Scrolls of Fire

We visited this monument on our first tour of the hills of Jerusalem. It is called the scrolls of fire. The artist is Natan Rapaport. He fled from Poland when the Nazi's invaded for the Soviet Union.  According to our guide, while the war was still going on, he already decided to create a monument commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.  That monument stands to day in Warsaw where the center of the Ghetto was.

The monument here tells the story of the Holocaust and Rebirth of Israel.  I found it incredibly powerful.  First of all the fact that the monument is a "scroll" says to me that the story that is being told is a sacred one, of Biblical proportions and importance. The first scroll, on the right tells the story of the Shoah and the one on the left tells the story of the Rebirth of the state of Israel.  The most powerful images on the monument for me were 1.) The amazing educator Janusz Korczak with the orphans in Warsaw who he refused to abandon in order to save himself. 2.) The Menorah that appears on the Arch of Titus being returned to Jerusalem by Zionist pioneers and soldiers.

I was awed by how powerfully Rapaport captured the magnitude of the story of Israel's rebirth on the ashes of the Holocaust.  I think that this would be an excellent introduction for tourists as the story of the Zionist narrative.

Because the picture I took above doesn't capture the sculpture very well I am including this one I found on the web as well:

The beginning of a dream come true

For decades I have dreamed of becoming a tour guide.  Just a week and a half ago I began the course to become a certified tour guide at Yad Ben Zvi in Jerusalem.  I decided to try and keep a running blog of my experiences for (at least) the following reasons:

1.) Recording some of the learning and tours here will help me to remember what I have done. This is really important because the course inundates us with an immense amount of material and I will be expected to remember a tremendous amount for the final exam(s).
2.) I am feeling a need to process the learning and explore what it means for me personally.
3.) Some of my friends or others might find it interesting to follow me through this process.

Because the writing of this is so important and is primarily for me, I don't intend to maintain the standards I would normally expect from myself before putting my writing in the public domain.