May 20: Jerusalem

What a fantastic day. I am blessed and privileged to be part of this gathering and journey. Rachel Monroe, Barry Schloss,  Rheta Schloss, and Benita Robinson of the Weinberg Foundation have all been wonderfully kind, caring, and gracious hosts. The speakers have been fantastic, the visits amazing and the schedule, order and pace have been superb.  Each member of the group that came together for this journey has been incredible and a gift to me. I am humbled to be part of this.

We started off the day with breakfast with David Zilberklang, senior historian at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem is the Jewish National Memorial to six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust including one and one half million children. The memorial also includes a historical museum and a children’s memorial. David made a thought-provoking presentation about the Holocaust, how it happened, why it happened, and why most of the world including my church and my country were bystanders as it happened. I reflected on his words as we toured the museum and memorial. The museum gave an incredible chronology of the Holocaust, told through the eyes and stories of survivors and those heroes who helped save so many lives. I left questioning how this could have happened and committing to never be a bystander in the face of injustice.

In the afternoon we toured the Christian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. We started at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which was built on the site of Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified and died, and on the site of the tomb where Jesus was laid and rose from the dead. This church was built by Constantine in the fourth century. This is the holiest of sites, shared by the Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and the Armenians. I was and am deeply moved by my visit and by praying at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. At the tomb of Jesus, I lit a candle for Erinn.

After leaving the church we continued down Via Delarosa through the Christian Section walking the Stations of the Cross in reverse order (since we started at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher). This was powerful and moving. Stations X through XIV are actually in the Church. We spent a good part of the afternoon walking the stations, ultimately arriving at the Mt. of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, and Church of Agony. What a moving experience! We read the Gospel of Matthew, reflecting on the words as we walked.

I reflected on the morning at Yad Vashem and the Holocaust and in the afternoon the journey through the Christian Section of the Old City and Passion of the Lord. In both cases, I ask how could this happen? How could there be so many be bystanders to these injustices? In Jesus’ case, he died so that he could rise again to save us all. The ultimate act of selfless love. However, as I think about injustice, I realize that there are always bystanders to injustice. If nothing else, we should not allow ourselves to become bystanders.

Friday evening was the Sabbath, so we celebrated Shabbat Shalom with our group (‘Team”) and invited guests including six Israeli lone soldiers. These lone soldiers were inspirational to me and the entire team. They have incredible love for the country and land of Israel and have come from foreign lands, alone to serve Israel. Typically, they come after high school. Men commit to three years of service and women to two years. Tadar and Talia were lone soldiers who sat at my table. Tadar and Talia are sisters. They came to Israel from Connecticut after high school to serve. Tadar just completed her service and will be reapplying to college in Israel. You see Tadar had been accepted to the University of Maryland and University of Connecticut as a high school senior but decided to serve in Israel instead. Now she wishes to go to school in Israel. Her sister Talia is just starting her service. She turned down an offer to Cornell to serve Israel.

The Shabbat program was fantastic and uplifting. We gathered in a circle, prayed, sang, danced and blessed and shared bread and wine. Although my Hebrew is not very good (I do not know Hebrew at all), I tried! It was wonderful celebrating the love and grace of God with my Team and members of diverse faiths. It was also amazing celebrating Shabbat while looking out at the Old City. This celebration was unifying and spiritual.

What a fantastic day! The most spiritual and uplifting day in our journey!