Day 6: Mt. Herzl

On the 6th day of Birthright, we went to Mt. Herzl. Mt. Herzl is a memorial for the soldiers and the Great Nation founders. Soldiers were remembered by coffins while the others were remembered by being a part of a group and having a large square like section for each group. The thing that I was surprised about was when generals and privates died in the military, the coffins were the same to show that the hierarchy did not matter that much. Soldiers and generals do a lot for Israel, and when a birthright trip visited Mt. Herzl, it convinced Max D. Steinberg to join the Israeli Military. He died young a couple years after and was not a well know person. His parents to told about the tragedy and were worried that no one will show up to the funeral. News got around about this, and to unknown soldier had a funeral with 30,000 guests, which is the biggest funeral in the history of Israel. I thought going to Mt. Herzl was important because of the memorizes it stores, and the ability to switch peoples perspective on what people want to do with there entire life.

-Gabe Press

Today we visited Mt. Hertzl, the burial place of Israeli heroes. We learned about the importance of remembrance which is evident in the sacrifice of the fallen. Each Israeli Memorial Day, soldiers are assigned to each grave of a fallen soldier so everyone is remembered.

We also visited Yad Vshem, the Israeli holocaust museum. Words cannot describe the overwhelming emotions we all felt. We learned about the existing antisemitism that made the rise of nazi Germany possible and European Jewish history preceding the war. This powerful experience further proves the necessity of a Jewish Homeland.

-Jenny Judenberg