Today we went on a field trip to Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem is the Holocaust museum here in Jerusalem. We left at 9 am and rode sharuts to west Jerusalem near Mt. Herzl where the museum is located. It was pretty cold and rainy weather today which added to the mournful, somber mood. The museum was very well done. The architecture of the building is all symbolic and everything is well organized. Each room has video testimonies and artwork and propaganda posters everything was designed and presented very well, which I enjoyed seeing. I think the thing in the museum that was the most powerful for me to see was the shoes. They had a large glass case that was under the ground so you could walk over top of it full of peoples shoes. There were large men's shoes and little baby shoes. Particularly the women's shoes struck me. It was powerful to look at each shoe and imagine the person that went with it. There were really cute sandals and shoes they I would have chosen to wear. But so many! I could only think about maybe one person at once, it's so hard to comprehend 6 million individuals.
After the museum we walked just up the street a bit to the Mt. Herzl park. Mt. Herzl is like the Arlington Cemetery for the state of Israel. Our Jewish narrative teacher, Ophir, met us there and took us around the park. He explained more about how the state of Israel came to be and more about their civic traditions. Mt. Herzl is kind of a civil holy place for the Jews that believe in the state of Israel. Much in the same way that Mt. Moriah is a religious holy place. Mt. Herzl was named for Theodor Herzl the main guy who popularized Zionism. Theodor Herzl is buried on the mountain. Every year they have big Independence and Memorial day celebrations there. After our field trip we had dinner at the center and then had an hour more of Jewish narrative class with Ophir on Zionism. Now people are watching 'the office' and getting ready for the talent show which will be on friday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment