Day 17 - Yad V'Shem, Ein Kerem
After a festive barbecue and social with the incredibly kind, hilarious, intelligent, and hospitable monks of Dormition last night--a real highlight of this trip for many of us, I guess things had to come down a little bit today, but it is still something one has to do on any visit to Israel. Yad V'Shem is Israel's Holocaust Memorial Museum, similar to ones in Washington D.C. and Berlin. The museum's title translates from Hebrew to "Place and Name"--a reference to the fact that for a long time many of the victims of this atrocity were almost faceless and at least personally forgotten, until they could be given a place and a name in which to be remembered. It, of course, holds special significance here in Israel as it was the Holocaust that helped shed light on the need to move forward on the earlier Balfour Declaration from after World War I promising to establish a Jewish state in part of the British Mandate of Palestine.
Of course any such circumstances become messy, and pieces are still being picked up today, but the fact remains that the necessity for a Jewish homeland certainly hits home when one gets a stark reminder of what happened in the twelve horrific years of Hitler's rule in Germany. Every exhibit, every section of the museum is powerful, from the very shape of the building, seemingly on the premise of moving up a slight incline (perhaps implying hope for an uphill climb for society from the lessons learned from such an occurrence) as well as moving from darkness at the beginning of the exhibits to light at the end (and a beautiful view of Jerusalem). Of course there are plenty of unpleasant stops along the way, to pictures from the barracks of the death camps, a model of those very same barracks, as well as of the cattle cars used to transport prisoners to their death, and many explanations of where the roots of this attempted genocide derived and how it evolved into concrete plans and ultimately, actions that, while thankfully ultimately failed in their final aim, certainly came much closer to achieving it than should be able to happen in a civilized world. Some of us did think, though, that there was perhaps an overemphasizing of the connection to earlier Christian anti-Semitism without enough of an acknowledgement of the likely even greater role that secularism played.
It was discussed at dinner tonight that writings from Hitler's secretary, published after his death, reveal that although Hitler used religious rhetoric in some of his speeches, what he said when his conversations were not meant for public consumption made perfectly clear that it was nothing but an act to string along a still religious German population and that Hitler himself was highly anti-religion and thought of it in much the same way as Karl Marx did--as an "opiate for the masses to keep them in line." This segued into a couple of other interesting discussion topics including my positing that perhaps there is a bit of a political agenda to emphasizing the older Christian influence over the more immediate secular influence because at the moment Israel has, at the very least, a much larger secular population than they do a Christian one, so I thought perhaps they figured, better to ruffle the Christians' feathers than the secularists. But maybe that's a bit cynical. Oh well, you never know what's really on people's minds.
Fr. Michael also noted that Germany has tried like no other perpetrator of any previous historical wrong to make concrete amends and heal the wounds, to whatever extent they possibly can be healed, and this in many ways was done on both sides through religious influences of many types, while the actual hatred of the Nazis was indeed rooted more in a secular worship of the state and race. Other topics came up involving the much debated role of Pope Pius XII and how more work has been emerging recently that he may have felt that by speaking out too loudly he was actually doing more harm than good, as several times his vocal statements had actually seemed to lead to more killings directly in immediate response, and that he felt he could do the most good more quietly and discretely, through such moves as ordering cloisters to open their doors to Jewish refugees. One exhibit does acknowledge that Jews in Italy fared much better than in much of the rest of Europe, with around 80% surviving. Whatever the case, it's all a lot to think about and too much to take in and accurately process in one day. Sometimes that takes more like a lifetime.....
Today also included a stop at Ein Kerem, the old home for this trip in fact, in the early years that Fr. Michael ran it. This section of modern West Jerusalem is home to the Visitation Church, traditionally held to be the location of Mary's visit to her sister, Elizabeth, as well as another church commemorating the birth of Elizabeth's son, John the Baptist, sometimes described as being the second coming of the prophet Elijah. We ended the night with a visit to the East Jerusalem home (and quite a beautiful one at that) of the owner of our tour company, where we had quite a pleasant visit and some more good laughs. Only two more days now, with tomorrow holding visits to the ancient fortress Masada--site of the most significant act of mass martyrdom in the history of Judaism, followed by a swim in the Dead Sea (hope nobody has any cuts--if so, OUCH!!!) and finally a visit to Qumran, the location of the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. Good night all, yet another toast to a lasting peace, all the more urgent when one is rudely reminded what humans can be capable of (and some still incite today). May it one day be not so......
Alex
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