Our Stories

Reflections on visit to Yad VaShem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem

In early February 2020, our eighth graders went on their capstone trip to Israel. The experience was nothing short of transformational, fostering stronger Jewish identities and deepening the students’ connections to each other, their teachers, the land of Israel, and their heritage. As part of their trip, they visited Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Recently, they reflected on their experience at the museum. Below are a few excerpts:

Simon R, Eighth Grader:
I remember the structure of the museum, and how it was designed to force you through the whole museum, back and forth and forth and back. The museum got more cramped and full of stuff, and the size of the individual rooms shrank as you went through it.

Ilana K, Eighth Grader:
The whole museum had one clear path that moved through the years and it was in a zigzag. The first room represented Jewish life before the Holocaust and it was carpeted because it was supposed to feel like a luxury compared to the concrete floors of the rest of the museum. The museum was really focused on the individual people who were affected rather than them all as a whole. There was a display built in the floor showing piles of shoes taken from Jews before they stepped into the gas chambers to show the diversity. There was a room whose walls were covered with books with just lists of names. There was an entire section dedicated to the children who died. There were photos with people’s head shaved so they all looked the same and there was a record of a woman saying she didn’t recognize herself.

Luki L, Eighth Grader:
When we walked through the first building, we saw art by people from the Holocaust. They depicted many different things because no human has the same imagination…As we walked from the first building to the second, there were trees all around the path. The tour guide told us that those trees were planted for every person that helped Jews and other people who were being oppressed in the holocaust. She told us a story of a man who smuggled Jews out of Germany with his wife, ultimately saving hundreds or thousands of Jews. In the end, we went on a balcony facing the nearby city, signifying that even if we are oppressed and attacked, we can still rebuild and continue flourishing.