yad vashem

we had a really interesting experience this week with yad vashem, which is jerusalem's national holocaust memorial museum. we went there last week for a field trip with our israel and judaism professor and it was something you can't really describe in words. it was kind of like watching schindler's list. it's such a pit-in-your-stomach kind of experience, but it's still really important to understand. going to yad vashem was emotional for sure. same kind of thing: pit-in-your-stomach, but it's still something you should go see. we spent a good hour at these statues outside the museum talking about the zionist movement and how the holocaust plays into it.

we went through the children's memorial. one room had a bunch of pictures projected on the wall and the other had an optical illusion of a million candles floating in the air for each child that died in the holocaust. 

these are a few statues outside of the children's memorial. 

we were not allowed to take cameras into the main museum so i don't have any pictures, but i wouldn't have taken them anyway. it was a really powerful thing. i learned so many things i hadn't known before. one of the most interesting rooms to me was one dedicated to nazi propaganda. there were a lot of sad pictures and stories, but i loved how the last room was full of inspiring stories of non-jews who helped jews escape. it made you leave feeling a little encouraged. i kept thinking of president uchtdorf's talk in general conference called "the merciful obtain mercy" and thought about how i can't make judgements about the horrible acts that happened during the holocaust...that's where the atonement comes in. it covers all the pain and suffering of the jews and the sins of those causing the pain. and it's not my place to be judgmental or resentful about what happened. the atonement casts a different light on the holocaust and the holocaust gives new dimension to the atonement. it was a difficult but positive experience, which i wasn't expecting.

a few days ago, i saw this picture on msn:

it is the same spot we were standing outside yad vashem a week earlier. it was pretty upsetting, especially since we had just learned about those statues and what they mean. but it was really interesting reading the article about who they think did it and why they might have done it. if i had read this before coming here, i wouldn't have understood very well, but now that i'm here and have a better understanding of judaism, it makes sense to me. it was so strange to learn about the zionist movement in class and how much conflict there is within israel, and then to see the conflict in action a couple days later. living here is such a unique learning experience. i can't believe i'm here. 

p.s. i've decided i'm going to get rid of my blog after jerusalem, for a few reasons. i love blogs, but i'm kind of sick of mine haha!