Remember

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We began today in remembrance. We arrived at Yad Vashem under skies of cloudless blue, and we walked down the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations. Every tree planted here represents someone who risked their life and the lives of their family to rescue Jews during the Shoah (This is the Hebrew term for what most people call the Holocaust, and it used because the meaning of the word “holocaust”, which is “a burnt offering or sacrifice”, is considered to be an inappropriate way to describe the tragedy suffered by Jews during World War II). There are many names listed here. Some you will be familiar with like Oskar Shindler and Irena Sendler, and others you will have never heard of like Raoul Wallendorf. All of them did something heroic in time when barbarity was the norm, and yet, the thousands of names of the Righteous Among the Nations are nothing in comparison to the scale of those who suffered during the Shoah.

You feel the magnitude of this when you enter the Children’s Memorial. Of the 6 million Jews who perished during the Shoah, more than a million and a half were children. The Children’s Memorial is a single dark room, but it shimmers with points of light as uncountable as the stars of heaven. While you walk through the room, the only sound is a single voice reciting the names, ages, and countries of the children who perished. It takes four months to recite the entire list of known names. Who knows how many have yet to be identified?

From the Children’s Memorial, you go to the main museum. Here the facts of the Shoah are brought home to you. From documents and photographs to videos and personal effects, the stark reality, the barbarism, and horror that was the Shoah are remembered with one purpose in mind: that this should never happen again. It is good for us to remember our past that we may make sure that it never be repeated. Yad Vashem strengthens this determination. It does by preserving the testimony of survivors and the historical records and then teaching this information to future generations so that we might all look to the Shoah and stand united saying “Never again!”.

After Yad Vashem, we visited the National Menorah. It is the national symbol of Israel, and incorporated into its design are many scenes from Jewish history. It is really a beautiful work of art. We were also able to see the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament building, while we near the menorah before having lunch at Ramat Rachel, a kibbutz on the outskirts of Yerushalayim.

We finished the day off with another visit to the Mahane Yehuda Market. It was less crowded today as it was not Erev Shabbat, but there were still many interesting things to see and shops to visit.

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