Updates from Ramallah (and Yad Vashem!)

Sorry it has been a while--so long, in fact, that I just recently discovered forgotten pictures on my camera from the Beatles cover band concert I attended a month ago. It was strange to hear the familiar Beatles songs in Israeli accents (with Hebrew commentaries in between). The highlights of the concert included being in awkwardly close quarters with a tall, long-haired guy who looked like Jesus (dancing exuberantly), and getting personally serenaded by the lead singer during "Twist and Shout" when he jumped off the stage into the crowd.

This Friday, Shiri, Andrea, Emily and I finally made it to Yad Vashem ("Memorial and Name," a phrase taken from Third Isaiah), the Holocaust memorial in western Jerusalem. The complex is located on Mount Herzl (named after Theodore Herzl, the father of Zionism) and next to Jerusalem Forest. The architecture of the museum alone was spectacular, especially the Avenue of the Righteous (commemorating those who saved Jews in the Holocaust, like Oskar Schindler). As a Bible nerd, I wholeheartedly approved of the Ezekiel passage at the entrance to the main hall (first picture below).





This is the entrance to the Children's Memorial. Inside was a tall, totally dark room that was illuminated by small lights on the walls and ceilings, amplified by huge mirrors. A voice on the PA system read the names and nationalities of Holocaust victims who were children.



I do not remember what this room was called, but it housed the eternal memorial flame. On the floor were engraved the names of all the different concentration camps that operated during WWII.



The inside the museum was spectacular; no photography was allowed. I liked it much better than the Holocaust Memorial in Washington D.C. This museum placed a much larger focus on the pre-history to the Holocaust and the factors that allowed it to happened. The last room in the museum was the Hall of Names--the walls were lined with shelves, on which were hundreds of binders containing biographies of Jews who perished in the Holocaust. As you walk out of the museum, visitors end up on a sort of balcony overlooking the spectacular (and, at night, illuminated) city of Jerusalem.

After Yad Vashem, we journeyed downtown where we sampled some authentic Ethiopian food. The meal consisted of Ethiopian bread--a huge, gray, spongy pancake--and some toppings (most of which were pretty spicy).

On Saturday, we journeyed to Ramallah, the Arab city on the other side of the separation barrier (in the West Bank across from Jerusalem). The city was extremely energetic, and the people were all incredibly nice (if only the Palestinians and Israelis could be nice to each other!). One taxi driver hopped out of his cab to snap a picture with me, demanding to know if I liked Obama (I didn't comment).



We met another friendly Ramallah native named Jaber, who spoke English pretty well. Upon finding out that my friends are from California, Jaber said he had friends there too--in St. Louis. He took us on a guided tour of Ramallah, which included a tour of the hospital (where he demanded I take a picture of the MRI machine, below). Why he opted to take us here, we do not know (was he messing with us? Or just excited to be able to show somebody around?). Either way, we ditched Jaber and wandered through an energetic market (second picture below), stopping to sample some desserts (third picture below). I am not sure what the name of the dessert is (or what it is made of)... but I think I will stick with baklavah and rugelach.







Here are two more pictures from Ramallah--the busy main street, and a little piece of home (sort of)!





Getting back to Israel (through the checkpoint) was no easy task. After taking the bus from the city center, we were dropped off near the wall, and forced to walk 10 minutes to the pedestrian crossing. We waited in the narrow lanes for another 15 minutes, before having our bags searched and having to present our visas to the IDF soldiers. The process was at least a half-hour long... and this was not even during rush hour. Imagine doing that to get to work every day?