Day 9-Yad Vashem & Mt. Herzl

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Another early morning, but we had a special guest at Breakfast. The Cantor's prior Rabbi from Lynbrook lives in Israel now and dropped by to talk to us about Rabbis for Humanity. This gave us a more liberal view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While having a serious discussion, he also lended some much needed humor and common sense to the issue.

Our next stop was an unscheduled one that had been arranged during the week by our tour guide. Rebecca is doing a peace project for one of her classes and we delivered 200 origami cranes for peace to a local Israeli school. We met some 5th graders and talked to them. It was interesting to see a real school and do our part for spreading peace in this part of the world. We had an unexpected delay getting out of the narrow streets of this neighborhood. We actually had to pickup and move some small cars closer to the curb to clear the way for our bus. Apparently this is not uncommon in Israel.

Mt. Herzl and the new Herzl museum was next. The museum was another multi-media experience, but this one was more hokey than the one in Tel Aviv. We learned alot about Herzl and the Zionist movement that frankly we knew little about. This has continued to expand our understanding of our heritage. At Mt. Herzl, we were moved by the grave of Yitzhak Rabin. Our guide compared it to affecting Israel the way the JFK assassination affectied the United States. We could certainly understand the similarities.

Going to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum was something we were apprehensive about. While all the conflicts we were talking about during the week could be somewhat abstract, everyone had family directly impacted by the Holocaust. The younger children were sent off to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo to enjoy themselves as we headed into the Memorial. It is a very powerful museum took a timeline view of the period and showed how it built up bit by bit. It was hard not to get emotional as the situation got worse and worse and we knew how it would end. The last room in the new building had shelves of books with all the names of the dead. It made us think of our family members that never made it out of Europe and how much we have to make sure it can never happen again. We made our way to the old memorial and Cantor Rica led us in prayer.

Our second Shabbat in Israel started and we went to Kol HaNeshama, one of the largest Reform temples in Jerusalem. It was a beautifully musical service, but it was much harder to follow than last Sabbat because it was all in Hebrew and the prayers were different.

We walked back to dinner and had another surprise guest, Rabbi Hachen and her husband. We caught her up on the day and she let us know she has been enjoying following our adventures on the blog. We stayed in our private dining room long after dinner was over, enjoying the new and deeper friendships we have made as a group on this trip. We are exhausted and ready to go home, but we are sorry we don't have much time left in Israel.

- Caroline & Jeff

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Comments

[Cathy Brown]

Amazed
Hey Laura I am overwhelmed just reading about the amount you guys manage to do in a day and the emotional intensity of your experiences. Back at home, we are all shocked and distressed that in Dubai, they have refused to allow Israili tennis player Shaha Peer a visa to play in their big tennis tournement ( television channels have refused to show the tournement, but i had been hoping for a more supportive reaction from the players. A reminder of the importance of our support of Israel.

[laura rodgers]

Sad To Say...
It's our last day in Israel and although we're tired, we're so sad to be leaving. The trip has been packed with new adventures and history as well as new friends. We're packing up our stuff and hoping to make one last stop to the Arab market before the Havdalah with the group this evening. Yesterdays visit to Yad Vashem was truly emotional yet in some ways uplifting...that we are remembering the holocaust and that the museum does such a wonderful tribute to all those lost in it or who suffered through it. Our guide Shari did a marvelous job as usual of giving us historical data with a human face as we went. My son Richard and I consider this our first trip together to Israel but absolutely not our last! Infact we'd love to go with the Cantor and group again someday soon.