Memory and a Market

The entrance to the Children s’ Memorial at Yad Vashem

by Hylene and Dick Dublin

After an enjoyable dinner and evening the previous night, we eagerly anticipated our first full day in Jerusalem. No one could have anticipated the emotionally challenging and meaningful series of experiences which the day would hold.

Having begun with a tasty and filling breakfast buffet at the beautiful Inbal Hotel, we boarded our bus and took off for Yad Vashem—a 2^nd rebuilt version which features the evolving Israeli notion of the Holocaust, better known more accurately in Hebrew as the Shoah (catastrophe). No one could have anticipated the painful experiences in store for us nor the pride in identifying with the bravery exhibited by our Jewish brethren. At Yad Vashem, we are initially moved by the Rabbi’s presentation of his grandfather’s letter to his son regarding their escape from a once loved Germany that had become a Nazi terror. The letter’s message emphasized the importance of growth, strength, and rebuilding which is also a significant part of the current Israeli response to the Shoah.

As we tour the amazing symbolic replica of the evolution of the Nazi campaign of horror, we recognize and identify with the pain and constant adaptations to terror which our relatives and Jewish cohorts had to make through the many evolutions of Nazi terror resulting in the final solution. We admire the plan to honor the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and how they represented some of the many strengths demonstrated by the six million. Those strengths included not only physical rebellion but also the strength of a woman who stays with her grandmother rather than fleeing, the strength of a mother staying with an infant child, the heroism of simply putting one foot in front of the other each day.

The Children’s Memorial involves a move into darkness only broken by brief candlelight heralding the names of the 1.5 million children destroyed in the Shoah – and how this affects the Israeli focus on “never again!” Following the Children’s Memorial we gathered for a short Memorial Service led by Rabbi Goldsmith that concluded with the message that our duty to those who have died is to not only remember them, but to live our lives to the fullest, to celebrate our accomplishments and to realize our dreams.

After the gravity of Yad Vashem, Machane Yehuda Market offers a welcome break where the open air stalls proved an opportunity to experience the smells, tastes and confluence of humanity in Jerusalem.

The day’s touring is concluded with a visit to the National Military Cemetery on Mt.Herzl. There we see the burial place of Theodore Herzl, who as Muki our guide remarks, initially believed that all Jewish children should be baptized Catholic (he was a well assimilated Austrian) until he learned of two international problems which demonstrated to him the need for a Jewish homeland to support Jewish identity. We also visit the graves of Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir and other significant leaders of the nation.

Our day culminates with a lecture by Dr. Shlomo Balsam at the hotel where he described the significance of mixing humanity with the need for strength in the ongoing challenge to the Jewish people.

Following dinner everyone went off in small groups or on their own to enjoy dinner in Jerusalem.