Yad Vashem

Only a short post today. This was my first day at Yad Vashem, the International School for Holocaust Studies. Today's program included a lecture on Jews and Judaism with Rabbi Moshe Cohn and then a lecture on Educational Philosophy by Shulamit Imber, Yad Vashem's pedagogical director. If the calibre of these two was anything to go by I am in for an excellent 3 weeks of learning. After lunch, (a choice of salad bowl and a piece of fruit) which luckily is provided by Yad Vashem (everything is super expensive here) we were taken on a bus tour of Jerusalem with Ephraim Kaye, the Project Director of the Gandel Program. We have an armed guard with us wherever we go and he sits right at the front of our bus whenever we are travelling.

The following photo is the view from my classroom. It ended up clouding over as the morning progressed and by lunchtime all you could see outside the window was a heavy white fog.

Below is a photo of me with one of the Israeli soldiers. She was 20 and in her second year of service. Note her AK-47 and the pile of machine guns on the left hand side of the photo with the backpacks. The soldiers who owned these backpacks were patrolling inside the school and she was minding their weapons. There are certain areas where the army are not allowed to carry their assault rifles and Yad Vashem is one of them.

I spoke with some of the soldiers today and I learned that they were conscripted at 18 years old and women served two years and men three. They were issued a weapon on joining and then were required to carry that weapon at all times until their discharge. During this conscription period they told me that they were given enough money to buy food while they were 'at work' and enough for cigarettes. I don't think I've seen a soldier who doesn't smoke. If they chose to remain in the army as a career after their conscription period the salary was very good. I was impressed to hear that although  these young people were not paid a wage as such, the Israeli government does put aside a certain amount of money for each year of their service. Upon their discharge they are given this money to use to either establish a business or pay their way through a university course. This money cannot be used to travel. It is exclusively to be used to build a future. Most young people choose to travel after their subscription is over and often go into higher education in their early to mid 20's upon their return to Israel.

Finally I thought I would post a few photos of the dinner buffet. Food is plentiful, healthy and yummy. The hot food changes slightly from night to night but is also available at breakfast. The addition with the breakfast is a cheese bar with every type of cheese you can imagine, yoghurt, fruit and cereals. In the morning as they don't serve meat I am able to drink milk with my tea but can only drink black tea at dinner as they serve meat and the hotel only serves kosher food. They eat lots of salad here so the salad bar always has a wide range each night and this is different every night. Suits me very nicely and every night so far I have had a plate filled with lots of different types of salad.