West Jerusalem and Bethlehem

This morning we spent in West Jerusalem. We visited the Israel Museum first, though the main body of the collection is closed for renovations until next year (aaargh!). We spent time in the Shrine of the Book, looking at some of the Dead Sea scrolls and some of the artifacts that were discovered at Qumran. We also saw a huge scale model of the city of Jerusalem, showing what it looked like at the time of the destruction of the temple, about 40 years after Christ. As a preacher, I found it very helpful to see the lay of the land and the structures of the temple courts that I’m so familiar with only from written word and pictures.

After a brief stop at the Roman Catholic church at the traditional site of John the Baptist’s birth and boyhood, we went to Yad Vashem. This is the museum and memorial of the Holocaust. There, the descriptions, pictures, film clips and stories are nothing short of overwhelming. You would need days to take it all in, and it would be hard to take. If you ever go to Jerusalem, you must visit here. Below you can see one of the boxcars used during the Holocaust to transport Jewish people to what would be for them the end of the line. On a wall inside this car, in pencil, was found the following poem:
Here in this carload
I am Eve
With Abel my son
If you see my other son
Cain son of man
Tell him I

At Yad Vashem, I had a startling discovery. I decided to find a certain name in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, a memorial park with the names posted and trees planted for non-Jewish people those who, during the war, helped Jewish people at the risk of their own lives. I was looking for Jan and Grietje Boonstra, some of whose family members I know in Telkwa. On the way, I got lost, without knowing it, and while I was wandering, I was reading the names posted at the base of each tree, out of interest. Imagine my surprise when I read my father’s name! Now, I have to say that my dad is actually not named as one of the Righteous Among the Nation (though he is a pretty good guy). But some other Dutchman, named Jan ‘Willem Vander Horst’ was. See the plaque below.

The next stop was Bethlehem, behind the ‘security fence’ or ‘apartheid wall’, depending on which side of the barrier you stand. It is very noticeable, as you can see in the picture, that the wall that almost completely encloses Bethlehem did not include their olive trees, which are now conveniently on the Israeli side.

We visited the Church of the Nativity, and saw Manger Square and the cave below the church where it is believed by many that Christ was born. One of the things I found interesting, as I consider the visual arts and their use in corporate worship, was the 4th century mosaic floor hidden under the later marble floor. Parts of it are able to be seen by lifting wooden covers which protect them today.