Ross' Big Adventures: Israel

Today, Leo and Vivy came from Tel Aviv and toured Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial and Museum, with us. The museum is in a building that looks like a long wedge with open ends, very striking architecture. The displays were moving, similar to the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. The children's memorial was especially dramatic...you walk around a dark room guided only by a railing, while the names of children who were killed in the Holocaust are read.

Then we went to the Mount Herzl Museum and Park. I had very little knowledge of Theodore Herzl, who founded Zionism and gave birth to the idea of a Jewish country, but the museum did a wonderful job of telling the story of his life and message. We walked around the park, which includes a military cemetery similar to Arlington National Cemetery, and the saw the graves of Golda Meir and Yitzak Rabin, former Prime Ministers of Israel.

Tonight we visited with Martin Ingall, a friend of Amy's family from Wellesley, who moved to Israel (he lives just a few blocks from where we are staying) and married a local woman.

Martin called just after he left to tell us about a parade down the street from our apartment. It was a celebration of a new Torah scroll being brought to a local synagogue. The parade included a decorated van, a canopy similar to a wedding huppah, and men holding the Torah, dancing in the street and throwing candy. Traffic was blocked by local police so the parade could proceed. People came out of their shops and apartments to watch this scene. We walked in the parade for awhile and took photos. We just don't see stuff like this at home!

Entrance to Yad Vashem (Holocaust Memorial) in Jerusalem