Today we visited Yad Vashem, which is the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. It was a very large museum located on Memorial Hill. Besides the actual museum, there was an education center which is where we saw a Holocaust survivor named Chana Pik. Chana’s story was very interesting and she was a good friend of Anne Frank’s in Holland. Outside the museum there were many memorials including the children’s memorial for the 1.5 million children who perished and also a memorial for the righteous people of the Holocaust including the Schindler’s.

What I found the most powerful was the video we watched as soon as we entered the main building of the museum. It showed the life before the war, and there were Hungarian children singing Hatikva in the video. Hatikva is the national anthem of Israel, though the children were singing it before Israel was established. The last exhibit before we left was the same video of the children that we saw in the beginning. The most powerful thing was the fact the children were singing about hope and Israel was created after the unfortunate death of about 7 million Jews. The museum was designed to be a timeline and the building itself was designed as a triangle. That symbolizes half of the Star of David to show that the Jewish population decreased.

After we went to Yad Vashem we visited Mount Herzel, also on Memorial Hill, which is where many important people are buried, including Theordore Herzel (father of Modern Zionism) and many prime ministers including Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin. Other people buried there included veterans of the Israel Defense Force. Some people buried there were as young as 12 and as old as 86. People who were victimized by terrorist attacks were also buried there. The cemetery was very beautiful as it was also on Memorial Hill and it was filled with lots of trees and beautiful scenery.

Tonight we also watched a short Jewish film and went out for a last dinner together at an amazing restaurant that served Israeli food. Tonight we are wrapping up, celebrating Andrew Zharnest’s birthday (today) & Jasmine’s birthday (which is tomorrow) and packing and going back to New Jersey by tomorrow!

L'hitraot (see you again) Israel!!

Jaclyn Lazarus, RU ‘12