Day 3 - Jewish Continuity in Yad V'shem and the Shuk
*Yad Vashem *Shuk Machane Yehudah *Davening at Kotel
*Shabbos dinner with Tzohar alumni *Tisch in Meah Shearim
Early Friday morning we visited Yad V'shem, Israel's Holocasut Museum. Mrs. Shoshana Judelman, a former resident of Pittsburgh, was our tour guide and lead us on an art-focused, emotional journey through the museum.
Picture of Hall of Names, taken from www.yadvashem.org
Since visiting the concentration camps with my twelfth grade class, the Holocaust was no longer just a story to me, it became real. That trip was one of the hardest, most unbearable things I ever had to do, but it was powerful and emotional. I kinda blocked out that experience for awhile. That was until I went to Yad Vashem in Israel with Tzohar. The pain of walking through the gas chambers resurfaced, and I got really overwhelmed. But then, just like in Berkanow, I got to walk out, and I remembered the feeling of just looking around at my classmates and thanking G-d for the little things. I could've cried more if I wanted to. But this trip with Tzohar made me realize that the best thing for me to do is to take something special upon myself instead - so I chose to give all that I can to others and to be kind to all those around me.
-Shana Weisman
Picture by the overlook at the end of the museum
Afterwards, we went to check out the Shuk, a market place and tourist center in the center of Jerusalem.
Free time in the Shuk, the place to be on a Friday afternoon in Yerushalayim! I watched as hundreds and hundreds of all different types of Jews walked by me. Religious and non, kids and soldiers, seminary girls and yeshiva boys, Nach Nachman guys dancing, and Chabad Bochurim putting tefillin on men. Old ladies covered in colorful scarves asking for tzedakah, Israelis smoking, store owners yelling to sell their food, and buyers bargaining about prices before Shabbat came in.
My mind, one step behind my senses, registered I had left the dimly lit, emotional walls of Yad Watercolor of the Shuk and the Kotel by Noa Engle
Vashem, but my head was still there.
My duty was to remember my family who had perished in the ashes of hell. I stood in the midst of the whirlwind of colors, sounds, and smells and thought, "What better way to remember than to be a part of this one, gigantic family of brothers and sisters, all clustered into this square we call the Shuk.
-Sarah Eckstein
In the shuk, there were so many Jewish people, you’re just surrounded by family. It was a really good feeling – you don’t ever experience anything like that in Pittsburgh, even though there are a lot of Jews here.
–Devorah Leah Barrocas
Friday night with Tzohar! We were lucky enough to be joined by Tzohar graduates who now live in Israel. After the meal we walked over to Meah She'arim to see a Tisch.
There were no words to describe bowing towards the Kotel at the words “Boi Kallah” on that Friday night. The moment hit me like a soggy cinderblock.
–Yael Scholle
One of the highlights of my Shabbos was spending Friday night with Tzohar graduates. It was interesting to be in a room with people of all different backgrounds, jobs, ages, and levels of religiousness, but all united by the fact that Tzohar changed them. –Aliza Engle
It was after the meal on Friday night… Tzohar takes Me’ah Shearim and experiences a Toldos Aharon Tish! Met a real life Rebbe! -Esti Vogel
Old City
she is warmth
in the winter
and a bright dead of night.
she is loving and overwhelms with the
slight resistance of her well controlled voice,
i listen
and when i listen she is heard in the
leaves that decorate the singing branches of the trees
that entangle throughout the winding
openings of her heart
and i love her
and she loves me
i know,
for i heard it in the leaves.
-Rosie Lipkind