Yad Vashem and Mount Herzl

Today was a whole day in the classroom with an extended lunch break so I went for a walk up Mount Herzl with some of my classmates. The lectures today included Teaching Cultural and Spiritual Resistance, Age Appropriate Approaches to Teaching the Holocaust, Literary Responses to the Holocaust and Movies in the Classroom: Understanding and Teaching Fictional Holocaust Films. Once again all the lectures were fantastic, however the highlight was the movie lecture as the presenter was both extremely knowledgeable and hilarious. His name was Rich Brownstein and in 1989 he created what became Hollywood's largest transcription company, used by virtually every major studio and network, including NPR, ABC News and Oprah.  From this lecture I learned not to show Schindler's List, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Life is Beautiful which are all fairly standard movies to show at a high school level back home in Australia. Instead he recommended The Pianist (this is actually the film text I teach so I at least got that right) and Son of Saul which some of my students have actually recommended. He also gave us a 120 page manual full of information and different choices along with reviews so I will have to start watching some of these new options. 

The photos attached here are of Mount Herzl. At the top of the mountain is a memorial to the founding father of political Zionism and the modern State of Israel, Theodor Herzl.

On the way up the mountain we met these two soldiers and took some photos with them. It is still quite unusual for us to see all these young people walking around with their weapons so clearly displayed. Everyone in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) that we have met on the streets of Jerusalem has been unbelievably nice and keen to answer any questions. These two are 22 year olds who are now serving their fourth year in the IDF. They are members of the Search and Rescue Unit and this is why they wear the orange berets.

 

We had the option of going on a tour through the Israel Museum tonight but I, along with half of the group, opted out in favour of early dinner and bed. Tomorrow we are spending a full day in workshops with four survivors so I didn't want to be tired for that. It will be one of the highlights.