Day Four

Our day began with dread in our hearts. This morning we went to Yad Vashem.

Through the trip thus far, we had such a myriad of ups and "downs". We had MAJOR ups, we had some downs but not real downers. Because although we had emotional moments, they weren't depressing, and they were enlightening and we learned a lot and felt good about the work we did back home and the work we were doing together on the trip.

So going into Yad Vashem KNOWING what we would see, KNOWING what the outcome was, and already feeling the things we knew we would feel about the Holocaust, I'd say I approached the morning with some trepidation.

I had heard that this was the "new" Yad Vashem. The presentation was different, the building was different, there were new exhibits, and new areas on the grounds to see. Since I had no experience with the "old" Yad Vashem, I went into it with the same heavy heart with which I entered the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. (all 5 times).

I knew what we'd be seeing and had readied myself. The building itself housing the majority of exhibits was spectacular. Like a prism cutting through a mountain top, the building is shaped like a triangle LITERALLY cutting through the hill it's built into. Along the top of the triangle, are windows so there's this band of light coming in through the main hallway of the building while you're walking through it. Each end of the building is wider than in the center. As you walk through the main hallway of the exhibits, the walls get closer and it feels more claustrophobic. When this happens is when the exhibits show the height of the crusade against the Jews and the brutality of it all reaches it's pinnacle. As the Allied forces start to cream the Germans and start freeing the camps (in the exhibit), the walls widen again until you reach the end of the display and the doors out on the other side lead to a wonderful terrace overlooking Jerusalem. I get the chills just thinking about it.

You walk through the horrors of the war and end up with a gorgeous view of Jerusalem and you CANNOT help but think how lucky you are to be alive and how lucky we are to have this land. This wonderful, beautiful land where Jews are free to practice their religion and live their lives and go to school and just BE JEWS. It was awe inspiring and it was at this point where I cried with the view of it all and the feeling of tremendous RESPONSIBILITY to preserve this as much as we possibly can.

From this point, we boarded our bus to drive down to the Valley of the Communities. This is a new exhibit on the grounds of Yad Vashem. The Valley of the Communities area is carved into stone. You walk through canyons of stone which are seemingly in no apparent order and at least two to three stories high. Though upon entering, we were told that if we flew above where we were or stood high enough above us, you would see below you a map of Europe as it was during the war and that these canyons we stood in were literally countries. At this point I noticed all the slabs of stone with the names of towns upon them. These were towns where Jews once lived in Europe. Some still exist, some don't. Most were almost totally vacated as the Nazi's swept through to take all the Jews. We were given time to walk through and find our family towns if we knew them. They were grouped by the name of the biggest city near them so that you could find your way through the maze of canyons in this map of Europe in which we were standing.

Here are some examples of what it all looked like and a shot of me, Nicole, and Barbara somewhere in Russia where we thought we shared some common area of history.

After all this we were thrilled to go visit the Mahane Yehuda open air market area, where tons of people were getting their shopping done in preparation for Shabbat. It was a zoo! But what a scene! Fish shops with heads displayed lovingly in rows, Halavah stands with more flavors than I have ever seen in my life, fruit stands with fruits I had never known existed, vegetable stands with gorgeous produce. I wanted nothing more than to shop and COOK! Since this wasn't possible, we found ourselves some falafel for lunch (thank you Marla!), and browsed through the shops, buying a bit here and there and headed back to the hotel with our things to get ready for Shabbat.

Here's what it's like in the market. What fun!

We got appropriately dressed back at the hotel and as a group walked to the old city. It was a gorgeous almost 70 degree day. Here's what the city looked like on the way in.

This is the Southwestern Corner of the walls of the Temple Mount. If I scanned over left, you'd see the Western Wall where we prayed. Is this not beautiful?? Do you understand how old this is and how important this is? It's TRULY TRULY magnificent looking.

We entered the women's section of the area to access the wall. We covered our heads and slowly approached the wall. There were many women at the wall. Many of them tourists essentially, maybe even most of the women there. I think for the most part, being that it was just before sundown, most women were preparing for dinner at their own houses and to light candles and have Shabbat. So those of us there, at this time, were clearly not hosting anyone.

I leaned my head against the wall, took a deep breath in, smelled the smell of the wall and the air around me, I prayed and touched the wall. It was cool beneath my hand and smooth from years of women stroking this same spot. I crammed into tiny cracks the notes Shosh and I wrote to leave in the wall. I made sure they were stable and wouldn't fall out. I said what I needed to say. Prayed for PEACE. And backed away to give way so that someone else could do the same.

What a truly powerful place, the Wall. It's magnetic almost in how I felt SO drawn to touch it.

Here we are again, the Portland contingency, at the Wall. It was so good to be there with these two women. I feel we are bound for life through this experience. And I am so glad.

We walked back to the hotel which wasn't far from the Old City. Here's a few photos of our route out looking back. Beautiful.

We lit candles back at the hotel and had a wonderful Shabbat service and dinner at the hotel with Rabbi Na'ama Kelman-Ezrachi. Another old New Yorker who is now a Reform Rabbi in Jerusalem. That's a tough thing to be in Jerusalem. The Reform movement doesn't have much footing over there. But she (and her brother) are working on that.

We sang together, ate together, prayed together, and had a really wonderful evening.

Next day - Shabbat - but a non-Shomer Shabbas day visit to Tel Aviv with cousin Len.