Yad Vashem 10/14/13

I'll return to my trip to Turkey soon, but I really want to write about going to Yad Vashem while it's fresh. Every Monday is fieldtrip day, and today my Israel teacher took us to Israel's memorial for the Holocaust victims. I've been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, but it was so interesting to see how the Jewish people view the Holocaust. I struggled to see some of the heartbreaking and frankly gruesome films and stories they had. Wouldn't this be hard for everyone? So many people suffered. The Hall of Names was astonishingly full. I think the hardest thing to read about was the heartbreak that came when families were split without any guarantees of meeting again. As a warning, I just want to add my voice that the Holocaust was not something caused by monsters or aliens. Something could happen again if we are not watchful. Horrible things are not as impossible or beyond us as we think.

I was interested to hear that one of the reasons why Jewish survivors didn't talk about the Holocaust for such a long time was because some Israelis were judgmental. The Israelis who fought for independence fought through hard things, but in a gross overgeneralization, the Holocaust victims were pretty passive. But who could blame them? The hardships they endured were phenomenal. Their success and rebellion was their survival.

One thing that I felt was more heavily emphasized in this Holocaust museum was how abandoned the Jews understandably felt. So many countries closed their doors to refugees. I really struggled with this and can emphasize why my professor said that many Jews leave the building feeling persecuted by all. But I was so grateful that the beautiful walk from exciting the Museum to the gate. The avenue was lined with thousands of trees; each one represented a person who put his or her life on the line to save Jewish lives. And the neat thing was that every one of those trees represented a person who was "righteous among all nations", or a non-Jew. It was a great memorial that there are many good people. Interesting fact for all you biblical scholars:  the Hebrew word hesed is used to describe these people. I'll be happy to give my somewhat amateur explanation for what this means to anyone who wants to ask. It only strengthens my hope for humanity.