June 11 Jerusalem Museums, Nazareth, Cana, and the Church of the Annunciation

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Today we began our day visiting the two most important museums in all of Israel. The first one is called Yad Vashem and is the Holocaust Remembrance Museum and the second is the Israel Museum. Both were spectacular and serve completely different purposes.

The Yad Yashem is devoted to remembering the victims of the Holocaust. As we all know this was a terrible time in world history where a madman tried to wipe out an entire race of people. We all know and are appalled by the history of these events, but this fascinating museum is devoted to remembering the victims and those who committed these atrocities.

The museum is a series of interconnected exhibits devoted to memorializing the memories of those who survived. There are photos, movies, and very emotional video testimonials of what people remember of the suffering of families and how each lived in spite of the attempts to kill them.

We are emotionally connected to each exhibit as we move through the various room that tell the story in a chronological order. Beginning with identification of those with Jewish blood, we see how these innocent people are rounded up, forbidden to hold important jobs, and are finally moved to horrible conditions in ghettos and concentration camps.

Their treatment was unimaginable in the extreme. Innocent men women and children rounded up and separated for the simple crime of being Jewish. Over 1.5 million innocent children are known to have been slaughtered in death camps.

Men and women were separated from families, food was scarce, which lead to sickness, emaciation, and finally death by starvation. Those were the luck ones.

This was followed in the next section of the museum as we entered the Final Solution. Here millions more were killed in large death camps and many more were murdered in makeshift roving killing machines. Their stories, their pictures, and even their personal belongings are on display so we can all say NEVER AGAIN. It is a moving experience and well worth seeing.



Our next stop was much more pleasant. We headed to the Museum of Israel where we visited a 1:50 scale model of the city of Jerusalem during the time of the Second Temple. This amazing reconstruction showed in great detail the position of all of the buildings, aqueducts, homes, businesses, and streets of this ancient city. You have the opportunity to walk around the entire site from a slightly elevated position giving you an amazing bird’s eye view of history.

Included in this stop was another exhibit showing the most incredible find of all antiquity: the Qumran Scrolls. Here is a building designed to look like one of the clay pots in which two shepherd boys found the scrolls in 1948. Housed within it was a replica of one of the most complete ancient scrolls of Jewish biblical writings ever discovered. To be in the presence of such an ancient wonder was amazing.



Next stop was a unique restaurant devoted to all things Elvis Presley. I never knew that although raised a Baptist in Memphis TN, the king’s mother was actually Jewish, which “technically” makes him Jewish. . As a young man he visited this small town and so impressed the owner of the restaurant that he was granted a license to use the King’s name and image after Elvis’ death.

The restaurant is extremely Kitchi where Elvis music plays nonstop, and his likeness and memorabilia are everywhere. For a mere $20 each we dined on a hamburger with French fries and a soft drink.



Our nest stop was a two hour bus ride to the city of Nazareth where we visited the Church of the Annunciation, the very spot where the archangel Gabriel visited the young virgin and told her she was to bear the Messiah.

The city of Nazareth during the time of Jesus was a small hamlet. The people did not live in homes but in caves. The entire population lived and worked underground in a series of natural and hand-hewn caves. It was in one of these caves that the angel visited Mary and handed her a Lily, the symbol of the risen Christ.

On the very spot was built a beautiful church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and on the first floor we can see the very grotto where the annunciation took place. The church was filled with art works from all over the world dedicated to Mary. It was a beautiful church indeed.



Our next stop was a bit unplanned. You all know the story of Jesus’s first miracle during the wedding at Cana. There was a wedding feast, and the father of the bride ran out of wine. He asked Mary to help but what could she do? She turned to Jesus and told him to do something. He replied, “It is not my time.” Now, I’m sure Mary laid on a little Jewish Mother guilt and Jesus, like the good Jewish son, turned the water into wine!

We stopped at a small shop, and I was able to buy some Cana Wedding wine. I’m thinking of cracking it open on August 14, the date of my wedding anniversary some 46 years ago.





Our final destination is our hotel for the evening, which , it turns out, is a kibbutz that was first started in 1948. Kibbutz Lavi is a small 600-person farming kibbutz that opened a very nice hotel as part of the cultural experience. This orthodox site has very nice yet simple facilities for several hundred guests. Tonight we will dine on local foods and the day after tomorrow we will tour the kibbutz to get the real flavor of life on a kibbutz.

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