Holocaust Museum

Next day we went to Yad Vashem, the holocaust memorial here in Israel. From what I understand it was a fairly light museum as far as the Holocaust is concerned. I’d never been to one before but other students had. This one focused more on Jews who fought back, like in the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It also focused on anti-Semitism before the war and a little after. In fact there was only one room on concentration camps, which is usually the focus of other holocaust memorials.

While Israel was formed in 1948, the Zionism and the groups which started the state came before. Zionism was the belief that Jews could no longer be treated fair or equally by being part of society, so had to start their own. The Israeli War of Independence was fought by these Zionist settlers. After WWII, when holocaust survivors started immigrating, they were actually looked at negatively, as a group that didn’t fight back. Over time that view has changed in Israel, but was pervasive for many years. Holocaust survivors didn’t talk much about their experience either., which contributed to the phenomena.

The tour was guided by our Judaism, Zionism, and the State of Israel teacher, an orthodox Jew, Dr. Ophir Yarden. After than we talked about secular Zionism.  It’s hard to explain to Christian Americans. Basically being a Jew is more than religion. Secular Zionists are people who king of take a religious ideology to their secular-ness, I suppose. SO holidays in some parts of Israel have become secularized, but still celebrated.  For instance, our teacher told us a parable: a man named David brought an item of religious significance to the top of a mountain in order to unite his people. DO you know who it would be? Most would think of King David bringing the ark to the temple mount to unite his kingdom and the tribes. However, our teacher explained how David Ben Gurion, first prime minister of Israel, brought Herzl’s body to Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem to unite religious and secular Jews. He said the mountain by the Holocaust museum was sort of a holy of holies for secular Zionism. Well if you’re confused that’s OK. It was like a 3 hour lecture explaining it all. Part of that tour was the huge military cemetery there, like the Arlington cemetery of Israel. Anyway, after that we went home.

There arn't many pictures you feel like taking at a Holocaust Museum. The statue behind is a picture of Jewish Freedom fighters.

This Mural respresents the people thrown out of Europe. People from both orthodox and secular groups are depicted.

I wish I had something to say about the holocaust, except that it was a horrible thing. I can’t say I enjoyed the museum. I think we need to remember it can happen again, if not to the Jews than other groups. I liked the Israeli museum because it put the holocaust in perspective of anti-Semitism throughout time. I think we need to be careful about our own prejudices. My mother told me a statistic about how a certain percentage of Americans would not vote for a Mormon for president simply because of his religious convictions. Not that that is anyway like the Holocaust, but the same hatred/ prejudice that existed against the Jews before WWII (and even today) I think is directed on a lesser scale towards people like Mormons. I just think we need to be careful about our prejudices towards certain groups.