JERUSALEM

Thursday, March 4. What a day this has been!!! The weather was the coolest it has been (cloudy and in the low 60's). We started out going to the ancient City of David. We went through the water tunnels under the city. There were two tours you could take (one took you through the actual water tunnels in which the water can be waist deep and is freezing cold or the other tour took you through the dry tunnels) we took the dry tunnel tour. It was quite an adventure!!! It took about a half hour to go through descending many feet under the city. The path is so narrow in places that one could hardly get through. The paths were very rugged and the walls literally closed in on you. Those who are claustrophobic are really encouraged to not go. There were a few in our group who were nervous but everyone made it through. These tunnels were the original water source for Jerusalem. I cannot even imagine how they got the water up to land level. These were also the tunnels that King David and his army snuck through to conquer Jerusalem. The City of David is a part of Jerusalem where he resided and it was named for him.

We spent the afternoon at the Holocaust Museum. What an experience!!! I had never been to a museum dedicated just to the Holocaust. It was an extremely moving experience and I am still trying to process my emotions (even two days later as this is actually Saturday that I am posting). One of the exhibits that really moved me was the "Righteous Gentiles" statue. That is how the jews refer to those who sheltered them in their homes at the penalty of sure death if they were discovered. Our tour guide's parents were survivors of the Holocoust. They were in the late teens and just married when they went into hiding. They were sheltered by a Polish family. At one point the gestapo severely beat the father and his son (who was only 10 years old at the time) but they did not reveal that they were hiding jews, thus Pitch's parents survived. Pitch said his parents would not talk about their experiences until his children were born and asked questions, then his mother shared some of her experiences with them, but his father would never talk about it. Over 6 million jews were killed in the Holocoust. Not only were the jews targeted but the gypsies, the elderly, the disabled, basically anyone who was not "perfect". There were many videos of survivors telling their stories. I could only see a few because they made me so emotional. The exhibit though that affected me the most was an entire room filled with shoes (most of them burned) from those killed in concentration camps. Just seeing all those shoes . . . . Needless to say is was a very somber group when we got back on the tour bus.

We also visited the site of Jesus crucifiction and the garden tomb where he was laid. I am devoting an entire post to this. We are visiting some other sites directly related to Jesus' death and resurrection on Saturday and I will post about this then.

Shalom,

Diane