Winter Taglit-Birthright Israel: DC Community Trip Day 6

The Holocaust is a scar across the face of humanity, and Yad Vashem is a literal scar on the landscape of Israel. Early Sunday morning our group ventured to the Holocaust memorial museum for the most gut-wrenching three hours of our trip through Israel. A prism-shaped building that cuts through a hillside outside Jerusalem, the primary structure of Yad Vashem presents the Holocaust from the victim's perspective from the beginnings of modern anti-Semitism through Eichmann's trial in 1961. We saw the sadness of the ghettos, the terrors of the gas chambers, and the placid faces of mass murderers who never fired a single bullet. It is impossible to describe the confusion, anger, and despair we felt in that building, but one lasting memory will be the hope we felt when the end of the main hall opened up to a vista overlooking the hills of Jerusalem and the modern Jewish state. We continued through several ancillary areas of Yad Vashem, walking through the children's memorial and then the Valley of Communities, a rocky canyon constructed to memorialize every European community affected by the Holocaust.

Throughout the entire trip, our days have been packed and Sunday was no different. While the names and faces of Yad Vashem will be forever etched in our minds, we nonetheless ventured away from Jerusalem and south into the Negev. As the landscape changed from green mountains to plains and then desert, our amazing driver Hussein demonstrated his mastery of the south's treacherous roads, though even he was unable to prevent a short delay when the road was blocked for an IDF training exercise. While Bus 229 sat idle, cars, trucks, and boys on donkeys and bikes simply went off-road through the dunes. In short order we arrived at the Bedouin tent camp that became our home for 12 hours. We were greeted not only by our hosts but also by camels and donkeys. Those beasts of burden took us on a brief tour of the site, one of the highlights of our trip. After the walk we stole away to our tent to claim a prized mattress in our 45-person tent before our host, Haled, welcomed us with tea, coffee, and an introduction to Bedouin culture. Yes, he said, they have plumbing, satellite television, and laptop computers - and tell great jokes - but above all they value their traditional way of life, the beauty of the desert, and the expression of hospitality. Haled invited all of us to his house on Tuesday for goat, and after the traditional feast of lamb, rice, and pita we had at night, we were sad to pass up on his offer.

Our day, which began at Yad Vashem, ended with a sing-a-long around a bonfire. Absurd, really, to move so quickly from visions of trauma in the lush beauty of Jerusalem to warm hospitality amid the barren rocky dunes of the Negev Desert. No time to think too hard about it though...sleep beckons with another early morning over the horizon.

Abram Fox, Laurel, MD