Birthright: My First Time in Israel – Day 7
June 5 – Memorials in Jerusalem
Sleeping on the floor in the Bedouin tent was most definitely my best night’s sleep the entire trip! I woke up totally well rested and awake, while everyone else seemed to be a bit groggy. I was even awake before the alarms started ringing, but I took advantage of this and remained on my mattress for the extra time. Breakfast, unlike dinner, was the average “Israeli Breakfast” buffet and not a special Bedouin treat. That’s okay though, because cereal was definitely good enough for me.
It was time for us to leave the desert and make our way to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Finally! I was most excited about visiting this city. Though all of Israel is filled with history, something about Jerusalem is special to so many peoples because it 
contains so much! But today’s activities were not to celebrate the history of one of the oldest cities known to man. Today was a day to honor both civilian and military deaths, during the Holocaust and throughout the formation and continual growth of Israel.
We first paid our regards, at Mount Herzl National Cemetery, to the brave soldiers and figures who put their lives on the line 
for the State of Israel. Along with IDF soldiers who died in combat, the cemetery also honors important political figures and many prime ministers, such as Yitzhak Rabin who was buried along with his wife. An entire plaza or square is dedicated to the cemetery’s namesake – Theodore Herzl. He was the main visionary of a Jewish state at the turn of the twentieth century. He was never able to see his plan come to fruition and ultimately died in Europe, but when Israel became an independent country, his body was exhumed to be buried in Jerusalem.
The graves that were filled with more emotion, though, were those of individual soldiers who died in
combat. They contained more personality and more individuality – especially those who were recently deceased. I’ve never been to Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C. but I’m sure that the soldiers there get just as much love and care. It is truly a shame that not all cemeteries are given the same kind of attention, as Mount Herzl was absolutely gorgeous. Liron, one of the Israeli soldiers on our trip, told us about one of the soldiers in the cemetery that was his hero – a man who saved his “brothers and sons” (his troops) by jumping on top of a grenade. Chen told us a story about a young man from 
Philadelphia who had died in battle, and how much passion he had for being in the IDF. This particular story affected some in our group more directly, as the young man was from the United States. In a Jewish cemetery, it is customary to leave stones and rocks rather than flowers – stones last forever while flowers die. There were some lovely stones placed around, although since many of the families of these soldiers are secular, they take the tradition more lightly, and it wasn’t rare to see flowers planted around.
After visiting the cemetery, we gathered for a short memorial service for fallen soldiers. Most of our Israeli peers contributed, as did several of our group members. Tal, one of the IDF soldiers, even sang a song for all of us. I think we could have picked a nicer spot, though, to hold our service. An active driveway isn’t exactly the best place to hold a serious ceremony.
Our next memorial was the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. We were only given an hour to buy some lunch at their café, and the line was huge. I’m lucky I was able to get a croissant! That being said, we were at a Holocaust memorial, so I could be a little bit more grateful. The first stop on our tour was to a classroom. In the past, Holocaust survivors would personally come and recount their experiences during the war. Now, as they grow old and pass away, it is more difficult to have this direct interaction between students and survivors. Luckily, Yad Vashem has recorded several survivors and filmed their stories. We watched a video about Ovadia Baruch, a survivor from Salonika, Greece. After thirteen years in public school, and about the same amount of time in Hebrew school, I never knew that people from Greece were sent to concentration camps. The entire hour-long film isn’t available online, but several testimonies from Ovadia are on YouTube:
I don’t remember my past trips to Holocaust museums. It must have been several years since I’ve visited the one in Washington, D.C. I do know, though, that I didn’t have a guided tour. And I think that makes all the difference. Yad Vashem isn’t just a one-building museum. It is an entire complex, with a research facility, school, museum, and memorials. To go through the entire thing in one day would have been impossible. That being said, I feel as if going on a guided tour limited my absorption of what there was to take in. I believe I would have benefited from some free time to explore the museum and the surrounding memorials apart from the group and tour. There may have been some people on our trip, though, that didn’t know anything about the history of World War II and the Holocaust, so I’m glad that the opportunity was there for them.
The last excursion of the day was much less serious, and, I think, a time to release all the pent up energy from the day’s mentally 
exhaustive visits. We were dropped off at Ben Yehuda Street, filled with food and stores. Finally I would go shopping! I wanted to look for a gift for my dad. Why not my entire family, you ask? I didn’t think anyone else would appreciate a present from Israel or Jerusalem. I guess I was wrong… oh well, too late! I stumbled across a very eclectic looking stall in a side alley owned by two Bedouin men. They sold Arabic looking lamps, Egyptian inlaid boxes, and tons of jewelry. They probably conned me into spending too much on a bracelet and a lamp, but I like to believe I got good prices for them. They complimented me on my hair! They must have lowered the price, right?
After dinner at the Crowne Plaza Hotel – our nicest hotel during our stay – we gathered in a room to hang out and do some activities. The soldiers led a discussion about the conflict with the many terrorist groups fighting against their country. It’s a dilemma that many don’t think about on a daily basis, but how does one fight a humanitarian war against people who have no respect for human life? It was definitely an interesting conversation. Because the next day would be Mega Event, a Birthright-wide sports event, the artists of the group had to get together to design and paint our team’s flag. I stayed up quite late painting and hanging out. Too late, actually, as I grew quite overtired by the time I got to my bedroom!
