Mary's travels: Holocaust Museum

Sunny day! We visited a Menorah in a park across the street from the Kenesset that was a gift from the British. It depicts several scenes from the Bible.

Next we walked to the Shrine of the Scrolls where they have copies/originals of the scrolls found in Qumran. On the same site was a model of the old city.

site of the Dead Sea Scrolls

scale model of the Old City

This model was originally at a hotel, but the hotel was torn down and new construction was to go in it's place so they moved it. It is a 50:1 scale model. The amazing thing about it is that none of the excavation had gone on in the city yet, so the designer relied only on written sources such as the Bible and other historical records. He was fairly accurate .

the arches leaving the Holocaust Museum

The verse quoted is Ezekiel 37:14. The museum, Yad Vashem, was built with raw concrete to represent an unsealed experience. The first museum was started in the 1950's and was the first Holocaust Museum. The thought was that " if it is not remembered here it won't be remembered anywhere".

There is also a museum dedicated to the 1,500,000 children killed during the holocaust. The parents of a two-year-old, who was ripped out of the mother's arms by a guard so the mother's life could be saved, provided the funds to build this memorial.

When leaving both museums you are lead to overlook the hills of Jerusalem.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

This is the Orthodox Church's site for the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus. One interesting story we heard happened in the late 1800's. Evidently, the Greek Orthodox and the Armenians could not agree on who should have possession of the key that locked the doors, so since then the doors are locked and unlocked everyday by a Muslim!

The last site we saw today was excavated under where the current Jewish quarter of the city is located. It is the home/complex of some of the wealthy in Jerusalem. It may even be the home of Caiaphas, the high priest that questioned Jesus.