MARCH OF THE LIVING JOURNAL

Tuesday, April 12, 1994 (cont'd) - Yom Hazikaron (night) - Ramada Renaissance hotel, Jerusalem

ISRAEL

[description of Tuesday, April 12, 1994]

Arriving at Ben Gurion airport on Tuesday morning, I truly felt like I was home. Besides the pleasant change in weather, it felt as if the air itself was different. As amazing as this was for me, I kept thinking of how incredible it must have been for the many kids on my bus for whom this was their first time in Israel. I'd been excited to come, and, given the fact that I had been there a week earlier, and had spent a lot of time there before that, I was enthusiastically describing Israel to my friends who had never been there as if I owned the country. We soon left the airport, after meeting our new Israeli tour guides, and started on the road to Jerusalem.

Our very first stop in Jerusalem was not at the hotel to drop off our things and wash up, but at the Kotel. Tired as we all were, it was incredible to go straight from Poland to the Western Wall - I can only imagine what it must have been like for those who were at the Wall for the first time. Even though I'd been there plenty of times before, everything I was seeing and doing seemed different, being in the context of having just experienced Poland. One can only wonder how things might have gone differently if there had been a Jewish homeland at the dawn of the second World War. At the wall, we prayed, and I felt a tremendous connection to G-d and the Jews throughout history. With all the thoughts going through my head, I prayed with more intense concentration than I had prayed with in a long time.

After leaving the Kotel, we went to a nearby park to have breakfast. The weather, once again went right along with our mood. For the first time, the sun was shining brightly on us. Just sitting out on the grass, eating in the sun was more than enough to make us happy.

Following breakfast, we went to Migdal David (David's tower) in the Old City for a tour. I had seen the fortress-turned-museum before, so I spent most of the time just relaxing and sunbathing with a group of friends. We spent some time walking around the Old City itself - including passing by the place where I'll be spending next year, Yeshivat Hakotel. Even my non-religious friends were jealous of the opportunity I'd be having to spend a year in the Old City. We ate lunch in the Jewish Quarter, and then we were off to our next stop. This was a 200 year old Armenian Quarter house, which had been excavated. After walking through, we were given a lecture on archaeology. By this time I was nearly collapsing, and I took a much needed nap during the lecture. After this, we went back to the Kotel, to see the newly excavated tunnels there. There was a moving model of the Kotel in relation to the rest of the temple, and we walked down most of the length of the Western wall, which helped me imagine just how huge the temple had actually been. All in all, the day was interesting, but I was fairly exhausted, and had already seen most of what we saw, so I was more than happy to finally get to the hotel.

Finally, we checked in to the Ramada Renaissance hotel in Jerusalem. It seemed like paradise, especially after what we had been accustomed to during the past week. After a few free hours to wash up, unpack, eat, and relax, we headed over to Binyanei Ha'ooma, which was within walking distance, for a ceremony for Yom Hazikaron, which was Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. The ceremony brought the entire march together once again, and seeing everyone together in Israel, filling up a huge conference center to pay tribute to the Israeli soldiers who fell during the past half-century, lent a feeling of completion, of the circle somehow being closed. The ceremony was excellent, and afterwards, President Weizman addressed us. At the end, Hatikvah was sung. The involuntary association of this time with the one just a few days before standing atop the crematoria at Birkenau was eerie. While very moving in its own right, it was all the more meaningful given the echoes of the Auchwitz ceremony.

Still moved by the ceremony, we headed back to the hotel for the night. I spent a few hours in the lobby, talking with friends. Some of the people I knew who were spending the year there also came to visit.


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