Friday, July 13, 2012
Free wi-fi
For the first time on this trip we have free wi-fi at our hotel. So hopefully I can get caught up some.
Tough day
July 9 - mainly a travel day and not a good one for me.
However we began the day with a tour of Jerusalem -outside the old city. Fortunately after all the walking we did yesterday, today it was mostly by bus. More on that later. After touring, we headed to the Tel Aviv airport for our flight to Germany. Going through Israeli security they pulled my bag aside for a search. When I got to the bag, the guard asked me to open it an d search it. I asked what was I looking for? She said a bomb. We were told not to joke around with Israeli security so I just looked at her. She asked if everything in my suitcase belonged to me and to check through it. Of course I had just washed my underwear out by hand and they were sitting on top of everything. But since there was no bomb in there I was allowed to go through. About 10 teachers had their bags searched. Then on the next leg in Frankfurt Germany my carry on was pulled to be searched again and this time I had stupidly put my roll on deodorant in the carry on -- bigger than the 3.5 oz. because of the delay I had to walk very briskly to the gate. Our leaders, Elaine and Steve, both waited for me and got me to the correct gate. On our short flight to Hanover, I was reading a book about the 1936 Olympics I had just bought called Nazi Olympics and the stewardess pointed to the title of e book and said. "Not nice". I was ready to get to our hotel dodging 3possible international incidents.
However we began the day with a tour of Jerusalem -outside the old city. Fortunately after all the walking we did yesterday, today it was mostly by bus. More on that later. After touring, we headed to the Tel Aviv airport for our flight to Germany. Going through Israeli security they pulled my bag aside for a search. When I got to the bag, the guard asked me to open it an d search it. I asked what was I looking for? She said a bomb. We were told not to joke around with Israeli security so I just looked at her. She asked if everything in my suitcase belonged to me and to check through it. Of course I had just washed my underwear out by hand and they were sitting on top of everything. But since there was no bomb in there I was allowed to go through. About 10 teachers had their bags searched. Then on the next leg in Frankfurt Germany my carry on was pulled to be searched again and this time I had stupidly put my roll on deodorant in the carry on -- bigger than the 3.5 oz. because of the delay I had to walk very briskly to the gate. Our leaders, Elaine and Steve, both waited for me and got me to the correct gate. On our short flight to Hanover, I was reading a book about the 1936 Olympics I had just bought called Nazi Olympics and the stewardess pointed to the title of e book and said. "Not nice". I was ready to get to our hotel dodging 3possible international incidents.
Wacky Foreign Hotels
July 10 and a 6:30 wake up call after getting in @ 11:30 last night. Most of our wake up calls have been at 6 AM with the bus rolling out at 8 AM. Learning all the different/new ways to navigate hotel rooms has been a experience all on its own. The one in Jerusalem, one of the most modern ones I ever stayed in, almost caused a panic among the teachers because the doors from our rooms to the hall open out- you had to push the door to leave. Since we always pull the doors in, several people ( not me this time) called the front desk, thinking they were trapped in their rooms and embarrassingly was given instructions to "push the door out.". Last nights hotel in Hannover Germany which we saw very little of due to late arrival -you could not turn the lights on in your room unless you put your key in a slot by the door and leave it in. Fortunately we figured that out fairly quickly and got to bed by midnight-- for our 6:30 wake up call.
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem. The Jewish people's living memorial to the Holocaust
The name of the museum comes from Isaiah 56, verse 5. "And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a 'Yad Vashem' ...that shall not be cut off."
The premier Holocaust museum in the world, it seems more like an university setting rather than a museum. Much of the time was spent outdoors, looking at the Avenue of the Righteous, walking to the Children's Memorial or spending time in the huge exhibits. Yad Vashem has been committed to four pillars of remembrance : Commemoration, Documentation, Research and Education. They place a heavy emphasis on educating the younger generations as the generation that lived through the Holocaust is dwindling. To do this museum justice, it would take at least a day, we spent 4 hours and had to pass up some of the exhibits. Lots of videos for the takeover by the Nazis to the liberation of the camps. Lots of artifacts have been collected and many survivor testimonies were filmed for public viewing. Probably one of the more moving things to happen was one of our teachers' father was a Schindler Jew. He always knew this but when he saw his father's name on the official Schindler's List, he became emotional. It was a sensory overload experience. Probably the most moving exhibit was the Children's Museum-- completely black when you walk in and all you see are candlelights and reflections of those candlelights to represent the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust. As you walk through, a voice is saying the names of those children. A picture of it could not do it justice,a but I would suggest you look it up on the Internet.
The name of the museum comes from Isaiah 56, verse 5. "And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a 'Yad Vashem' ...that shall not be cut off."
The premier Holocaust museum in the world, it seems more like an university setting rather than a museum. Much of the time was spent outdoors, looking at the Avenue of the Righteous, walking to the Children's Memorial or spending time in the huge exhibits. Yad Vashem has been committed to four pillars of remembrance : Commemoration, Documentation, Research and Education. They place a heavy emphasis on educating the younger generations as the generation that lived through the Holocaust is dwindling. To do this museum justice, it would take at least a day, we spent 4 hours and had to pass up some of the exhibits. Lots of videos for the takeover by the Nazis to the liberation of the camps. Lots of artifacts have been collected and many survivor testimonies were filmed for public viewing. Probably one of the more moving things to happen was one of our teachers' father was a Schindler Jew. He always knew this but when he saw his father's name on the official Schindler's List, he became emotional. It was a sensory overload experience. Probably the most moving exhibit was the Children's Museum-- completely black when you walk in and all you see are candlelights and reflections of those candlelights to represent the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust. As you walk through, a voice is saying the names of those children. A picture of it could not do it justice,a but I would suggest you look it up on the Internet.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Massuah Museum and ride to Jerusalem
Leaving Haifa, we visited the Massuah Center for Holocaust Education. Its focus was the Adolf Eichmann-which was considered a turning point for remembering the Holocaust. (hint- history fair people). For the first time the world saw the horror of the holocaust due to the world coverage of the trial. In one of the survivors testimony, he told of how he watched his wife and daughter, in a long line, head to the crematorium. He said he could follow his daughter as she had a red coat on and it stood out. This would serve as inspiration for Spielberg's "Schindler's List.". We also heard survivor testimony, of which I will relate later. When then left for the hour drive to Jerusalem. On the way we saw the controversial wall and the closer to Jerusalem, the tighter the security. We are staying 3 nights in the Mamila Hotel, a short walk to the old city of Jerusalem. We spent the afternoon exploring it. 
Pics of arrival in Israel and the Haifa stay
We flew Lufthansa airlines and it was great. It was an 8 hour trip to Frankfurt German, through Israeli security which is very thorough. The asked me two questions, then wished me Happy Birthday. We had another 4 hour flight to Tel Aviv plus a 2 hour bus ride to Haifa. Israel is 7 hours ahead of Edgerton and 8 hours ahead of Navasota. I watched the Detroit Tigers afternoon game at 10:00 at night here. 
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