Strength from Sorrow

On Monday, I visited Yad VaShem. Althought I have been there before, this was a different visit. Past visits have been with groups when there were responsibilities to look after other people and to follow a set schedule. This was a personal visit on a rainy winter day, coming on foot and leaving on foot, with time to meander, reflect and look at special exhibits. The new section is powerful in presentation and in its very architecture. One zig-zags through the main building, following the trajectory of European Jewry's destruction, and its defiance, sprititual and material resistance to evil and in the case of some, survival. The main building ends with concrete walls peeling away to the left and right revealing the sky above the city of Jerusalem. Apporaching this point my gaze and prayers went skyward toward the souls of those who perished.

Three new sections presented themselves: The Shoah in Cinema; Art and Children in the Shoah; and Survivors in Israel. The first is a media library showing films on the Shoah. I paged through many movie posters for various films from many nations. After reading last month a few snide comments from reviewers in the Times and New York Magazine about "yet another Holocaust film"--as if the topic could ever be adequately addressed--I was struck by the number of fine works that contribute to the struggle to incorporate and address the Shoah through cultural expression. Creativity is one counterpoint to evil. The Art and Children section offers a captivating and heartbreaking glimpse into the creative expression by and for Jewish children during the Shoah (Hebrew term for Holocaust). A series of slides projected on the wall portrayed riveting images of illustrations a Jewish father named Carol Deutsch created for his daugher Ingrid's Bible, as a birthday gift. Carol did not survive the war, he was murdered by the Nazis. But his daughter lived and recovered the Bible from Christian neighbors after liberation. The section on Survivors in Israel chronicles the postive choices and contributions Holocaust Survivors have made and are still making for the State of Israel and Israeli Society. This colorful display detailed the biographies of top acheivers in the arts, in graphic design, writing, film, sport, industry, science, politics and other aspects of Israeli life. From Leah Gottlieb, the founder of Gottex swimwear and fashion house, to the Ephraim Kishon, columnist and writer who created one of the best-ever Israeli movies, Salach Shabbati, the survivors indelibly shaped the newborn state and society in many ways. Israel would not be the Israel we know without them. It was encouraging to see that Yad Vashem is seeking to acknowledge these contributions and to change the image and understanding of this population. The resilience, creativity and accomplishment of this group of human beings is staggering when one contemplates what they experienced.

Trips to Poland are now becoming a regular part of the high school experience for many Israeli teens. Two young Israelis, one 21 and one 17, each mentioned their Poland trips as deeply moving experiences that changed them and left a lasting influence on their identity. Shira, shared an art project she made in her Senior year of high school which expressed her emotions and thoughts upon returing from this trip. A set of tefillin with headstones for batim and barbed wire for straps, a menorah of yizkor candles, stones and a central flame from beneath a clay dome, mezuzot fashioned from gas canisters and a havdalah box in the shape of a wooden camp guard tower make a powerful art installation. Apparently, Shira had to push against some censorship at school before her project was allowed to be presented. She explains that she was expressing the yearning for G-d in a time of great trouble and disaster, a maintaining of Jewish identity at a time of the worst imaginable suffering. Shira recounts stories she learned on the trip of some Jews who uttered Shema Yisrael before being shot by the SS. As a teen, she needed to reconcile her own yearning for connection with the Divine presence and her feelings of pain and loss. Such depth strength and insight from a young person gives hope for the future.

Signing the guest book for Yad Vashem, one sees entries from all over the world: from Cincinatti, Ohio, from India, and one comment written in Chinese pictographs. Many Israel soldiers were ther Monday, along with groups speaking Spanish, Russian, English and Hebrew. On the way back, there is a steep path that links Yad Vashem with Mount Herzl cemetery. A short climb leads to the circle of tombs for Israel's leaders. As dusk approached, there was time to place a stone on Golda Meir's grave and Yitzchak Rabin, and to pay respects to Theodore Herzl. The visionary who imagined it all. What would these leaders think today, as elections loom?