An expected (and an unexpected) sobering experience

We started our day at Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem is the Holocaust Memorial operated in Jerusalem. Their goal is to give recognition and identification to 5 million of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust. They have currently identified about 4 million of the victims and feel they can get to 5 million. Each name is listed and documented. There’s no photos allowed in there but here’s a link to the Hall of Names: https://www.yadvashem.org/museum/holocaust-history-museum/hall-of-names.html

There is room after room of exhibits and artifacts – more than I have ever seen – and I have toured a lot of Holocaust Memorials. There street signs from German towns, showing Jewish people as large-nosed bugs, videos of mass burial sites, ghetto footage, starvation documentation and more. There was an exhibit of medical equipment used to determine Aryan status – hair color charts and special rulers to determine correct Aryan face angles.

Here’s the walkway to the museum. Each tree is planted in honor of someone who saved Jewish lives in the Holocaust.

It was a horrifying experience. But the worst thing? The worst thing happened afterwards, when I sat down on a bench outside to wait for our tour bus. A woman from our tour came over and started a conversation. She said she’d spent the museum time out strolling the neighborhood and it was lovely. So I said, “too much to go into the museum?” And I get that people feel this way – it’s hard to look into the face of so much hate.

She said yes, she’d been in one in Manhattan so she didn’t need to go in another.

And then she said this –

And, besides, they weren’t the only ones killed”

Meaning the Jewish people. Which is true. About 11 million people died in the Holocaust and 6 million of them were Jewish. But oh my god, the dismissiveness she showed towards the 6 million – minutes after I had spent two hours near tears, walking that awful history.

Ron has made me promise to only tell all of you and not anyone on the tour and so I will be quiet but boy do I look at that woman from a new vantage point.

Let us move on and look at something more pleasant. Here’s today’s doughnut photo:

After Yad Vashem, we went to the Israel Museum to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. There was a 25 minute introductory speech before we went into the exhibit, which I passed watching a helicopter hover nearby. Then I was in and out of the exhibit in under 3 minutes. The only detail I can recall is that they had a 2000-year-old tool in there that was used to dig holes for feces. Also the Dead Sea Scrolls were in there somewhere.

Finally, we were taken over to Machane Yehuda market for a food tour. This was much more my style. With our guide, we wandered into numerous stalls and sampled bread, cheese, halva, pastry and more. I love the food here so much,. Here’s some of my favorite shots.

Halva is a big deal here, handmade into these massive cakes:

Typical pastries:

Super messy balconies:

And, lastly, delicious cheese borek:

After the food tour, Ron and I parted ways with our group and strolled back to the hotel through the newer part of Jerusalem. I’m very impressed with Jerusalem. It’s quite beautiful – much more so than Tel Aviv. And, much to my surprise, it doesn’t feel overwhelmingly religious at all. There are some unusual sites – loud groups of Bar Mitzvah groups, approaching the Western Wall, dozens of groups at a time, lined up like a parade, with drums, flags and chanting:

And scenes like this:

But there’s also a European feel to it all:

At any rate, I love it! We have one more day in Jerusalem, mostly free to tour on our own, and then we head to Jordan. Here’s me and a big menorah!