Dear Parents,

We had an amazing and very powerful day.  Beginning at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, the teens were exposed to an interactive and comprehensive appreciation and understanding of the times before the Holocaust and it itself. Tears were shed by many especially walking through the children’s memorial.  After the museum, I led a discussion asking the teens to share their thoughts and feelings which led to a wonderful opportunity to help internalize our heritage and history. My message was twofold in hat discussion. Firstly, to realize that all the millions that were murdered and died were individuals. The loss of six million is a statistic whereas the loss of an individual is a tragedy. We need to realize the tragedy but also see the hope and survival of those survivors and Jewish people as a whole.

To appreciate that second aspect, we had free time on Ben Yehuda Street to show that the Jewish people build on tragedy and continue to thrive and live.

A bunch of the teens came with me and a few advisors to the Mea Shearim area where we went shopping and learned about the community and life there of the Ultra Orthodox community.

We finished the day in Jerusalem with a fun scavenger hunt in the Biblical zoo.

After we returned to our hostel we finished the day with a powerful program wrapping up the day called the Last Jew. The multimedia and theatrical program helped bring the message that the responsibility of our people to continue our heritage is on each and everyone of us. We should feel empowered and emboldened to continue what has survived all of these centuries.

All the best

R David Zahtz

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