If there is one thing that everyone knows, it’s that Israel is the place of many generations of Jews. It’s hard to think about what would be if those six million Jews did not perish in the Holocaust. Would there be an Israel? Would there still be hate and war? We started off our day exploring this very subject. We left our hotel in Jerusalem and set off for Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Center in Jerusalem. The magnificence and size of this museum was breathtaking. Every aspect of the architecture was well thought out and had symbolic meaning. As we walked through the beginning to the end of the story of the Holocaust, we felt as if the walls were closing in on us. Not figuratively, but the cement walls were actually becoming more narrow as we approached the end of the museum.
Although everything in this museum was incredible, I would like to touch on two specific memorials. The first of which is considered the memorial of all the people who perished in the Holocaust. Up until this point in time, our tour guide spoke of the Holocaust as a whole, sort of as a broad topic. This memorial was different because it aims for individuality. When we walked in this room, we immediately saw thousands of black binders on the walls of the circular room. These binders contained around four million testimonies of those who died during through this enormous tragedy. Unfortunately, we also saw that there were many empty shelves where two million names of the perished are unknown. We spoke about how the worst thing in life is to be forgotten and these two million people still remain unnamed and undocumented. This really hit us hard. To think that so many people are lost in the midst of everyone’s memories is almost unbearable.
The second memorial or monument I would like to talk about is for the fallen children of the Holocaust. This was easily the most painful monument to walk through. As you walked into the stone cave and hit the darkness, your stomach turned. Five candles were lit in the middle of the mirrored circular room and the reflections in the mirrors looked as if millions of candles were floating in the darkness. Although the millions of candles were an optical illusion, the sensation we felt while walking through this monument was, at the least, overwhelming. In addition, the names of all of these lost children were being said in a monotone voice over the loudspeaker. All we know about these children is what there names are, their age, and where they are from.
As if this wasn’t enough, it was now time to say goodbye to our soldiers. We went to a park to discuss memory in Judaism and all we could think about were the new friends we have become so close with. At lunch yesterday, I asked one of the soldiers if the other Taglit groups were as close to the soldiers as we were. The answer was no. These eight people came to us as strangers and left as brothers and sisters, as best friends. The soldiers on our trip taught us so much. They taught us about their positions in the Israeli army, themselves and their culture and beliefs, but most of all, they taught us about ourselves. We only had them with us for five days, but when we were sitting in that circle, it felt as though we’ve known the for years. When we went around the circle and spoke of our soldiers, so many people shed tears. It was to the point where our staff had to yell for us to get on the bus because no one wanted to leave our new friends. One soldier was so distracted by the teary goodbyes that he forgot his bag in the bottom of our bus. I do hope that our Israelis read this blog and fully understand how much they impacted, not only our trip, but also our lives. I, for one, felt as if these people were already heroes before they walked on this bus because they are the people fighting for this incredible place. But when they changed out of their uniforms, and into their street clothes, they became even bigger heroes in my mind.
Because the first half of the day was so emotionally exhausting, the next parts of our day felt kind of empty. The bus was quiet, and we weren’t as lively when we arrived at the nature reserve for our hike. Although we were occupied with hiking and crushing a spice called hyssub, our minds were to our soldiers that were on their way back to duty.
As a good ending to our night, the entire birthright trip in our hotel met to speak about other opportunities to return to Israel in the future. I would be surprised if one person in the was not considering participating in one of these incredible experiences.
-Dani Gittleman
(Pictures also to follow...)
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