The Witness of Yad Vashem

                                                                   Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 

My final Israel reflection blog entry is actually about an early experience during our time in Israel. While in Jerusalem we visited the rebuilt Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum. The original museum was created in the early 1950's and we had been there several times. Each visit was a sombre reminder of one of the horrors of humanity, the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis during World War 2. 

This more recent structure was designed by Moshe Safdie, the Canadian/Israeli/American architect who designed Habitat 67 in Montreal and the Yad Vashem Children's Memorial which honours the 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered. Here is the description of the museum which quadruples the area for display and reimagines how the grim story is told. 

 The Museum penetrates the mountain from the south as a prism-like hall, cutting underground and guiding visitors along a series of subterranean galleries. The entire hilltop remains a tranquil biblical landscape, with light piercing the Museum through skylights, creating a dramatic architectural experience which compliments the narrative of the exhibits. In the final moment, the visitors comes out to light, coming above ground, to the view of the Jerusalem Forest and a sense of renewal that life prevailed.

In this museum visitors move through the galleries which describe the persecution of Jewish cities in different European countries. It becomes apparent that the citizens of many nations were complicit in the marginalization, dispossession and murder of those who had been neighbours and even friends. It also reminds us that there is a long and shameful history of Christians stigmatizing Jews which culminated in the Holocaust. During the rise of the Nazis they were mocked and demonized, opening the way to the extermination camps. 

                                                                    Nazi Propaganda cartoon 

The Yad Vashem website offers: 

Hatred of the Jews had long been entrenched in Europe. The image of the Jew as the murderer of Jesus and the fact that Jews had rejected Christianity’s embrace led to widespread hatred and suspicion. Jews in Christendom were humiliated, banished from their places of residence, forced to wear identifying marks, and confined to separate residential quarters. They were portrayed as offspring of the Devil and accused of the ritual murder of Christian children...

                                        Menorahs plundered from European synagogues by the Nazis

As a Canadian at Yad Vashem I was aware that our country rejected Jews who were attempting to flee the Nazis prior to and during WW2. Today Canada has the fourth largest Jewish population in the world, with at least 350,000. Yet anti-semiticism exists in this country, conspiracy theories flourish, and hate crimes against individual Jews and synagogues are on the rise. 

We also found the gallery at Yad Vashem which features works by artists who didn't survive the persecution and the concentration camps. 

Yes, there were "Righteous Gentiles" who risked their own lives to protect Jews, and many of them were Christians. They are honoured at Yad Vashem as well and we can be grateful for their courage and faithfulness to Jesus, who was born and died a Jew. 

Thanks for your patience with these seven blog entries which somehow became ten!