MARC BOIN'S ISRAEL DIARY

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Day 8 (Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008)

The day was rather emotional.  We went to a lecture today from the president of the Israeli Religious Action Committee, Anat Hoffman.  She mentioned that the American Jewish population is doing a crummy job at getting our youth over to Israel so that they can rediscover their roots and reinvigorate their religious identity.  I know that many people that come over here return to the United States as changed people.

Right after that, we went to Yad Vashem, the official Holocaust Museum here.  Sharon gave us a guided tour of the entire place, with her speaking into a microphone and each of us wearing headsets.  Since they had numerous original pieces and many horrific scenes (including hundreds of “abandoned” shoes and an original railcar), the whole experience was very disturbing.  The museum ended with an opening facing the modern city of Jerusalem, showing that we are facing the future of Israel by looking to our countryside and what we are building.  Yad Vashem was quite emotional.  It's something I feel I needed to see, but it wasn't a very pleasant set of memories.

We went out for a quick lunch (delicious “fast food” falafel) and then went through Mount Herzl.  This is the "official" cemetery for prominent officials who helped to form and govern the early state of Israel.  Theodore Herzl came up with the whole concept of Israel in the late 1800's, and there is a phenomenal monument in his honor.  We saw the gravesites of Golda Meier, Yitzhak Rabin, and several other prominent people.  The cemetery tour finished by viewing several war monuments and gravesites of soldiers killed in various Israeli conflicts.

We finished the day by taking a driving geopolitical tour of modern Jerusalem.  The intent was to show us the security wall and how the city is currently being partitioned.  Unfortunately, the weather turned quite cold and breezy with a massive fog rolling in.  Visibility was obstructed, and the tour did not accomplish its goal, other than to have us read the ARZA script that Sharon brought along.

After we got back to the hotel, our entire group went out to dinner together.   There is a restaurant right across the street from our hotel called the Fish & Olive.  Dinner was somewhat expensive by Jerusalem standards - I paid around $35 for a Tilapia & Pasta dinner - but it was quite delicious.  Besides, it's fun when all 11 of us get together to socialize.  From there, I walked back to Ben Yehudah Street (again!) to do some more shopping.  Unfortunately, Sunday night is nothing special, so a lot of stores closed early.  However, I picked up some more goodies while I was down there, so with any luck, my shopping is done.  Yay!