Israel Day 7
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Phil's Journal
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We woke on Sunday, Day
7 of our trip, to a driving rainstorm. It was rainy, windy, and cold,
all to a major degree. We dressed as best as we could and met Doron at
8 AM to travel back down to the old city. Here we were told about how
The Dome of the
Rock was built on the site of the former great Jewish Temple and was
clad in gold. We were told how thick the wall is at in this location
but were unable to either walk into mosque, approach the Western Wall,
or go down into the catacombs. We were told that almost 3 inches of
rain had fallen and that all this rain not only had closed some of these
things, but also that all this rain ran off towards the Dead Sea and
flooded the major roads there and around Masada. We tried to do the
best we could to stay dry but it wasn't easy. From the Old City area, we hopped on our bus and headed to the Supreme Court of Israel. The beautiful stone building was actually purchased by the Rothschild family and leased back to the State for (free) perpetuity. This is "privatization" as I never heard of before. We actually got to quietly enter a court trial in progress. We learned from our guide that unlike The U.S.A., there are no jury trials in Israel. All cases are decided by judges only. Next stop for us was the Holocaust museum known here as the "Yad VaShem", translated as "Hand and Name". This museum zigzagged through the rise of Nazi Germany, repression, deportation, and extermination of the Jews throughout much of Europe. It was a gripping exhibition not unlike that in Washington D.C., but probably a little larger in scope. In D.C., the visitor becomes a single victim by receiving a name badge at the entry and here, you listen to various personal stories captured on video. Yad Vashem is composed of several buildings and is located high on a hill overlooking much of Jerusalem. The most unusual exhibit we saw was a special building devoted to the loss of children during this period. |
It is a completely
dark display with many candles behind translucent curtains that you walk
through while in the distance you hear a steady cadence of individual
names (of murdered children) being read. Another difference we noted
here was the use of the term "murdered" rather than "killed",
"exterminated", or "died". The intentional repetition of this term
reinforced the idea that these poor people were thoughtfully killed by
these "murderers" and not a casualty of war. It reinforces an opposite
view to that of the Nazis who considered Jews sub-human. As we left the
main complex of Yad Vashem we
stopped briefly at a place called the
Valley of Communities. This is a labyrinth park made of local
large boulders. In the various "rooms", names of large cities in Europe
are listed along with the towns (that held many Jews) that were
completely destroyed as part of the Nazi plan. We learned here of the
massive destruction of the Jews in Poland (3 million perished).
Members of our group searched for the names of the towns that their
family had once come from. The last stop for our day was at an area just outside the fences of the Israeli Legislature, "The Knesset". We took a moment for photos outside of these fences where a large sculpture menorah stands that the British gave to Israel after their war for independence in 1948. Coincidently, this day was also my birthday (Phil, April 2nd, 1948) and it was a birthday to remember that was spent with old and new friends in the Land of Israel. |
