A Little Visit

When I was squished between my Grandma and my sister in the taxi ride up to Yad V’Shem, which is the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, I was excited, worried and nervous at the same time. I was excited to be in Israel, I was looking forward learn about the horrendous event that happened to my people through a different source, since I have visit both the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, and the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. But, mostly I was excited because my grandparents had finally arrived for their visit and I was with them. I was worried and nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. Will I feel personally touched by what they show? Will the sadness that I feel be broader? How intense will this be? When we pulled up to the beautiful, contemporary, and triangular prism-shaped building, I thought (well, hoped) that I would be ready.

We got brochures and one of the audio guides that walks you through the museum, and we went in. I did get a little bit worried when the guard almost prevented Emma from coming in because of her age. When we entered the dark building, the first stop was a movie showing Jewish-European children before the World War II. They were playing like any other kids would and they seemed very happy. After the first part, the museum is set up so that you must zig-zag your way through, and there is no other way to go, which I think symbolizes the fact that the Jews also had no choices. It seemed to me that each part was worse than the section before it. We saw comic strips, board games, books, and many other objects that were made against Jews. One of the comic strips that we saw had a supposedly typical Jew on one side and a supposedly typical Aryan on the other side. The Jew was dark skinned, fat, bald, ugly, messy, and lazy, while the Aryan was light skinned, in good shape, handsome, neat, and strong. All of these things were so horrendous and I had a small sense of what it felt like to be a 13 year-old kid in that time even though I know I didn’t feel anything close to the sorrow that they experienced.

In one of the exhibits, there was a movie in which Holocaust survivors spoke about their experiences. One man said that there was a time when he couldn’t find his hat. He knew that the next day, in lineup, he would get shot in the head without it. He found someone asleep and he took his hat, knowing what the fate of the person would be. The next morning, he was lined up and sure enough, he heard a shot, not daring to turn his head, for he didn’t want this person’s face to remain in his head for the rest of his life. Hearing this, I was trying to hold back the tears (not just for that, but for other reasons too) and imagine what that would’ve been like, knowing not only that this person’s death was in someway, his fault, but also, that it could’ve been him. The same person said that he wasn’t as ashamed of taking the hat as he was when his father collapsed to the ground during line-up and he didn’t help him. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like for all of the people to have to break the law just to get a tiny bit of food, or avoid being beaten or killed. I also can’t imagine what it would be like to be separated from your family, especially as a young child. These people went from normal people in Europe to losing everything, including their families.

As we were walking through, I was comparing my other experiences with this one. At the Los Angeles Museum, I felt more personally touched, for some reason. In D.C., it was my first exposure to the Holocaust, but Yad V’Shem was by far the most informational. Since it was the day before Shavuot, the museum was closing early, so at the end we were rushed out. The last part was a big room with tons and tons of shelves, most are empty, but a lot of them have binders on them with names of people who were killed during the Holocaust. They are still searching for names. We were all a little bit depressed when we left, especially with the bright and beautiful garden right out side that seemed a little bit too happy.

After the museum we went back to their hotel for an early dinner. As I said, the next day was Shavuot, so we woke up at 3am. Our parents dragged us out of bed and we walked over to the Conservative Yeshiva, to meet up with some people. From the Yeshiva, we walked over to the Wall. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people there, praying on Shavuot. It was insane. It was freezing cold, and I was really tired, but there was something magical about it. From everyone coming so early, to the beautiful prayer, and of course, the spectacular and historic Wall. As the sun rose over the old, and beautiful Jerusalem stone structures, I could feel the excitement of the ultra Hasidic men, and I could hear the songs of the birds, even through all of my get-up-at-three-in-the-morning grogginess. When it was all over and it started to warm up, we back to our grandparent’s hotel to catch up on some sleep.

For our last day in Jerusalem with my grandparents, we went to the old city and stayed around the hotel. The next day we went up to the North. Our first stop was Beit She’an, which is an archeological site that was excavated 20 years ago. We learned that the main street of each Roman city is called a cardo. At one end of the site, there is a Tel, which is a manmade hill that the Romans have in most of their ancient cities. My favorite part of the site, aside from the fake tree that they put in for some Jesus movie, was the Roman bathes. The bathes in those times were like country clubs. There was a part to get undressed, then you go from the cold water, to medium temperature water, and lastly to the hot water. After that, you go to the sauna room (which in those days was a room heated by the sun). Lastly, you can go to the massage room, where there was a little extra fee for a professional masseuse. Sounds like the country club, doesn’t it? After the amazing Beit She’an ruins, we went to Tiberius to visit Rambam’s tomb. It was cool to be there, but I could’ve lived without it. After that, we went to Kibbutz Nof Ginosar, which has a hotel right on the water of the Sea of Galilee, or Lake Kinneret. The New Testament says that the Galilee was where Jesus walked on water. So, there were tons of people on what my mom calls “Jesus Tours”. We felt like we were the only Jews, which was a little bit strange since we were in Israel. But it was OK.

The next day we went on a day trip to Zefat. Zefat is known for its beautiful Judaica, so we bought some of that, and then we went to visit some interesting, old synagogues—most of which were Sephardic. I thought that it was so amazing to see all of these synagogues, that even though they are part of the same religion that I have been growing up in, they are so different. Our last stop before lunch was a candle store. The owners showed us how they made Havdalah candles. For lunch we went to an art gallery and had falafel. It was very good—and my grandparents purchased a Chagall print, which they were very happy about. Apparently, Chagall was a famous Jewish artist. Later that day we went to the Golan Heights. I was completely amazed with its beauty even through the many wars that have occurred there. While we were there, we saw a beautiful waterfall, but as I approached it, I was shaking a little bit. They rushed us out of there, because they were closing early for Shabbat. We went back to our hotel, and ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Tiberias. It was delicious. After that, we went back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.

For our last and final day with our guide, Meir, we went to two different ruins. One was called Ceasaria, and the other one was Akko. Akko was a place that had seen many people. The building had many layers, because new groups of people kept adding to the existing buildings. The last and most recent (though not all that recent) of all of the people that Akko had seen were the Crusaders. They turned the basement into a jail. The jail had a dining hall and other things like that. The Crusaders also built tunnels through the entire area. We liked it a lot. Our next stop, Ceasaria, was on the on Ocean. King Harod (the dude who built the Second Temple) built it, and it was amazing. The starting point of it all was a lot like many of the other ruins that we had seen; it was beautiful, but not spectacular. There was also a wall, so we couldn’t see the water. After we walked through the gate, we were entranced. We were in these beautiful old ruins over looking the cool, blue Mediterranean Sea. Every single rock had a story. On one side of it, was a long amphitheatre that faced the Sea. At one point, it was used for horse and chariot races. We walked along the edge of it and then looped our way back through. We bought some ice cream and then exited the ruins through the big door with the moat around it. It was incredible. After eating lunch at a shwarma place, we went to Tel Aviv. On the way to Tel Aviv, we drove thru Haifa. We stopped at a viewpoint of the Bahai Temple. From the bottom of the hill, you can see beautiful gardens zig-zagging up to the top, where there is a spectacular gold dome and more colorful gardens. After that, our guide dropped us off at our hotel in Tel Aviv, and we said goodbye.

It was so great to finally see our grandparents after such a long time. We did so many fun things with them (and they let us do some things, like all grandparents, that are our parents wouldn’t of). When they left we were all tearful and sad to see them go.