a highly impressive and unprecedented ceremony, but it seems that from the point of view of the masses of people in the streets, the farewell is not only to the woman and the symbol she has become in her life - but to a safe and familiar period that has passed, and is now being replaced by a vague and uncertain future.
Like an ironic cliché that came true, the "longest line in the world" that stretched for the last four days along the Thames became a symbol of the period of mourning.
Hundreds of thousands of people joined those waiting.
In the field they claim that it is already a million.
But the huge number tells only part of the story: in the age of social networks, queuing itself has become a cultural phenomenon.
The very act of arriving in line, and of course posting excited posts and photos of it on the networks, became a symbol.
The British came to "pay their last respects" to the Queen, but actually wanted to wrap themselves in a sense of togetherness that is becoming rarer by the day.
The golden age is over
The United Kingdom, which, like the rest of the democratic world, has gradually divided within itself in recent years, miraculously in the days since the Queen passed away, the feeling of "Britishness", which has lost its luster in the bitter debates of recent years about Brexit, the corona policy, inflation and the gas crisis.
In the long line it seems that almost everyone agrees on that.
But there is also agreement that this is a sweet feeling of nostalgia: the Queen symbolized in many ways the old, safe world, the one where Britain is still an empire - albeit cultural and no longer military - and the world still looks to London.
The long ceremonies that will culminate today, with the state funeral during which the world will watch and the country will arrest a queen, will be a symbolic farewell not only to the queen, but also to the sense of security she served.
The world after her, with an unpopular king, an unelected prime minister and the danger of an economic crisis in a cold and harsh winter, will be much less safe and familiar.
The picture of Queen Elizabeth, photo: E.
PI
The last journey of Elizabeth II will be held in the procedure of a "state funeral": a high-profile event that only a few in Britain get to enjoy.
The last one to be buried in this way was Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and before him the Queen's father, King George VI.
So it was Elizabeth who walked dressed in black mourning clothes behind the closet.
Now it will be her son King Charles and her grandsons Princes William and Harry.
Prayers in the synagogues
During the funeral, Britain will stand as a queen: most shops and businesses will be closed, trade will be suspended and the media will dedicate its broadcasts to the event.
In one of today's public highlights, towards 12:00, two minutes of silence will be announced, and throughout Britain crowds will stand in mourning and silence in memory of the Queen.
This will mark the symbolic end of the second Elizabethan era - the one in which outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a speech that went viral, called it "the golden age of Elizabeth the Great."
arrangement in the synagogues in London,
In the synagogues of the Jewish communities in the Kingdom, special ceremonies were held yesterday in memory of the Queen, which included prayers and speeches in memory and in honor of the new King Charles III.
"We will not forget how she freed up all her time to listen to the stories of Holocaust survivors from Auschwitz," said Chief Rabbi Yosef Devik at a ceremony held last night in the synagogue of the oldest Sephardic and Portuguese community in the kingdom.
"The queen dedicated her life for us, and thus, holy audience, we were privileged to witness such a perfect performance of an ancient thing like royalty, which constantly reminded us of the goodness that exists.
It is doubtful whether we will get to witness this again.'
The speakers repeatedly emphasized that "in the days of the Queen, Britain was good to the Jews, and the Jews were good to Britain."
The ceremony ended with the singing of the anthem "God will defeat the king" in English and Hebrew.
Last night, under the auspices of the Queen's funeral, hundreds of world leaders gathered for a rare event hosted by King Charles at Buckingham Palace.
The country's president, Yitzhak Herzog, represents Israel at the mourning events, partly alongside leaders of countries with which Israel has no official relations.
President Herzog and his wife Michal, photo: AFP
Herzog was one of the few leaders - aside from the President of the United States Joe Biden - who was allowed to arrive at the events in a private car and not in the special transports organized by the British for the participating heads of state.
At the top of the list of uninvited guests is Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with the leaders of Belarus, who are stationed in London due to the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine is represented by the wife of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Olena Zelenska.
The participation of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for the first time since the murder of the Saudi-American journalist Khashoggi, is causing outrage among quite a few circles in Britain.
Although Beijing was fully invited to the events, a group of British MPs prevented a Chinese delegation from entering Westminster Hall to pay their respects in front of the Queen's coffin, in a move that sparked unusual public tension between London and Beijing.
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