Today started off serious and somber as the country commemorated Israel's Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day. Our morning was especially meaningful, with a three hour visit to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. The Museum is a powerful testimony to the events of the Holocaust. We had an excellent guide from the Museum who engaged the students in trying to understand and reflect on the atrocities of the Holocaust. Some of the students shared that the Children's Memorial was the most moving part of the Museum for them, where we walked through a dark circular hallway illuminated by five candles. The candles reflected in mirrors to look like thousands of candles. As we walked we heard the continual reading of children's names and ages that were killed in the Holocaust.
At 11:00 am we once again stood in silence with the rest of the country as the sirens sounded for two minutes.
After lunch we returned to our Hostel in Tel Aviv and the kids enjoyed some free time 😄
After dinner we drove to our sister city Kiryat Ekron and had an amazing evening! Thank you so much to our Shlichim, Tohar and Ofri, for arranging our visit to celebrate Yom Haatzmaut (Israel's Independence Day) in Kiryat Ekron! The city organized a large group of high school kids (mostly 9th graders) to greet us at their Youth Lounge. They were incredibly friendly to everyone! I cannot tell you how heartwarming it was to see our kids conversing and playing games with them! Then we all went outside to the city Independence Day celebration. It was so festive with families, food, performances and fireworks! At one point they invited a few of us on stage to receive an official certificate of appreciation to the Akron Jewish Federation for their financial support of special programming for underprivileged Ethiopian Jewish children.
All in all, a wonderful day!
Happy Yom Haatzmaut, Israel's 67th Independence Day!!
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