Today was a very emotional, yet fascinating and exciting day in Israel as we spent our first full day in Jerusalem. We started out going to the Old City, then we went to the Western Wall, to the Jewish Quarter, the Western Wall and then Mt Herzl.
In the Old City, we began by looking at King David's Tomb, which was intimate in its small and simple setting. Learning the history of the Old City along the way, we entered the Jewish Quarter through the Zion Gate. There are four quarters in the Old City: The Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian Quarters. Once in the Jewish Quarter, we saw the rebuilding of the largest synagogue in the City,called the Hurvah Synagogue which was destroyed by the Jordanians in the years following the War of Independence when Jordan controlled the Old City.
We continued to the Southern Wall Excavations and saw Robinson's Arch, which in its day was the largest arch in the world. Through our views from the Jewish Quarter, we could see the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa Mosque. We proceeded to the Western Wall, and on the way we could hear the Muslim's call to prayer.
We then finally reached the Western Wall. The Kotel, as it is called in Hebrew, was actually not part of the Temple at all, but rather it was part of the retaining wall which was built around the Temple Mount to make it bigger during the period of the Second Temple. The western part is the most holy because it is the only area that has always been exposed. The Wall was very emotional and moving. The women's and men's portions of the wall were separate. It was surprising how much larger the men's side was than the women's. Never the less, women or men, religious or non-religious, we were all moved by the Western Wall. Many of us put prayers and wishes on slips of paper and placed them between the cracks in the wall. We were surrounded by people, including a Bat Mitzvah family. The women watched their loved ones have a bar mitzvah over the portion which divided the men from the women, threw candy and chanted.
After our trip to the Western Wall, we were able to explore the Jewish Quarter on our own, shopping an eating schwarma and felafel for lunch. After we went through the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, we visited the famous grave sites on Mt Herzl.
It was extremely moving, especially coming off of our visit to the Western Wall where I think everyone felt some type of emotional connection. Our guide, Koren, our tour guide, pointed out how his high school was just across the way. It made us realize how intertwined life and death is here in israel. We visited the grave of a soldier who died in the arms of one of our Mifgash Soldiers, Kobi. It was moving and difficult for him to talk about.
Then Rabbi Ed took us to visit the grave of Alex Singer, a Cornell student who felt so strongly about the State of Israel that he made Aliyah to Israel after he graduated and joined the Tzahal (the IDF). When the Rabbi pointed out how Alex trckked up Libe Slope in the snow (like all of us) and took Psych 101 (like all of us), it really hit home and drew a major distinction in the difference in our lives. After Alex made Aliyah and became an officer in the Paratroopers, he was killed in battle in the first Lebanon War in 1987. We also saw the graves of Yitzchak Rabin and Golda Meir and other famous Israeli political figures.
The end of our tour was with a visit to the grave of Theodore Hertzl, the founder of modern Zionism. The mountain was named for Hertzl and his grave is beautiful and moving. It had a hemic circular structure behind it which to me looked like the rising sun on the State of Israel -very appropriate for a man such as Hertzl.
Mt Hertzl was a beautiful experience. It was especially interesting to see how all the graves were uniform and how each were commemorated, and how through the tears it has become more personal. In the end we got to see a beautiful sunset, which seemed to be a perfect way to our first full day in JERUSALEM!
-Robin Warren '08, Jessie Schaevitz '08, and Jacie Stramberg '08
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