Tuesday Toughday

I'm finally started to feel really, really drained. Mentally, physically, and emotionally. I'm on day 14 at this point of full days of learning a tough topic, meager food, lots of exertion, being away from my family, and getting very little sleep. Today I think I hit a wall. I'm hoping tomorrow is better. :)

Today (Tuesday) was very, very full. We started with a lecture on Jewish Leadership in the Shoah, had two lessons on ghettos, a lecture on cultural and spiritual resistance, and ended the time at Yad Vashem with a lesson on Holocaust Literature (yes, totally up my alley!).

Again today, I feel like there is just so many details, most of which I want to try and incorporate into my lessons later, that I don't have very much to say here. I want to end with a very powerful quote I heard and just leave it with you in a few minutes.

We ended the day at the Israeli Museum where I got to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. If you're not familiar with the story of the discovery of that little piece of history, look it up. It's kind of amazing. It was so wild to look at them and know they are the earliest paper (parchment) documentation of the Bible. My other favorite part of that museum was the reconstructed model of Jersusalem's Old City. I am NOT a spatial person, so it was really really helpful to see how the ruins we saw and walked actually looked when they weren't... well... RUINS. :)

Here's the quote I'll leave with you:

"At the end of World War II, everyone sat down to count their dead. The Jews began to count their living."

SO MANY GREAT LECTURES MONDAY

Monday was an 8:30-5:30 classroom day. It should have been exhausting and draining, but instead it was exhilarating to gain as much as information as I did! I was like a vacuum cleaner, just sucking up every single detail. I'm not going to go into the specifics of the topics here because I want to save them for the classroom, but I'll list the topics below and one or two insights from some.

Nazi Racial Ideology and the Jewish Question
I have so many pages of notes from this session, but I'll just mention one thing here that I think is so worth considering... The T4 Euthanasia Program (the murder of over 200,000 mentally and physically handicapped people-- GERMANS) was ceased for one reason. It was an open protest by the Catholic Bishop of Munster, August von Galen. Imagine what could have happened to all other aspects of Nazi methodology if more people had been willing to speak out. In this case, it only took ONE to change the times.

Persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany (1933-1939)
Two points he made that were things I had not ever really thought of were that humiliation is as powerful a weapon as fear and the Germans used it almost as often in the very beginning a. He also pointed out the difference in the ... spirit(?) of German Jews versus Polish Jews. German Jews were much more patriotic and thus were so deeply hurt and humiliated by being denied citizenship, whereas the Poles had a huge spirit of survival and FIGHT in them.

Music of the Jews during the Holocaust
This session presented a lot of inspiration. I knew they had concerts in the ghettoes, but I did not know that they charged admission. The money raised was used on various social projects. She made several really powerful statements about these concerts after asking us, "You are dying of hunger. You are going to a concert when you don't even have money to spend on them, so what is so strong to bring you to the concerts?" She then shared a quote with us from Abraham Sutzkever, a partisan fighter who fought to save as many Jewish lives as possible by killing Germans after he heard a concert: "Today I heard a beauty for which it is worthwhile to fight." One can't live in error and horr all of his life; we need the beauty.

The Holocaust and Art
My biggest takeaway from this (that I want to share here instead of in class) is her ending: "There's no way to tell the story of the Holocaust, but there's a way to tell one story. And in telling one story, you tell the story of the Holocaust." WOW.

The last session was just trying out a teaching tool on their website, something that will be very useful.

After our day in class, we went to the Tower of David Sound and Lights Show, which was really pretty cool (and kind of cheesy too). They project the entire show on the walls of the Tower of David and it's basically the complete history of the Jerusalem (conquest after conquest). I left that show and last week's lectures saying that it's actually miraculous that there was ANYTHING left in this city to preserve. :)

Freedom's Cost

Sunday was our day in Tel Aviv. We had two learning experiences scheduled, Independence Hall and the Palmach Museum. After those two things, we had a couple of hours on the beach to swim in the Mediterranean before returning to Jerusalem.

