Jerusalem. The holiest city on earth for the Jewish people. Each week, thousands of Jews from across the globe gather in this sacred city to celebrate the weekly ritual of Shabbat. And this past week, Mayanot 205 had the special opportunity to be a part of that. But not before we had an equally unique opportunity to visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, as well as Mount Herzl, which serves as the cemetery for those who were lost during their service for the Israeli Defense Forces.
On the way in to Yad Vashem, we had a chance to learn about the children's memorial, which was donated by Abe and Edita Spiegel, a Jewish couple who settled in California after they lost their two year old son, Uziel, in the Holocaust, but managed to survive themselves. One unique feature of this part of the memorial are the several stone towers. all of which appear to be cut unevenly at the top to reflect the fact that these children's lives were cut short upon perishing in the Holocaust. Another interesting feature of the memorial is the Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles. Part of what made the survival of the Jewish people possible was the work of non-Jews who did everything in their power to save their Jewish peers. Without the work of these brave people, including Oscar Schindler whose memorial we got to see, our people would have perished at an alarmingly higher rate.
The first thing you notice about Yad Vashem is the unique architecture of the building. Not only is it built underground to further reflect our people's struggle during the Holocaust, it is in the shape of a triangle to represent the Star of David. The museum is in one straight path that could be walked in about thirty seconds if not for the barriers that run from side to side and lead you from room to room to learn about the Holocaust in chronological order. We began our tour by watching some footage of Jews in Europe going about their everyday lives before Hitler came to power. Doing simple things such as going for walks or reading from a prayer book. It's so important to understand that these people lived normal lives, until little by little these simple freedoms were stripped from them. This part of the museum is on carpet in order to represent the luxury of freedom that we so often take for granted. As you continue walking and learning about the beginnings of the Holocaust- laws prohibiting Jews from certain jobs, making Jewish prayer illegal, and the placement of the Jews in ghettos- the floor turns to concrete to represent the harshness that their life was rapidly devolving into. Every artifact in the museum was authentic. It's one thing to learn about how Hitler ordered the banning of Communist and Jewish books, but another thing to actually see some of the books that would have been burned during this time. As someone who personally enjoys reading, it broke my heart to see something like this. But this was only the beginning. We later saw shoes recovered from death camps, wooden bunk beds where they slept, and actual train tracks that led to these camps. Touching the same small bed that multiple grown men were forced to share for years at a time was heartbreaking, but it's so important to continue to experience these things so that we can educate future generations who will never get the chance to hear first-hand from a survivor. The last room of the museum is circular and contains hundreds of shelves that hold millions of folders, each one dedicated to one survivor. This room is incomplete, as over a million names are still unaccounted for. The middle of the room is essentially a giant hole with water at the bottom, that contains the reflections of hundreds of pictures of survivors that hang on the walls. The tour ends by walking out of the doors on a carpet ground, to once again represent the luxury of freedom that the Jews who survived would come to achieve.
One thing our tour guide encouraged us to do is remember just one name, rather than group the six million Jews that we lost, as Hitler had hoped to do. He hoped to erase their identities by stripping them of their names, clothing and hair. But we need to remember the individual names, the unique faces, and the distinguishing personalities of each person to best honor their lives, as well as their deaths.
The emotional day continued when we visited Mount Herzl, the burial site of Israeli soldiers lost during their time in the IDF. Having eight Israeli soldiers on our trip, many of whom shared their own experiences in the army, made the tour even more emotional. Seeing the headstones of people buried there who were my age or even younger sent shivers down my spine. The sacrifices that these young men and women make is too enormous to even try to begin to comprehend, but if it wasn't for their dedication, we wouldn't have a Jewish state on the other side of the world to call home.
Going into Shabbat, I expected to take part in a very religious ceremony at the Kotel. However, while on the women's side of the wall we danced, sang and screamed at the top of our lungs to bring in this beautiful holiday. We each had the chance to pray individually at the wall. In my opinion, this is one of the coolest things about Judaism- getting to have a personal relationship with Hashem that doesn't require a third person to convey the message. We get to choose how much we want Judaism to be a part of our lives, and we get to dictate what our relationship with God will be like. Getting to connect directly with the Lord while praying at the holiest place on earth is something I will never forget.
While touring Yad Vashem, I had the opportunity to explore on my own for a few moments. I watched a short video featuring two men who were teenagers during the Holocaust, describing their traumatic experiences living in the ghettos of Europe. These men went into detail about all the things they did in secrecy just to keep their Jewish faith alive, including creating a makeshift "challah" and "chicken" out of potatoes for Shabbat dinner, wrapping homemade tefillin, and having a Bar-Mitzvah in secrecy, because this young adult was so eager to read from the Torah. These are things that most, if not all, of us are guilty of taking for granted. But on this particular Shabbat, we got to have an incredible dinner at our luxurious hotel after saying the Shabbat prayers, the men had the opportunity to wrap tefillin at the Western wall, and earlier in the week, six of our participants became Bar or Bat Mitzvah's during an emotional ceremony at the Kotel. These are things that we are able to do thanks to the sacrifices of our ancestors, who did everything they could to keep these traditions alive whilst facing the most treacherous evil known to man. These are things I will never take for granted again.