Yad Vashem & Old Jerusalem

Yad Vashem is a campus with 21 buildings and memorial sites, including the Holocaust History Museum. There is also a children's memorial, a garden commemorating the non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews, a synagogue, and a "Hall of Remembrance." Today as our last act before we left Yad Vashen I had the honor of reading a poem called "A Mountain of Shoes" by Moishe Shulstein at the dais of the Hall of Remembrance. I will not forget it.

We also heard from our last instructor, Irena Steinfeldt, the director of the Department of the Righteous Among the Nations. Like the other three teachers for our program, Irena emphasized the importance of establishing context, and addressing free will and individuality in our teaching. She also said that we should avoid self-righteousness with our students, something I know I need to be more careful about. She was a great speaker, making her points by using the stories of two rescuers. Two thousand rescuers have been honored so far on the site. Steinfeldt said it is impossible to profile them; that no matter what characteristic each one has, it is possible to find a perpetrator with the same characteristics.

Professor Yehuda Bauer told us yesterday that the Holocaust is unprecedented, and that the study of it enhances the study and awareness of other genocides. What makes it unprecedented? They were killed for no reason other than that they were Jews. Killing Jews was not incidental, killing every Jew was an aspect of the Nazi ideology.

Of course the subject matter is compelling in and of itself, but I must say the instructors we have been provided here are truly outstanding.

You should check out the Yad Vashem website it's one of the buttons there to your left.

Yesterday evening we ate dinner with two Israeli high school teachers of the Holocaust and then discussed our respective challenges.

Also today, we visited old Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall, and many other significant Jewish and Christian sites including the Garden of Gethsemane.

Well, it looks like my technical problems have been solved. My technical problem was that first both and then one of my bags had been lost in the Frankfort airport since Wednesday. The second one just arrived so I hope I can start uploading some pictures soon.