Israel's National Memorial Hall for Fallen Soldiers

It's been some time since I first visited Israel's National Memorial Hall for Fallen Soldiers at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. It's a beautiful building and definitely something that I want to share here on my blog, but I have a personal connection to it too. My youngest son is memorialised there. And that makes it hard to write about.
Regular readers will remember that we lost our son in May 2022. He was 19 years old. We are still trying to get to the bottom of what happened to him the night he died, and the war in Israel has not helped the situation. I am writing this post because I want everyone to remember Gadi. Showing you his brick at the memorial is just one way to remember him.

Israel's National Memorial Hall for Fallen Soldiers is located on Mount Herzl, where Israel's national military cemetery and other memorial and educational facilities are situated. It is a memorial for all servicepeople - from the army, police, Shin Bet security agency, Mossad spy agency and prison service - who gave their lives establishing and defending the State of Israel, and includes not only those killed in action, but also anybody who died in uniform. Planning and building the site took more than 10 years. Construction on the memorial began in March 2015 and the hall was finally opened to the public on the eve of Israel's Memorial Day, Yom HaZikaron, in April 2017. It is the first memorial in Israel that commemorates the memory of all Israel's fallen soldiers in one site. There are hundreds of other monuments for individuals or particular battles or military corps scattered across the country, many of which I have written about previously. 

Gadi Isaacs

19th January 2003-21st May 2022

The exterior of the hall, which is set alongside a busy street in Jerusalem, echoes the topography of the surrounding mountain landscape, while inside a tall torch-like formation of bricks, symbolizing an eternal flame, opens the hall to the sky, flooding the void with natural light. At the entrance, a video installation by Israeli artist Michal Rovner juxtaposes groups of soldiers from various periods in the history of Israel's wars, moving and running on one shared landscape before fading away.

More than 24,000 bricks wrap around the hall's walls, forming a 250-metre long "Wall of Names". Each brick is individually engraved in the same font and size with the name of a fallen soldier and the date the soldier died. Neither rank nor mention of the place or circumstance in which the soldier perished is listed. The bricks are no higher than about six feet from the floor, so that family members can reach up and touch the name. A lightbulb adjacent to each engraved brick is lit on the anniversary of the soldier's death, as per the Jewish tradition to light a candle so that the memory of lost loved one still lives on and burns bright. Every morning a memorial service is held in order to honour those who fell on that specific Hebrew date, and near the hall's upper exit, twelve pillars with screens display the pictures and more information about the men and women who died on that day.

The "Wall of Names" begins with the most recent fatality, and at the top of the spiral is a brick with the name of the Jewish guard who was killed in Jerusalem in May 1873 as part of a dispute with the Palestinians over water in the years before Israel became a state. The names - which sadly now also include two of Gadi's closest friends, Ariel and Yakir, who both fell in Gaza - are inscribed in local stone.

Visitors are led through the memorial, from the external entrance court, past the Ner Tamid (eternal flame) and a flag pole with the Israeli flag, through the main spiral ramp and ending at an upper exit, from which one can continue into the military cemetery. A computerized system enables visitors to access information, pictures, and summarized biographies of the dead via touch screens. Towards the end of the journey through the hall, visitors are invited to light a virtual candle in memory of a particular soldier.

Israel's National Memorial Hall for Fallen Soldiers was included on the list of finalists for the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects' 2018 international prize for world's best new building. The memorial was designed and constructed by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects, a Tel Aviv based Israeli architecture firm.

Finally, a happy update regarding the hostages. After 477 days in captivity Na'ama Levy, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Liri Albag returned to Israel yesterday as part of a ceasefire deal with Hamas. Last week Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher were released. No words can describe the relief. But the price Israel has had to pay for their release is painfully high - amongst the prisoners released are mass murderers. 

But to Na'ama, Karina, Daniella and Liri - welcome home!

90 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza. Bring them home now!

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) and My Corner of the World.

Blue and White

A customer in the US, who found me through the Facebook group Israeli shops to purchase from, ordered my Shalom papercut. In the centre of the piece is the word "Shalom" in English and below that, in Hebrew. Shalom, like many Hebrew words, has more than one meaning. Shalom means peace and is also used to both greet people and to say goodbye. But it means much more than peace, hello or goodbye. Shalom is rooted in the word שלם (shaleim) which means wholeness, completion, wellness, perfection. When we are "at peace" we feel a sense of "wholeness."

My papercut is embellished with pomegranates and flowers. In the Jewish faith, pomegranates are traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) because it has 613 seeds, which coincide with the 613 commandments of the Torah. Furthermore, the pomegranate represents fruitfulness. We use them in our Rosh Hashanah meals as a positive omen.

