Remembrance

Hadassah Medical Center

Following Mass and breakfast this morning we boarded the bus to travel to the Hadassah Medical Center, a huge complex that includes a hospital, shopping mall, and a synagogue. The facility itself was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for its willingness to treat anyone regardless of ethnicity.  

In the synagogue are 12 windows by Chagall, one for each of the tribes of Israel. His interpretation of each of the tribes is unique. There is an excellent presentation which walks a group through the windows. Some were destroyed during the Six Day War. Chagall, himself, did the repairs and used one pane of red glass which had been damaged by shrapnel as a remembrance of that event. No photos were allowed of the windows.

Entrance to the Children's Memorial

Our next stop was Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. This consists of a park, a plaza, a childrens’ memorial and the museum. I entered the Childrens’ Memorial first. It is very dark within and disorientating. Visitors circle around a glass tower within the building that contains candles aflame and pinpoints of light. As one walks the names and ages of children massacred in the Holocaust are read with a musical background rather atonal in nature. Walking around this circle one cannot tell if you are slowly descending or simply going around in a circle. It is an experience like I’ve never had.

The museum has a vast amount of material—pictures, videos, memorabilia, quotations in print and on video from some survivors—more than one can comprehend in the 2 hours we were there. No photography was allowed. In addition to the museum there is a Memorial Hall which has an eternal flame and a map with the locations of the death camps.

The righteous gentiles—those who helped Jews to escape death—are also commemorated in a garden alongside the museum.

 Model of Jerusalem

The afternoon was spent at the Israel Museum. This is a huge complex of buildings dealing with just about everything Israeli. We spent time initially at the scale model of Jerusalem which would approximate the city Jesus knew. The model is enormous. It was once in the garden of a hotel and just recently was moved to the museum (recently meaning within the last 10 years).  It does help one get a better perspective of the city and its various stages of growth.

Shrine of the Book

Center is the Isaiah Scroll

Our leader, Rodney, introduced us to the Shrine of the Book. This building contains portions of the dead sea scrolls. The building is fascinating by itself. The center display is a replica of the complete scroll of Isaiah. The original used to be displayed here but eventually had to be moved to a location with better climate and light control. It was a moving thing to see these fragments after having read about them and their discovery many years ago.

Rodney then suggested we might visit the Archeological Museum. It is huge and very well arranged with several interesting displays of artifacts from the beginning of known civilization through the various periods of history.  I ran out of time at the Roman exhibit.

We are well prepared for tomorrow when we go to see the Old City, the Bethesda Pool, and the Western Wall.

It was an emotional day. Having visited two of the death camps on other journeys, I was easily moved by the displays at the Holocaust Museum. The combination of the darkness, the pinpoints of light, the music and the children's names in the Childrens' Memorial was the most moving. Thinking of all those young lives extinguished before they ever had a chance to contribute to the world only to satisfy the twisted paranoia of an insane leader. There is a telling quotation at the entrance to the museum, "It does not matter what a nation stands for but what it will tolerate."