Today I went with a few friends to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in the new city of Jerusalem. I haven't been to the holocaust museum in D.C. to compare but those who have tell me that the American museum is far more focused on the actions of the Allied Forces whereas the one in Israel primarily tells the stories of Jewish communities, families and individuals and many non-Jews who risked their lives to save the Jews.
Yad Vashem is a huge complex with a number of outdoor memorials, set in gardens (and including a haunting memorial to the 1.5 million children who died in the holocaust - you walk inside and you're surrounded by darkness, a few candles and refracted glass that makes the candles appear to multiply). The main attraction is a museum shaped like a very long prism, set into a mountain with either end sticking out (to symbolize the moral darkness of the holocaust era). At the "beginning" end the prism is intact but at the "ending" end it splits into two. It's a really unique design feature, especially since both ends of the prism are off the ground. I think the split end is meant to symbolize the regeneration of the Jewish people.
Inside the prism is a zigzag path through several exhibits with tons of written information in chronological order. This way you can't skip around and you're forced to do what you probably wanted to do anyway, which is piece together the events as they happened. There's such information overload that by the time you reach the exhibits about the horrors of extermination campaigns and the brave efforts to save individual Jews or whole Jewish communities or populations within countries, which start coming about halfway through, you're fairly dizzy. I think if I were to go again I'd start halfway through...though I don't know if I would go back. I felt sick all day. Yet, at the same time I felt a certain distance from the events depicted. It is hard to imagine such a thing happening in the world today. Yet such horrible things do happen although on a smaller and less noticeable scale. I wonder how much time it will take for our consciousness as a race to be elevated to the point that such acts, whether on a small or grand scale, become totally unthinkable.
After leaving Jerusalem we went to Max Brenner outside of Tel Aviv. I thought it was weird that we planned to go to such a happy place after the holocaust museum (I didn't write up the itinerary) but I really appreciated it after feeling sick all day. It's a chocolate-themed chain restaurant with only a few branches in different countries around the world, and I think I know why it's popular in Israel--the country not being famous for its excellent chocolate, the stuff found here is generally low-quality and much too sweet. I had the banana split waffles with whipped cream, caramelized bananas, ice cream, a side of chocolate-covered crunchy things and another side of liquid chocolate to pour on top. I ended up wishing I were a bigger fan of chocolate (and giving half my plate to a bigger chocolate fan than I) but I hugely appreciated the presentation. Every dish was a work of art. If I were to open a chocolate-themed restaurant, or any restaurant (or do anything, really), I'd borrow its aesthetic.
