Conclusion -- Yad Vashem and Har Herzl

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The Florence Melton School in Palo Alto and the Melton Israel Seminar in Palo Alto is funded by the ALS Jewish Community Center, and the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Marin County, and the Peninsula.

After a good night's sleep we are ready to forge ahead to the conclusion of our study in Jerusalem.

Conclusion -- Yad Vashem and Har Herzl

On Wednesday, July 18 we visit Yad Vashem and on Thursday, July 19 we visit Har Herzl.  We go down, down again on Wednesday, down into the valley of death, and then go up on Thursday to Har Herzl, the mountain of the secular state.

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There is a new museum at Yad Vashem opened in March 2005, and I am happy that I will be visiting it, although I know that the visit will be difficult.  Still the point of our studies on Wednesday is not to learn about the Holocaust, but to consider how the state of Israel, which represents the power and responsibility of the Jewish people, deals with the Shoah.

As always, Hayim makes the visit to Yad Vashem, especially memorable, with an introduction in a grove of trees planted to remember the righteous , and a view of a cattle car which seems to float in the air, outside of time and space.  We stand under carob trees, the fruit which is planted for the next generation, studying about a horror intended to end the generations.

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We talk about the meaning of the Hebrew words, Yad and VaShem, and tease out different connections.  It seems fitting that the place has the Hebrew word, Shem or name, in memory of those whose names were taken away.  We read Isaiah, Chapter 56, on those who will have no children, and Ezekiel, Chapter 37 on the prophecy of the dry bones which had been uncovered at Masada in an archealogical dig in 1962, part of the Zionist narrative of the Shoah, and the poem by Pagis, Written in Pencil in a Sealed Railway Car, and a story, Shoes, by Etgar Keret. And we consider a book by Raul Hilberg, "Perpetrators, Victims, and Bystanders".  And we reflect on the Talmud's injunction to witnesses that  killing one innocent person is destroying the world.

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The architecture of the new museum is compelling.  It tunnels under the mountain like a tomb; its rough, unfinished walls like a scar.  And the beginning and the end are linked in unforgetable sound memory -- the sound of children from the 1930's, those lost children, singing Hatikvah.  This will be a journey from Hatikvah to Hatikvah.

We tour the Museum with a passionate, articulate tour guide, who moves us through, helping us to focus and avoid being overwhelmed by all that is there.  We march through the history, the years, starting with authentic films from the villages of eastern Europe taken in the 1920's and 1930's, moving though the 1930's and the 1940's.  And we question, what does a state tolerate and what do moral people tolerate and what does it mean to act and risk your life and that of our family in the face of injustice.

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At one point during the museum tour one of the member of our Israel Seminar shares a story from her mother, Regina Rex, a Holocaust survivor, who told her how many of the women that she knew survived in the camps of death by sharing recipes and taking care of one another.  It is moving story of hope, caring, survival;  the power of the compassion of Jewish women in the face of horror.  And I think of all the Jewish women in my life today who continue to demonstrate that care and compassion for one another.

Wednesday evening we revisit the issue of Land and Compromise.  Two groups have two different home visits either just inside the Green Line or just on the other side of the security barrier, and we encounter differing viewpoints in a spirited Israeli-style debate.

Thursday, July 19 is the concluding day of the Study Seminar.  The theme is Back to the Future.  We visit Har Herzl, the mountain of the secular state, the national cemetery for the state of Israel, the highest point in Jerusalem, the epicenter of the "civil religion".  Again, we start in a grove of trees, this time cedar trees, planted by the nations of the world.  We read 1 Kings 5 amd Isaiah Chapter 2, and we discuss how the secular state of Israel uses Torah symbolism in establishing its narrative with the people.  And we learn about the Herzl's story, and we think about how Herzl's bones were carried to the Land and buried, just as Yosef's bones were carried from Egypt to the Land.  Was he a modern day prophet?

And we study about Memorial Day and Independence Day in Israel.  And we read a poem by Zelda, "Each Man Has a Name".  Then we visit many graves, learning the stories of some who are buried at Har Herzl, moved especially by the graves of Yitzhak and Lea Rabin.  And we consider what changes have occurred in Israeli society that enables the Rabin grave to be so different from the others.

We have some free time in the afternoon for last minute shopping and walking.  Then we reconvene as a group to evaluate our study time together, and celebrate with a festive farewell dinner at Beit Ticho in Jerusalem.  We have worked hard these ten days, studying together, traveling together, bonding together.  We appreciate all the questions, all the insights, not only from our gifted leader, Hayim, but also from each member of the group, each contributing in his or her own way to our common learning.  We have many new, rich, deep friendships.  This has been the experience of a lifetime -- an intimate, intense, indescribable study experience for serious adult learners.  How can we ever explain to others what we have experienced?  That is a problem for tomorrow when we return to our homes.

Most of the members of our group are from California, San Diego and Palo Alto so we are confident that we will see one another again.  We started as the Palo Alto 7 and now it seems that we need new t-shirts for the California 25 (yes, we have adopted 3 New Yorkers as honorary Californians).

Not farewell but Lehitraot, until we meet again.  :-)

Nesiya Tovah -- Fly Safely