Yad Vashem and The City of David – Monday 7th November 2016
(Distance walked today: 10.71km)
Photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ffnord/albums/72157676432838135
We loaded in to our trusty bus and headed to the outskirts of Jerusalem to visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Musem.
We got there before the place opened which was good as it gave us some time to walk through the grounds in peace. Part of the remembrance is called the Righteous Among the Nations, an area set aside to recognise the gentiles who aided the Jews during the holocaust. It is a very simple monument, with a tree planted for each person or group, and a small plaque explaining who they were and what they did. Many of the names are unknown, ordinary people who sheltered others from the genocide, some are more well known such as Oskar Schindler.
There are many monuments and displays around the site, each with it’s own dedication and story but one really touched me.
This commemorates Janusz Korczak, an educator and children’s author who worked at an orphanage in Warsaw. When the order came for the children to be taken to the extermination camp, Korczak was told not to come in to work as he would be spared for his writings. He refused, and on the day he went with the children on the train, holding their hands and singing songs so they wouldn’t be scared. A guard at the camp recognised him and again offered to get him away, but he again refused and went with the children to their fate. I don’t know if I would have such courage under similar circumstances, to knowingly give your life to comfort a group of scared children.
We were then admitted to the main museum where photography is not permitted, it really is something you have to experience in person. The museum is a winding path through history chronicling the events leading up to and through the second world war. It is brought to life with recorded accounts of survivors, as well as countless maps and documents. It is a sombre place and the experience was only marred by the massed groups of Americans swarming around blocking the exhibits and noisily talking away.
I can’t do justice to the experience of visiting Yad Vashem, but it’s the kind of place everyone who thinks blaming immigrants for all the world’s woes should visit to see what happens when you set down that path.
We went on from there for a brief visit to the Israel Museum, primarily to view the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit. One of the big features of this museum is a scale model of the city of Jerusalem as it would have been during the time of the Second Temple. This was built on the grounds of a hotel but moved to the Museum at a later date, which must have been quite the enterprise in itself.
The detail in the model was remarkable, and it was interesting to see depicted places we would be exploring that afternoon.
We went in to the specially built wing of the museum used to house the Dead Sea Scrolls and related items, it was built in the shape of the jars in which the scrolls were found and is sprayed with water to keep the temperature down.
Again there was no photography permitted inside and to be honest, it wasn’t that interesting. Whilst the history of the documents and their contents is fascinating, the objects themselves are basically the same as any other old paper with indecipherable writing on them.
We had lunch at the surprisingly small and crowded cafe before boarding the bus to head back to the old city of Jerusalem where we would be exploring the remains of the city from the era of King David.
We were led through the visitor entrance and down a series of steps to the cunningly named Large Stone Structure which is indeed a structure made of large stones. This thought to be the palace of King David and there is some archaeological evidence to back this up but there is still some debate.
The palace was built on the hillside overlooking the valley below and the settlement on the other side, and I was struck with a line from Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, “you saw her bathing on the roof”. Looking down on to the rooftops of the houses opposite I got a real feeling of connection with the history. Unfortunately this was somewhat marred by the piles of rubbish just thrown out of the houses.
This whole area is a Palestinian neighbourhood and was taken by Israel during the Six Day War, so tensions remain high with such a prominent Israeli dig happening under the houses of Palestinians.
We were led further down the hillside and in to a somewhat claustrophobic part of the dig which descends in to the water cisterns of the old city and leads to a pair of tunnels which descend further down the hillside. One is still used to carry water today, the other is dry, but neither are what one would regard as spacious.
Some of our group took the pitch black water-tunnel whilst the rest of us made our way through the dry tunnel to the Pool of Siloam, the actual pool being mainly buried beneath houses, only a small edge has been uncovered.
One thing that struck me as we made our way ever downward was how far we would have to climb to get back to the modern city. Hezekiah’s tunnel is still open which leads from the pool in the very bottom of the valley right to the foot of the Temple Mount, it is believed to be the one used by King David to attack the city, though we opted for a taxi to get back up the hill in an easier manner.
We explored the grounds around the original entrance to the Temple Mount, when the temple was cleared, the stones were just pushed over the edge and many are still where they landed.
A series of steps leads up the side of the hill to the wall, these steps face down in to the City of David and terminated at three large arches which led through the wall and up to the temple above.
These entrances were blocked up when the site came under Muslim control and they refuse to allow any excavation or examination of the area behind or under the wall. I was again struck with a sense of the history of the place, thinking how many of the people talked about in the bible, including Jesus himself, would have walked on the exact spot I was stood on, and through these arches.
From here we walked up through the city for a last chance to get any souvenirs and came upon a giant golden menorah.
This seven armed menorah is one of the decorations for the prophesied Third Temple, with other such items being contributed and stored in preparation. That this would be displayed on a site overlooking the Temple Mount is either a statement of belief, or a clear provocation depending on how you look at it. It’s no wonder this area erupts in to violence on such a regular basis!