Day Seven!

Today was an intense yet important day. We began the day at Mount Herzl, Israel's military cemetery. First, we learned all about Herzl, the visionary of the modern Zionist movement. We visited the grave of a relative of our guide, whose family lost many members during various wars and battles protecting the land of Israel, and then to the grave of Michael Levine, an American boy from Philadelphia who moved to Israel to join the army.

From there we went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum.  We wound our way through the exhibits that depicted the rise of Hitler and the mass destruction of the Jewish people in Europe. With the help of our tour guide, we tried to grasp as much as we could about the history of the Holocaust.  Countless stories of those lost were told and we were helped to understand how both Jews and non-Jews felt and why they acted as they did.  Towards the end, we arrived at a room in which we were surrounded by Yad Vashem’s total collection of the testimonials of all those who died in the Holocaust, having collected four million thus far.  All the stories found across the world of people who died were in that room and it was moving to be surrounded by all the knowledge we have left of those people’s lives.  Finally, we watched a moving documentary about a survivor who was originally from Greece. We learned about his childhood in Soloniki and how he lost his entire family—his parents and six siblings—in the Holocaust, It was especially moving to hear his story of navigating his time in the camp and how he met his wife while there. We cried along with him as he revisited Auschwitz after more than sixty years, as a free man, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

After this, we said goodbye to our soldiers. They each spoke about their experience with us the last five days, and how their impressions of Americans—and Israel—had changed since they joined us. Many of us were in tears as we shared thoughts of appreciation and recalled memories of our time together. 

Now we are enjoying the beautiful weather in the port of Tel Aviv. Tomorrow we explore the city and finally head up North.