Day 7 - Memorials and More
We have been exploring Israel through physical challenges: a sports day, many hikes, swimming, and more. While there is definitely educational value and sentiment tied into each activity, it is my body that has been getting the workout. Today, the trip exercised my mind and emotions.
We began by driving to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Museum. I knew this would be a trying subject, but I was excited to explore. I have always been interested in the topic of the Holocaust, and I have been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., so I was intrigued to see the differences. The museum began with some art, and a view overlooking the city of Jerusalem from Mount Herzl. I found it interesting that the view from the museum was so amazing considering the museum is highlighting a devastating time. I am sure this location was strategically chosen to make people think about the contrast and connection of the two just as I did. There was a sculpture representing the broken families as we entered on of the buildings accompanying the Holocaust Museum.
We entered a large room where we got to listen to the story of a Holocaust survivor. She was friends with Anne Frank as a child and told us pieces of Anne's story as well as her own. It was quite incredible. This was the first time I was able to hear a live, first hand account of surviving the Holocaust and the camps, as an adult, where I could truly grasp and understand the horrific events.
Then we continued to the Holocaust History Museum (no pictures were allowed inside). We were given headsets to hear our museum guide better since the Museum was loud and crowded. When entering the Museum you turn left to see a large photo projection on the wall which rotates through the photos of Jewish lives throughout Europe before the Holocaust. When you turn around you see the long hallway that is the Museum. The Museum forces you to travel through in a specific order, walking down the one hallway and zig-zagging through galleries to the left and right. The hallway that you walk through is triangular shaped, and at any point you can look back at the opening slideshow of photos to remember that these victimized people were once regular people like all of us today.
The Museum is organized chronologically and somewhat by camp. The Museum is packed with artifacts and stories, art and videos. It is simply incredible. At the end there is The Hall of Names. There is a record and short bio of every known victim (names are being added everyday) in binders on the outside of the circular room. In the center of the room is an upward cone of photos of faces of the victims. Below the photos is a well and the pictures reflect from the water within.
Next, we went to the children's memorial. The outside stones represent children, who were murdered during the Holocaust, lining up for a class photo. The columns are broken, representing the fact that they were not able to finish their lives. When you enter the memorial you find yourself in a dark octagon shaped room with stars and the faces of children staring at you. As you circle around, you hear a recording of a name, age, and origin of a child that perished in the Holocaust. The recording reads all of the names that have been recovered thus far. It takes multiple days to go through one cycle of the recording and there are still many names that need to be discovered and added.
When, leaving Yad Vashem you walk through a gateway that reads, "I will put my breath into you and you shall live again, and I will set you upon your own soil...," (Ezekiel 37:14) in both English and Hebrew. I think that this is such a meaningful and powerful quote.
We were able to take in the incredible view again as we waited for our bus to take us to our next destination.
Mount Herzl was our next stop. Mount Herzl is Israel's National Cemetery. The opening view is a large metal menorah on top of the Star of David.
The founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, and other important and inspirational leaders are buried here. Military graves are also located throughout the cemetery. The graves list the name of the soldier, the soldiers parents, the war they were killed in, and the age and date of death. It was amazing to see how young the average age in the cemetery was. While there were older people, it seemed many were between 18-22 years old - all younger then me. I could not begin to imagine having to serve in the military, no matter how old I am. In Israel it is a requirement, a part of life, to serve at least 3 years (2 years if you are female) in the Israeli army once you turn 18.
We also saw the grave of Michael Levine, one of the many lone soldiers who was killed in action. A lone soldier is a person who decides to come to Israel and serve in the army. This soldier has no family with them because they are not from Israel and have no requirement to serve. They choose to do this to make aliyah, which is immigrating to Israel to do your part. Michael Levine decided to make aliyah and come to Israel from America (Philadelphia), and fight for "his" country because he felt it was his purpose. He left his vacation at home early to go back and help fight when an unexpected war broke out. Unfortunately, he was killed in action during this war, but he lives on as inspiration to all.
We were able to soak up the emotions of the day as we traveled to our destination for the night. The Bedouin Tents. Bedouins are like gypsies. They are nomadic people in Israel, mainly Muslim I am told but we stayed with Jews, who travel the desert herding goats and camels. They make camp, living in large tents and sleeping on mats with sleeping bags. They are also known to steal, and we were told to pack our backpacks for two days and leave everything else and all of our valuables on the locked bus. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to this part of the trip. But, it ended up being great and is now one of my favorite memories from the trip.
Two groups stayed in our tent, over 100 people. The groups were divided by a hanging cloth in the middle of tent. I quickly grabbed my mat and sleeping bag and found my spot on the floor between some friends. After seeing the mat I decided I was not sleeping on it, and I had already decided I was not sleeping in the sleeping bag. There were different stains, and we are in the desert, who knows the last time they were washed. So, I was sleeping on top of the mat and sleeping bag. Not that big a deal because we were in Israel, in the desert. But, we were in the desert, and the desert gets COLD at night. Luckily I had decided to bring sweatpants to sleep in, but I still ended up curled in a ball trying to warm myself up. Good thing I was only trying to sleep for about two hours before we had to wake up for our next days journey. But more about that later.
After arranging our sleeping spots we walked to the dinner tent to eat dinner - Bedouin style. And it was delicious!
It was family style. We sat on mats in groups of five around these triangle shaped poles. The Bedouins then brought food out on a tray and sat it on the triangle (the table). It was like taco night but with Mediterranean food. We were given pitas that we could fill with chicken, tomatoes hummus, pickles, and cucumber and tomato salads. There were also baked potatoes. After dinner we were given tea and sesame cookies.
The music/entertainment tent was next. We were able to talk to one of the Bedouins, see how they made coffee (a Bedouin novelty) and listen to some music. I was even able to try the coffee crushing process. "Down, down, front, back, down, front, back," this was the order of the direction you crush the beans in the "bowl" with the "spoon." You can see the tools for making coffee in front of the Bedouin and his instrument in the picture below.
After music and asking questions, we continued our night back in our tent and outside around a bonfire. We played games and enjoyed some drinks as we bonded with each other in the tent. Cory, and a member from a different group broke out their guitars and began playing as we talked and united around the fire. Around 2:30am I decided to head to sleep, which was then interrupted by members of the group who felt it was lame to sleep. It was quite frustrating at the time, but hey, it was a once in a life time experience, and it was a surprisingly great time.
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