My papercut is drawn and cut entirely by hand. It can fit an American 10x8inch frame or an A4 frame (21x29.7cm) here in Israel or the UK. I backed the white papercut with a dark blue backing paper. The national colours of Israel are officially blue and white, as seen on the flag of Israel. An early Zionist poem explains that the colour white symbolises great faith; blue the appearance of the firmament.

The flag of the State of Israel was adopted on 28th October 1948, five months after the Israeli Declaration of Independence. It consists of a white background with a dark sky-blue Star of David, the widely acknowledged symbol of the Jewish people and of Judaism, in the centre. There are two horizontal blue stripes at the top and bottom. The blue stripes are intended to symbolize the stripes on a tallit, the traditional Jewish prayer shawl. The Book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Tanach, or Hebrew Bible, mentions in 15:38 that the Israelites were commanded to put fringes on the corners of their garments, and to put a cord of blue border upon these fringes.

My customer was very happy to receive the papercut. "It's gorgeous." she wrote. "Thank you."

On Sunday night we will mark Yom HaZikaron, Israel's Memorial Day, the day when we remember Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. Since losing Gadi this day has become a personal day of remembrance for me and I no longer celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut, Independence Day, which begins the the following evening, the minute Israel's Memorial Day ends. It seems so strange to have this heavy day of mourning followed by such a joyous holiday but the message of linking these two days is clear: Israelis owe their independence - the very existence of the state - to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for it.
Since the start of the war between Israel and the terror group Hamas, 615 soldiers and police officers have been killed. Over 800 civilians have become victims of terrorism, and 132 Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza. Yom HaZikaron feels more important than ever.

* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Thinking Out Loud Thursday and Thursday Favorite Things.

The Best of 2020 - Part II

1. POP-UP Museum TLV 2  2. Gazelle Valley 3. Beit She'an National Park 4. The Argaman Iris Reserve 5. Celebrating My 50th Birthday in the Middle of a Pandemic 6. Nahal Arugot 7. Latrun Fortress 8. The Masrek Nature Reserve  9. The Scroll of Fire and Anne Frank Memorials 10. Shvil HaErez (The Cedar Trail)

Happy New Year! I am going to start the year with my second review of 2020, my top 10 favourite places that I visited last year.

When I started writing this blog back in 2008 I initially kept it as a blog purely about my papercut art. However, I soon found out that people were interested in reading a little more about me and my life here in Israel. I started to write blog posts about my Jewish faith and many of the holidays we celebrate and about some of the beautiful places I have been fortunate to visit in Israel.

This month I will be marking 26 years living here. Over the years I have enjoyed exploring my little country, from north to south, indoors and out. Of course 2020 was like no other year. We have been in lockdown three times and were barely able to leave the house. Foreign travel was impossible, though back in February I was fortunate to spend a lovely couple of weeks with my dad in the UK, before all the coronavirus troubles really began.

Having said all that, Mister Handmade in Israel and I have made the most of it and have really got to know the area around us. From the summer onward, we hiked almost weekly, rarely driving more than 40 minutes from the city where we live. We have discovered some beautiful areas and some amazing history. I was once hesitant to hike without a guide but now we regularly pull on our walking boots and set off on a new route. I'm not saying we never get lost - of course we do - but that has been part of the fun and there have been no major disasters!

The Ancient Synagogue of Beit Alpha

Rosh HaAyin Forest

The Beit Itab Ruins

As you can see from my Top 10, the year started off with just one "indoor" visit, to the amazing "Pop-Up Museum TLV" graffiti event in Tel Aviv. Also in January, we spent a lovely day in Beit She'an with friends visiting from Cyprus. After that, everything has been about just the two of us exploring the hills and forests around us. I celebrated my 50th birthday in a national park just outside Jerusalem and in June we travelled further afield to the Dead Sea area, to spend Mister Handmade in Israel's birthday hiking at Nahal Arugot. I have blogged about many of these amazing places and more. Please click on the names above and enjoy exploring Israel with me!

The Mazor Mausoleum and Kula Forest

Ein Kobi and the Seadim Ruins

* This post has been shared on Nature Notes, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Tuesday's Treasures, Pictorial Tuesday, Our World Tuesday and My Corner of the World.

The Scroll of Fire and Anne Frank Memorials

The Scroll of Fire Memorial in the Jerusalem Hills commemorates the history of the Jewish people from the Holocaust up to the Six-Day War. It is located in the Martyrs Forest which is the single largest memorial to the Holocaust in the world. The forest is comprised of six million trees which were planted in 1951. Four and half million pine trees represent the adults who perished in the Holocaust, while a million and a half cypress trees account for the children who perished.

