Yad Vashem

In Jerusalem Friday, my "Sites and Rites of Collective Memory" class took a very interesting field trip. I am going to use this trip to give a spotlight on the class.

My Professor, Jackie Feldman, teaches us about the collective memory of groups of people, primarily of the Jews. We read articles about the past and incorporate how we learn about them today, to discuss ways in which people remember and why they remember; a very interesting two hours.

Last week in Israel, the nation commemorated the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, a day not taken lightly here. Likewise, November 9th is the memorial of Kristallnacht, when Jews literally remember the "night of broken glass," when Germany invaded Poland and broke Jewish windows, set fire to Jewish stores, and started the killing of the Jewish people.
It was very fitting that my field trip on Friday started at Mt. Herzl, Israeli's memorial cemetery, and ended at Yad Vashem, Israeli's Holocaust Museum.

Holocaust commemoration is very serious here; Israelis discuss the Holocaust in everyday life. What I loved about Mt. Herzl, however, was that the lowest soldiers were buried with the same regard as the highest of all soldiers, that the respect for them all was equal, and that people cared just as much for everyone. Israel has no tomb of the unknown soldier, for example, because this nation works hard to make sure that every soldier buried has an identity, for the family and for the people. Similarly, the memorial for "victims killed in terrorist attacks" at Mt. Herzl made it a mission to find as many names as possible--every life here has meaning from the very beginning until the very end.

There is so much I can and want to say about Yad Vashem. But if I had to mention one part about the museum, it would be the end in "the Hall of Names." "The Hall of Names at Yad Vashem is the Jewish People’s memorial to each and every Jew who perished in the Holocaust – a place where they may be commemorated for generations to come." Again, same theme: Every Jew in Israel, whether here physically or in spirit, has meaning from the very beginning until the very end.

This class too has taught me very much, and I am thrilled to be apart of it and apart of life in Israel.

Shalom, Cheers and Peace
Staci