27 June 2011

It has been a very emotionally trying day. While no tears escaped my eyes and I felt no sadness well up within me, my emotions, my feelings were tried. Human suffering is no easy thing to see, to acknowledge. The sight of mangled bodies, starving children, and hopeless stares can take its toll on even the hardest and bravest of individuals. You cannot escape the sympathy, the fear for these individuals. You cannot understand what would drive to their annihilation. After all, they aren’t of a different species, a different class of being; they are human beings. They share the same reason for living; they are children of God. They have different beliefs, different appearances, but they are still human beings, still children of God. Nothing can or will ever change that.

Our day began with a self-guided tour of Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust; non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, at personal risk, are also honored by Yad Vashem as “Righteous among the Nations”. In 1993, the Yad Vashem institute decided to build a larger museum to replace the one built during the 1960s. This was in response to the need to provide a meaningful way to commemorate the Holocaust amid the technological advances of the new millennium, while connecting to younger generations, whose responsibility it will be to pass on the legacy of Holocaust remembrance. The new Holocaust History museum is the largest Holocaust museum in the world, and the second most visited Jewish site (the Western Wall being the first). The museum serves as “an important signpost to all of humankind, a signpost that warns how short the distance is between hatred and murder, between racism and genocide. It was bittersweet wandering through the corridors of the museum, soaking in the numerous stories of non-survivors, survivors, and protectors. The destruction, the death that occurred is beyond realization. It is impossible for me to comprehend the ability for a people to torture, mutilate, and kill people in such inhumane ways. While the walk through was difficult, it was not nothing compared to an actual concentration camp or other museums I have been to. It focused a lot on the survivors and those “Righteous among the Nations”, those who risked their lives to protect the Jewish people.

Upon leaving Yad Vashem, we walked to Mount Herzl, a national cemetery of Israel named for Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism and whose tomb lies at the top of the hill. We walked around the mount with our Judaism professor, Ophir Yarden. He explained to us the story of Theodor Herzl and gave us time to contemplate on the Independence of Israel in 1948.

We didn’t get back to the J.C. until after four o’clock in the afternoon, and by then, nearly every student was emotionally drained. Many wandered back to their rooms to rest until dinner at six o’clock. I chose to read a little bit and spend a little time talking to Kymberly. We headed up to dinner promptly at six o’clock and then spent the next while preparing for Family Home Evening. We were assigned to plan a service activity, and a service activity we planned! We chose to heart attack the service couples’ doors. We have three sets of service couples (missionaries) at the Jerusalem Center; they do so much for us. And we felt like they need more than a simple thank you. It was fun cutting out hearts and writing notes on them, and then taping them to their doors. They will definitely be greeted by a surprise when they leave their rooms in the morning. It was a fun activity that ended just in time for me to go to be before nine o’clock. I was relieved. It was a long time and I was ready to slip into dreamland and wake up renewed and ready for another day.