Into the desert

To my dismay,the only internet I'm able to access in the desert is from my cell phone and so I won't be able to post pictures until tomorrow morning :( We have had a wonderful time here in the South, and I will hopfefully get some kids to report all about it when I upload the pictures.

Can We Smile?

The tour at Yad Vashem is 3 hours long. The museum is in a long triangular prism with skylights, made entirely of windowless concrete. The exit is what you see above. You look out at the country that's risen out of the ashes of the Holocaust, and likely you take a photo with the overlook. But the question is, can we smile?

Their teacher couldn't really answer without choking up, so one student stepped up and said something like "I think yes. We're in Israel. We're part of what the people we remember here never had, a safe place for Jews to be Jews. Certainly we remember the Holocaust, and we don't forget how lucky we are to be free, but if they are looking down at us - they'll want to see happy, healthy Jewish children that think about a bright future in the land over which we're perched." (Something like that). So they smiled and we left.

Later in the night, we had an evening program along the same theme. They split into groups and drew smiley faces - unique smiley faces, though, showing how despite what we know about what happened, we keep living and smiling. Below are the drawings that the groups and writing the groups came up with.

Hope

When the Shabbat candles dwindle, but

Our souls burn brighter than ever.

When the excruciating hunger becomes our neverending passion

When the sight of a loved one becomes your will to survive

When you hear their voice, and you wake up every morning to hear it again 

When you must watch your brothers being murdered and vow to avenge them, to make it out alive
When you hear the liberators and you don't know whether to run, scream, or cry
When you finally reach the Holy Land.
When you realize you are free.
Your children will be free,
And their children will be free.
This is hope.

Barbed wires of restraint,

               Olive branches of hope.

Work makes freedom,

               The freedom of statehood.

The colours of our suffering,

               Become the colours of our pride.

Our source of light burning in the flames,

               The flames shedding on us its hope in the light.

The stars on our coats that made us different

               On the flag over Zion makes all the difference.

Eyes: The eyes that looked into the Holocaust are now filled with shining hope for the future. We also light a candle to remember, and so these eyes are reminding us of the people who lost their lives.

Tears: The tears of pain and anguish under Nazi oppression turned into tears of joy and happiness at the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel. The tears are under the eyes, which are flames, because the State of Israel was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust. The tears start out red to symbolize the swastika, and then blue to symbolize the magen David.

Nose/Border: The nose and white border make up the Israeli flag. They also represent another thing. During the Holocaust, the Jewish people wore the star with shame, and now they wear it with pride.

Mouth: The mouth says remember because we have to remember the horrors of the Holocaust in order to move on into the light of the future. Also, we speak from our mouths, and in order to tell the stories of the Holocaust and remember, we need to educate people.

Our whole drawing revolves around the theme that from the terrible occurrence of the Holocaust rose a free Jewish state.

Our picture represents a plethora of different ideas and implications of the Holocaust in a simple face. Our picture focuses on the fact that whatever horrible events affect a person or a group, freedom and hope will always prevail. The outside line of the face is spelled out of various death camps with Nazi black and red colours. This represents that regardless of the atrocities that the Nazis committed, the smile and defiance of the Jewish people will always shine through. The mouth of the face represents that the Jews will always fight for and sacrifice for freedom.

The eyes contain little balls of fire, which represent candles with Yizkor written in them. The Jews must always remember what happened and commemorate the fight for freedom and hope amidst the Nazi machine. A dove in the background also represents that  hope is behind every smile and beyond all the horrors still lies hope.

I see the people rush to me,

The kick me and beat me,

I feel as there will be no tomorrow.

I am a number, not a face, not a human,

How much hope is there in the nothing 

which is all we have,

I come to see hope,

Out of ashes, out of graves.

They save us, we are like them,

I see joy in people,

and happiness in skin and bones,

I lived through death,

and only God could be my saviour.

Jerusalem for Shabbat

From the reports, it sounds like the kids had a nice time either with their families or having the true Israeli experience of Yom Ha'atzmaut on the beach. This morning we left Tel Aviv to visit Rishon LeZion's Gan HaManhigim, to Rehovot to visit Machon Ayalon, and back to Jerusalem to Machne Yehuda, Har Herzl, and the Kotel for kabbalat Shabbat.

While the shopping doesn't really fit in, the day's activities created a theme of leadership and learning about what it means to sacrifice for Israel and the Jewish people. Yoel challenged them with the question "would there be a state of Israel without the Holocaust?" and let them know how impressed he was with their responses. He told us a moving story about a man he had worked with who died in the Second Lebanon War at his graveside.

There are several kids who are going to come home and announce they want to join the IDF. I told them about some programs like Gadna and Marva, and that they don't have to make final decisions right now.

Shabbat at the kotel was very lively, and we were even joined by Mor which was a lovely surprise. Then we walked back to the hotel and..... ate.

But why not have a really long day right before Shabbat? Tomorrow will be very relaxed, people are planning to sleep in quite a bit. Shabbat shalom!

The trip is now half over, or has it only half begun?

For Yom HaZikaron, we went to Har Vagai school in Kibbutz Dafna for their ceremony. We then went over to the kibbutz cemetery and saw a very moving ceremony with families of fallen soldiers. The helicopter memorial from the 1997 crash is also located near the kibbutz. When the bus arrived, we went to the cemetery at Kfar Giladi to see Joseph Trumpeldor's grave and the memorial for the Tel Hai fighters.

After lunch in Kfar Blum, we drove down to the big tapuach - Tel Aviv. There was about an hour and a half, and then off to mini-Israel for the Yom HaAtzmaut party. At mini-Israel were all the March of the Living groups from across Canada - about 800 teenagers and young adults. And they were in a celebratory mood.

Today some kids are visiting with family/friends, and some are going to the park and the beach. Chag sameach!