The memorial, Megilat Ha'esh in Hebrew, was inaugurated in 1971. It is the work of Warsaw-born Nathan Rapoport, himself a Holocaust survivor. He is known for his famous sculpture in Warsaw commemorating the Ghetto Uprising, an exact copy of which is also featured at Yad Vashem. Other sculptures can be found at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, as well as around the world.

The Scroll of Fire Memorial is made of bronze and is eight metres high. It is in the shape of two scrolls. The scroll on the right focuses on the Holocaust and its survivors, while the scroll on the left deals with the struggle to establish a new homeland and Israel's independence. In the space between the two scrolls there are two  memorial rooms. In each one is engraved a quote from the bible, above.

On the right scroll one can see Jews being marched off to the concentration camps. Above them are figures devoid of faces. Only their helmets and bayonets show that they are Nazis, the idea being that their horrific acts wiped away their humanity and therefore they cannot be portrayed in full human form. Next, the Warsaw Ghetto is seen with its flames and the defenders of the ghetto, an angel bearing a Molotov cocktail and a bearded man bearing a rock, are clearly visible. A mother and child can be seen ascending to the heavens in flames. This scroll ends with survivors of the camps seen leaving with their eyes raised in hope. A small boat represents the thousands who came to Israel in the pre-State days, during the clandestine immigration era. An olive tree with branches formed from human bodies represents renewal. The central branch is depicted in a fetal position, epitomising the idea that even in the midst of destruction a new life/nation can be formed.

In the scroll on the left the symbols of the wandering Jew, a walking stick and a sack, are left behind, since the wandering is over and the Jew has reached his homeland. A man can be seen blowing a shofar near the Western Wall, while a child is holding a cluster of grapes, one of the Seven Species with which Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel, was endowed. A pregnant woman depicts the next generation that will be born into freedom. Finally, the reunification of Jerusalem is depicted by a menorah, carried by a group of soldiers. This menorah is symbolic of the menorah from the Arch of Titus in Rome, which commemorated Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt. A small bearded man that supports the menorah is representative of the Prophet Elijah and the sculptor's apparent belief in divine intervention. 

The memorial stands on a wide platform overlooking the coastal plain. It was restored in recent years and the site was made accessible to people with physical limitations.

In the same forest stands an extraordinary project in memory of the a German-Dutch diarist Anne Frank (1929-1945). Anne hid in Amsterdam with her family during the German occupation of the Netherlands and died in Bergen-Belsen in 1945. Between 1942 to 1944 she documented her life in hiding in her diary. Miep Gies, a family friend, found Anne's diary and gave it to her father, Otto Frank, after the war. It became one of the most widely read books in the world.

Anne could see a chestnut tree through the window of her family's hideout. The tree, which is mentioned many times in her diary, was one of Amsterdam's oldest chestnut trees. In 2005 it was diagnosed with a disease. When municipal authorities wanted to cut it down, community members, tree experts and the staff of Bomenstichting (the Dutch national tree foundation) mobilised. The tree was fitted with a metal support structure but ultimately fell in a storm in 2010. Friends of JNF (Jewish National Fund) in Holland initiated a project to commemorate Anne Frank and the tree in Israel.

The memorial includes several sculptural elements, all of which are significant. There is a circular route studded with quotes from Anne's diary translated into Hebrew and a very large cube representing the room where she hid from the Nazis with her family. The cube has three transparent sides, and the fourth is a tree with pentagonal leaves representing the chestnut tree. In a corner across from the tree there is an uncomfortably high seat. When you sit on it you feel like a child sitting on a high chair. The viewing experience is meant to recreate the feeling of imprisonment, isolation and discomfort, while looking longingly through a window at the world outside.

The memorial was created by the Dutch Jewish sculptor and Holocaust survivor, Piet Cohen. Like Anne Frank, he was hidden in a house in southern Holland and was not discovered. He later served in the Israel Defence Forces.

The nearby Martyrs Cave (B'nai B'rith Cave), above, is a natural cave that was expanded in order to serve as a site for reflection and remembrance of those who died in the Holocaust. In front of the cave there is a plaza and nearby there is a small recreation area with tables and benches which attracts many visitors throughout the year. To the left of the cave are steps that lead to the top of the mountain where the Scroll of Fire stands.

Every year on Holocaust Day, JNF and B'nai B'rith hold a memorial ceremony in this forest.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Sharon's Souvenirs, Our World Tuesday, Tuesday's Treasures, Pictorial Tuesday, My Corner of the World and All Seasons.