tel aviv, may 26-28

We spent our last three nights in Tel Aviv, again at the home of the Friedmans. We learned so much from both of them. It is always inspiring to meet people who have done so much with their lives but who speak so humbly. Much of our time was spent visiting museums and just wandering around the city. With Nurit we visited the Tel Aviv Museum of Art where we saw an amazingly well done exhibit of Paul Klee’s work. The curator did a great job of explaining his lifelong progression to deeply colored rectangles. We also saw some work by young Israeli artists. Afterwards we lunched at an outdoor café where we were exposed to the hip young trendsetters that dot the Tel Aviv landscape. Sitting across from the square where Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated we talked again about the prospects for the Israeli/Palestinian future- something that is even more complicated than I ever really understood. Nurit met a friend of hers afterwards as Nima and I walked along the streets window shopping and chatting. Eventually we made our way down to the beach where we found a great restaurant situated on the sand, literally. With our shoes off we sipped wine while watching the sunset. I have to take a second and talk about the sand. It is the softest, most amazingly silky sand I have ever felt. Nima and I couldn't stop picking it up and running it through our fingers. It's like this for a sad reason. Every morning, mine/bomb sweepers comb the beach and turn the sand over and over to make sure that the beach will be safe for visitors. Over years, the mine sweeping has made the sand more and more fine.

Our final day was a bit more rushed, mainly because we wanted to visit a few museums. We started in the morning at the Hall of Independence. Nima actually went in by himself. He saw images of meetings before independence, the actual moment that independence was declared, and multiple versions of the declaration of independence. The place where the declaration speech was made by Ben Gurion is preserved as it was 49 years ago. Later Dr. Friedman showed us a picture of a 12-year-old boy with a camera standing as an amateur photographer in the front row as the press snapped pictures of the event - of course that boy was him. Afterwards, we made our way to the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora on the University of Tel Aviv campus. The museum looks deceivingly small but even after a few hours there we felt we had barely touched the surface. Though it starts with the traditions and history of Judaism, the most interesting for me were the multimedia exhibits on Judaism as it changed in different communities throughout the world. We left a little earlier than we had wanted but we had to get to Jerusalem. Our drive there was a little harried especially as we were about to run out of gas and couldn’t find any gas stations. But eventually we arrived at Yad Vashev with only a few hours before it closed.

Yad Vashev is Israel's Holocaust Museum. It has multiple buildings focused on different aspects of the holocaust. We spent all of our time in the main museum. The building is a symbolic walk through the moments and ideas that led up to the years of the holocaust. Starting at street level it begins to descend into darker spaces. The introductory film shows Jewish people living their normal lives throughout Europe- it was filmed by an American in the 1930s who had gotten a grant to use new technology (the video camera) in an innovative way. Little did he know how important his video would become as it captured the last days of peace for the Jews of Europe. There are multiple exhibits on the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and the conditions that made this rise favorable. Then with music, pictures, videos, and objects the museum explores the experience of victims and survivors. Finally after a visit to the amazing hall of names (where the museum is attempting to collect the names of every victim) we ascended back into the light on a beautifully-designed triangular deck with a view of the green hills of Jerusalem. It's impossible to do the memorial justice in a short paragraph. I am glad that we had an opportunity to visit the site.

We spent our last evening enjoying delicious Mediterranean fare- olives, cheese, salads, and so on with the Friedmans talking the evening away. We discussed with Dr. Friedman the prospects for peace with the Palestinians. He is skeptical and says the best hope for now is a cease-fire. This viewpoint is understandable from this lifelong Israeli who told us: "You know the only time in my life I have lived without fear of violence? It was 1940-44, World War II."

We are so grateful to Nurit for sharing her family and friends and her time with us. By the time we crashed we had just a few hours before our flight back to the US- our first time back in six months.