Day 4 in Jerusalem

Our first stop this morning was to the Israel Museum which houses the Dead Sea scrolls.   Obviously photos were not allowed!  Tomorrow we go to the sight of the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls so will provide more information after that excursion.

Our next stop was the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum.  The name means 'a place and a name,' and was given to provide just that to the 6 million Jews who lost their life during this terrible chapter of world history.  The location of the museum is beautiful - on a hill with nice gardens.  The exhibits are very impactful and moving, with videos of survivors telling their stories, amongst other media that tell the story as a whole.  Again, no photos in the actual museum but there is an outdoor exhibit called of the Garden of the Righteous among the Nations, which has trees planted in honor of Gentiles who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust.  Oskar Schindler is the most well known of these to most Americans and his tree is below.

Below is part of the children's memorial and the symbolism as explained to us by the guide is multidimensional so I will do my best to explain a few things.  The white stone statues are jagged on the edge to represent the unfinished lives of the children.  Cyprus trees which were the same height when planted are now taller than the statues, symbolizing the children's lives which were truncated.  The last symbolism is on the rock on the bottom right - you can see metal rods sticking up (they kind of look like branches).  This is a typical way to build a house or structure here, to leave the rods visible for future expansion.  But since the rods represent the children, this structure will never be able to expand, since the children are dead.  1.5 million children died in the Holocaust.

After the museum we went to the Old City Jewish Quarter.

This photo above is a depiction of what the market place in the temple looked like.  Recall from the Bible that this is where Jesus drove out the money changers, merchants etc who were dishonest.  

This is a view of Jerusalem city skyline including a Muslim monument (the gold dome) that honors Abraham and his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac.  

To end the day, we spent some time at the Jerusalem Archeological Museum  and these steps are the original steps outside the city wall by the temple that Jesus actually walked on....as our guide told us, many of the sites we have seen are the 'traditional' sites but these steps are original!

Karen