Searching for Roots

Our final day in Jerusalem started with something I had been anticipating for a long time, our visit to Yad Vashem, the Jewish National Memorial to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.  It is hard to say I was looking forward to this, who could look forward to something that brings up so many emotions?  But this was a place that I knew for a long time I would have to travel to see in my lifetime.  And it surpassed all expectations.  I have been to other museums commemorating the Holocaust and they were moving, but there is something about seeing it in Israel that puts Yad Vashem on a different level.  I think that the difference is that this place tells the Jewish story, and focuses on the individual rather than the total number.  Six million is hard to understand and comprehend.  But today, we learned that there were six million individual stories, each with hope for their life, hope for the lives of their loved ones, hope for humanity.  Obviously we were not able to learn six million stories, but we were touched by the few we did get to know.  There we were, on Mount Herzl, standing in Israel, Herzl's vision come to be, and we were remembering a time in our history that is so tragic that words cannot even begin to express the depths of emotions felt by all of us there.  I am so grateful for the expertise of our educator Zvi who guided us with a gentle hand through this difficult yet beautiful place.  The first thing I noticed was how crowded the museum was.  It's was overflowing with people, sometimes there was no room for us to stand.  And while that was frustrating for us because the crowds kept us from seeing certain exhibits, it was something that was truly beautiful.  So many people were there to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust.  Holocaust deniers are out there and today I saw countless people learn the truth.  We all left this place with the determination to never forget and never let this happen again.  

We began our visit standing in front of the Avenue of the Righteous.  Before we walked down this path, Zvi took us in front of a tree.  Each tree there represents a righteous person who was not Jewish and who went to great lengths to save Jews from the Nazis.

This particular tree was for Irena Sendler from Poland.  It just so happens that Rachel Mach did a project in Irena Sendler and was able to share the fact that she saved the lives of 2500 kids by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto.  How amazing that Zvi stopped by this tree.

After learning from Rachel we went down the Avenue of the Righteous to a square where there were some sculptures.

We were struck by one sculpture in particular that has people being led to a ghetto.  All of their faces are looking down, sad, scared.  All except for a rabbi who was looking up to God and this little boy who seemed to be looking right at us.

Zvi challenged us to figure out what his eyes were saying.  We came to the decision that he was asking us why we re just standing there and not doing anything to help him.  I don't think I will ever be able to forget the look on this child's face.  And I would be horrified if I ever did.

We then went through the museum.  And while I was not allowed to take pictures, rest assured this museum left an indelible impression on me and on us all.  So much evidence, so many pictures, so many stories, each harder to take in than the one before.  Honestly, we were in the museum for about 2 hours and I could have spent a week there listening to every testimony, seeing every display.  I think the room that had the largest impact on me was the last room, the Hall of Names.  

At the top of this room were pictures, a reminder of the individual stories.  At the bottom was a little pond with a dark bottom, where the reflection of the pictures was impossible to make out, representing the darkness of the Holocaust.  And in front of us were binders.  Binder after binder filled with names of people lost to the Nazis.  More binders than you could ever count.  And those binders represent only four million entries to the database of victims, the very same database we use for our Remember Us Project, where we twin our bar and bat mitzvah students with kids who were murdered before they could become a bar or bat mitzvah.  There are still two million names who need to be added to the binders, two million more stories to be told.  In one of those binders is the name of Carly's bat mitzvah twin...  I hope Carly can hold this precious child close to her heart always.

After the Hall of Names there is another section of the museum dedicated to statehood and the creation of Israel.  And while the creation of Israel does not diminish the loss of the victims, it does make a clear statement that no Jew will ever be a refuge again.  We all have a home in Israel and her arms are open wide to us at any time.

After leaving the museum we went to visit the Children's Memorial.  

Many people have told me that I would find this memorial very moving, but I was not prepared for how moving it would be.  It is something that cannot be adequately described by words alone.  You must experience this for yourself.  Walking into that dark room, lit by a single candle reflected countless times and hearing some of the names of the 1.5 million children lost was another experience I will not forget.  Zvi asked us all to remember one name...  Each name represents a story.

After leaving the memorial we went to a quiet corner and did a short Yizkor service where we said Kaddish for the names we remembered from the Children's Memorial as well as for all others.  It was one of the most moving moments of prayer I have experienced.

As our experience at Yad Vashem ended, it was hard to imagine being able to go and do anything else.  It is so easy to get bogged down in Holocaust.  While we must remember, we cannot live our lives this way, so we moved onto our next activity.  Thankfully, we had an hour long bus ride after lunch to process what we had just experienced and prepare for what was next.

We put on our archeological hats and participated in an active dig at the Beit Guvrin Caves as we uncovered pottery and other artifacts from the Hellenstic Period, 2300 years ago.  I know what you are thinking, there is no way this is an actual dig, but I assure you it was.  First, we met Benjy, our guide for the dig.  He explained with the help of Matthew Kuperberg about the layers of history on this site, and that we were digging in the top hat of this history.

We then went to our cave, called Westchester, and climbed down into history.

Here is a view from the bottom of the cave looking back at where we climbed in.

We then took our tools and started digging (yes, we got dirty... VERY dirty) and uncovering artifacts that have not been touched by human hands for more than 2200 years.

Yes, even I found some historical pieces of pottery!  

Next we took our dirt and sifted through it to see if we missed any artifacts.

We all found many pieces of history during our dig.  It was a GREAT experience. And so much fun.  

After, some of us went crawling through the Maresha Cave Labyrinth, a cave that has not been excavated yet.  This was amazing!  We crawled on our tummies, slid on our backs, went through holes in the floor barely large enough for us to squeeze through...

It was truly a great dig.  We were even allowed to take some artifacts home with us and asked to put them by our Chanukah candles, since these artifacts are from the same time as the Macabee revolt.  What a neat addition to our Chanukah celebrations.

We were dirty, tired, smelly, and we still had more to do!  We were able to meet with Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center.  She is best known for her work with the Women of the Wall, and she has dedicated her life to helping others, especially women, achieve justice in an Israeli society dominated by the orthodox.  I am surprised she was able to be in the same room as us!  Notice the tallit we are holding in the picture...  Rabbi Dubowe wears one just like this every 

Friday night.

It was another meaningful and exhausting day in Israel.  Tomorrow we leave Jerusalem and head north to learn and experience new things.  You really must come here...