Best Days: Happenings Part ll

More catch-up.

For our fieldtrip several weeks ago, Ophir, our Israel/Judaism professor, took us to Yad VaShem, the Holocaust museum here. It was an incredibly moving experience. I've studied and read a lot about the Holocaust (it is one of my favorite things to learn about, in a non-weird way), and I've been to the Washington DC museum, but this was different. The DC museum has a lot of graphic images. Yad Vashem instead has a huge pile of shoes, taken from prisoners before going into a gas chamber, set into the floor of one of the rooms. In print and video, survivors tell the most haunting personal stories. Also, I was looking at the Holocaust through an Israeli lens this time.

1. The infamous two statues 2. Yad Vashem 3. Memorial for the Warsaw Ghetto fighters (which looks like the smoke stack from the crematorium of a concentration camp...) 4. "Yad Vashem" in Hebrew

Basically, the two statues show the two different responses of the Jewish victims in the Holocaust: one of weak submission, the other of resistance. The Jews living in Israel during and after the Holocaust glorified those who died in resistance, but were ashamed of those who went like lambs. They saw it as an embarrassment, and for years, the survivors wouldn't talk of their experiences for fear of the judgement they would receive. Even now, the highest point at Yad Vashem is the uprising memorial. It broke my heart to hear that of all people, not even their own people could accept these poor Jews... It added a new layer to my sadness for those who died and survived the Holocaust.

In Isaiah 56, the Lord promises those who don't have offspring an "everlasting name". Ophir told us that the Hebrew bible uses "Yad Vashem" for that phrase. The museum then is supposed to stand as an eternal, permanent memorial to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.

The children's memorial was heart-wrenching.

Reminiscent of children lining up for a school class picture

Inside the memorial... Overwhelming.

This picture and quote is from Hunstman's blog:

"Echoing the promise to Abraham that his descendants would be like the stars of the sky, the interior of the Children's Memorial uses candles and mirrors to remember one and a half million lost lights."

At the end of the museum, you walk through "the garden of the righteous". It commemorates the righteous gentiles that sacrificed much, in some cases their lives, to save Jews. After you've experienced the great tragedy and sadness of the Holocaust in the museum, you are reminded that there were also good people who tried to do something about this.

The Holocaust is one of the saddest, darkest times in the history of the world. However, it is comforting to know that we have a Savior who loves each of his children very much, and his atonement that will take care of it all.

We also went to Mt. Hertzl across the street, where we talked about the formation of the state of Israel.

Hertzl's grave

The next day, we went to the Waffle Bar over in West J for Annie's birthday! It was my first time going, and it was delicious!! After that, we wandered around town.

Meg and I

GO FINKS!!! Sara Beth and the other Ratfinks, this one's for you!

That night, the youth in our branch put on a comedy night for the JC students!! They did fantastic, and I was so proud of them! I'm a YW leader, so I was a part of the "Girls will be boys" skit the girls performed.

Hence the jersey and hat.

All the youth and leaders

Later in the week, we went on a FT of the separation wall with Danny Seidemann. It was very interesting to get another opinion on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the possibility of a two-state solution.

AJ and I at the separation wall with some graffiti.

We are humans.

On Friday, a group of us saw Moonrise Kingdom at a cute little theater over in West Jerusalem. It was super quirky and funny.

On our free day, the whole group went on a trip to Eliat (part of the Red Sea) to snorkel!! It was beautiful-- lots of colorful fish and clear water. It was a fantastic day at the beach!

Robin and I in our gear