I have to say that I was shocked by my response to Independence Hall. We actually had a walking tour in Tel Aviv in October and she finished here (although it was outside in the square, we didn't come inside) and I was... underwhelmed. This time, though, we watched a video on the settlement (modern settlement) of Israel, Herzol, and the UN declaration. Then we went into the room where they read their Declaration of Independence, complete with name cards, flags, and the photo of Herzol in the background. The most moving part by far, though, was the audio recording that was played of David Ben-Guiron reading the Declaration, followed by the announcement out of the second floor window and the crowd outside spontaneously breaking into "Hatikvah", the Israeli national anthem. It's not my country nor is it my national anthem, and I truly haven't ever connected very strongly with all of the events surrounding Israeli's independence, but I was so very moved by standing in that room, hearing that audio recording. It really made me think about the fact that freedom, no matter where you are or what year it is, freedom has such meaning for everyone.

Now, the Palmach (you really need to hear me say it because I'm getting really good at the throat clearing sort of sounds that the Israeli's make) Museum... WOW. I am so aggravated that we didn't bring Emma and Kelsey here in October because the would have LOVED it. It is a tribute to the Palmach, the partisan fighters who were the first version of the Israeli Defense Force. I am amazed at their story and the bravery they exhibited with so little during those early days of freedom. The museum itself was incredible, because you progress from room to room, following a video that is the story of a group of them. However, each room is like a movie set and the video projects on the wall (or screens, or tents, or rocks). There are even SMELLS! The part where they were sitting around the campfire talking, we were sitting on logs and the ROOM SMELLED LIKE A CAMPFIRE. I am ENAMORED. I also really loved something else that happened. As we went in, there was a wall of black and white photos. I glanced at them as we went in and appreciated them for their beauty. I was even remotely interested in the subjects, but not profoundly so. When we came out, we walked by those photos again. I couldn't make myself walk away because those photos... they meant something. Those PEOPLE meant something. I now had a connection with them. I took a photo of part of the wall (second from the bottom here) and realized that is exactly my goal in Holocaust Literature... I want you all to connect, to connect PERSONALLY with the subjects. If I do that, I have accomplished something valuable.

The Mediterranean was nice if you like jellyfish. I did get my first brush and tiny sting from a jellyfish, so there's that. We got a little sun and then got some pizza when we got back, hung out on the terrace a while with new friends, called it a night.

Shabbot Shalom!

So Shabbat started at sundown Friday and Saturday is the official Sabbath (until sundown). On Saturday, we had what I call our "Jesus Tour" because we went to Galilee. We started out in Nazareth at the Church of the Anunication, then continued to Tabagha (loaves and fishes), a meal in which I ate a fish with its head still on that looked at me the whole time, St Peter's Primacy (most beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee ever), dipped our feet in the Sea of Galilee, visited Capernaum, the site of the Sermon on the Mount, then took a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee (my favorite traveling activity maybe of all time). We drove back via the coastal road and saw just how close Jordan is. (During our time on Galilee, Syria was RIGHT. THERE. It's shocking to think how different life in this tiny country, surrounded by enemies, must be than our life in America.)

That night, we had gone to bed to write and read a while and we heard what sounded like singing outside our window. As we listened, we realized it wasn't singing, but rather a protest. We opened our window and watched a protest of 100 or so people go to the Prime Minister's house, which is beside our hotel. Pretty cool!

Ruins of synagogue in Capernaum

On the boat on the Sea of Galilee

In the Sea of Galilee

Church of the Anunication

Feet in the Jordan River (lots of feet pics. sorry)

St Peter's Primacy ... LOOOVED

Church of the Anunuciation

At Capernaum. One of my favorite statues-- it's Peter

Sea of Galilee from the boat

Church of St Joseph

My roommate, Tiffany

In the Jordan River

Tabagha

Sorry for another selfie ;)

My lunch that suspiciously resembled a Bible story 

Our boat!

Driving back

Jordan River

This is a picture of violence and hatred and politics getting mixed up in religion. This absolutely gorgeous church at Tabagha was one of my favorite sites last time we came. Today, the courtyard we took family pictures in was inaccessible. The second story is gone. Three weeks ago, it was torched by Jewish extremists. In fact, it just opened back to the public two days ago. Whether it's a church in the old segregated South, a synagogue in Nazi Germany, a mosque in Saudi Arabia, or a Bible study full of people in Charleston, SC, hatred is present and it's real and religion and religious people are frequent targets.

View from the site of the Sermon on the Mount

USA portrayal of Mary (they had all countries)

It was... breezy.

Sea of Galilee panorama

Feet (again), this time in the Sea of Galilee

St Peter's Primacy

View from Capernaum (still my FAVORITE!)