Monday Raz and I set out for my second trip to Jerusalem. This time we drove, it's only about 40 minutes driving from Rishon Lezion. We spent most of the day in Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum set in a beautiful wooded area on the outskirts of the city. This museum, though it's overwhelming, is extremely well designed and carried out. It was quite a sobering experience, but a fantastic educational tool and opportunity to reconsider humanity and the things we are capable of doing, both in terms of what we are capable of overcoming and surviving and the horrors that people are capable of inflicting on each other.
This view awaits you as you exit the museum. It was renewing to see something so peaceful and beautiful after seeing so many difficult things. We spent around 4 hours in the museum and barley brushed all the exhibits, video interviews, and displays that were inside. There are so many stories, so much to see and learn from. The weight of the museum hit me at the exhibit showing hundreds of shoes recovered from the concentration camps. something so tangible, so personal. Everyone who has an opportunity to visit this museum should take full advantage, the building itself is beautifully designed and the exhibit inside is incomparable and humbling.
After the museum we walked through the hills in the town of Ein Karem. Raz used to come here and paint landscapes, and I can see why, it's beautiful.
The Church of the Visitation is in this area and we were able to stop in for a visit before it closed.
We spent the evening with Raz's grandmother in Jerusalem. She was a sweet woman, and despite my complete lack of hebrew skills and her limited english I enjoyed her company. It was really a wonderful day. We got a good nights rest so that we could head out early the next morning to the Dead Sea.
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