A
remarkable museum, Yad Vashem, has as
its mission a careful documentation of the horrific events surrounding the
Holocaust in World War II.
Painstakingly, researchers have gathered artifacts and testimonies of
those who died and those who survived.
Words can hardly convey the depth of emotions that wash over as one
attends to the flood of information.
The first
iteration of the museum stressed the guilt of the victims—they were either too
Zionist or not Zionist enough, hence they were like “sheep to the
slaughter.” A new museum emerged in
2005, and it holds the perspective that those who left Hungary, Poland,
Germany, etc. before the war to build the new state of Israel were no more
heroic than those who stayed and tended their communities, and in many cases,
died with them. Visiting this
repository, which bears witness to a scar on the history of humanity, is a
searing experience.
Only the
night before had our cohort seen the vibrant Jewish athletes from these
countries where their forebears had been nearly decimated. The enduring reality, even stubborn
persistence, of this historic people was on display as these international
teams converged in Jerusalem. They are
the legacy of those who were left in these Western and Eastern European
countries.
The museum
also seeks to identify those “righteous” who helped rescue Jewish
families. I recognize names like
Schindler, Wallenberg, and Ten Boom.
These individuals put their own lives at risk to hide, pay, procure
visas, and other acts that allowed families to survive. Among the righteous is the whole nation of
Denmark. Countless persons rowed Jewish
families across the waters to Sweden where they could find refuge.
The story
of a ship with 900 persons, sailing from Germany, is also narrated. They ship came to Miami, only to be sent
back. The US did not perceive—or did not
want to perceive--the dire straits of these Jewish families. Hence, the US does not make the list of the
“righteous.”
Our day
concluded with observing the beginning of Shabbat as we attended a Reform
synagogue. I remembered the words of Ahad Ha'am: "More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews." After the visit to Yad Vashem, this truth seemed more
palpable.
Today, we
will walk through different sections of Jerusalem, gaining insight into how
differing expressions of Judaism and other ways of faith live in close
proximity to one another. A highlight of
the day will be an audience with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, an
ancient expression of the church in this region.
Molly T.
Marshall
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