DAY TWO AND THREE---YAD VASHEM AND THE OLD CITY

Thursday the topic was Memories for the Future. We started out by going to Yad Vashem, the Jewish National Memorial to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It is a very moving, tragic, interesting, thought provoking reminder of the worst time of Jewish History. It was not as gruesome as I thought it would be. It was more of a memorial to those who died and those who survived that time. We saw the faces and heard the voices of the Jews who were unfortunately living in that part of the world controlled by the horrible Hitler. I found the children's memorial to be the most moving. You enter a very dark room that is round and surrounded by, with also the center enclosed by glass. The center column contains five memorial candles lit daily for those children who have no one left to say Kaddish for them (the prayer that remembers those who have died). These five candles reflect upon the glass and send thousands of flickering lights on both the inside and outside of the glass. These lights made me think of starts, one star for each of the million and a half children who were not able to grow up and lead a Jewish life. It was quite a morning, one I will never forget.
After lunch we studied geopolitics. We were able to see the new fence going up around Jerusalem, separating the Palestinians from the rest of the city. Supposed it has cut down on terrorism by a large percentage. I don't really know whether a fence will solve the problem.
We went to Shabbat services in a very Reform area outside of Jerusalem. After services we divide up into groups and went to homes of members of the congregation for a lovely Shabbat dinner. That too was a memorable evening.
Today, being Saturday some us went to the Hebrew Union College to celebrate Shabbat while others decided to pry to their pillows for a little longer.
We spent the afternoon in the Old City, going through the Armenian area, shopping for souvenirs, eating lunch and then visiting the Church of the Holy Seplachur. Not everything we did was Jewish! It is an old Church, controlled by all of the Christian faiths in Israel, but ultimately locked and unlocked by the Israeli government.
Finally we went to the Israeli Museum where we saw another model of the city of Jerusalem before tthe second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. We aksi saw the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in the mid 10
900's by a Beduin in the desert.