Welcome to our virtual tour of Yad Vashem (etc.)

We went on Friday morning but didn't leave enough time; it closes at 2 p.m. before Shabbat. After that, we returned to the Old City for lunch and walked through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Then, in a twist on the traditional Shabbat dinner, Akiva, his son Danny, and Adam and I went to Arab eastern Jerusalem for dinner at a very traditional, or at least typical, Middle Eastern restaurant, called Philadelphia.

Sorry, Granny, we didn't light the candles or any of that. In fact, after dinner, Danny, Adam, and I went to the movies--we saw A Bug's Life (we were going to see Shakespeare in Love, but it was playing at a cinema that closes for Shabbat).

As Adam said, it was a day that went from the sacred to the (moderately) profane. But it was interesting to see how "the other half"--the more secular Jews--live, even in the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Before I show you our photos, however, a bit of information for those who were wondering how much (if anything) it costs us to upload our webpages each day. No, Adam and I don't drink coffee, so in terms of food expenditures, the cafes tend not to make too much off of us (we do buy bottles of water and the occasional dessert, especially if we are here late, however). But each cafe or bar has its own fee schedule for internet use--or computer use in general (some people come here to type resumes or letters, or to send faxes, for example).

The NetCafe, where we are now, charges up to 25 shekels an hour, though its fee structure begins at 15 minutes and increases at five-minute increments after that. Alternatively, if you plan to use the cafe often within any given month, you can buy a month-long membership, which we did. It costs 25 shekels for the membership, but then hourly use is 20 shekels, and after four hours the fifth hour is free (we tend to use the cafe about 2 hours a day when we upload a page, and we've already received our first free hour).

Other cafes charge by the quarter-hour or half-hour; the InBar in Tel Aviv has a "happy hour" for net use, and PCs cost 20 shekels for a half-hour, 30 shekels for an hour, from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. (that's when I was there); at other times, it's 40 shekels per hour. The main reason, I suspect, is that InBar has less competition.

Down the street from the NetCafe here in Jerusalem, there's Strudel's, the Internet bar I mentioned in a previous posting. It claims it has the cheapest fees in Jerusalem; it's 6 shekels per 15 minutes, but it doesn't have any membership fees or the like. I guess if you are just going to use the net for 15 minutes, Strudel's is cheaper (at NetCafe it's 7 shekels for the first 15 minutes, unless you're a member).

Oh, and for those who haven't been keeping up with the exchange rate, the current exchange is about 4 shekels to the dollar. So an hour here costs $5 (or is free, if it's the fifth hour). Not a bad deal.

Now, back to your regular scheduled tour...

I regret to inform you that, for the moment, you won't be getting much text to accompany these photos. We want to get home early tonight so we can get a fair amount of sleep; our Hadassah tour tomorrow is at 8:30 a.m., and it's currently 9:15 p.m. So, here are the photos for Yad Vashem, and you can click below to see the photos for the kibbutz, but please check back later and we'll have more commentary added.

Adam by the Warsaw Ghetto uprising memorial wall at Yad Vashem, Israel's holocaust memorial

A rabbi (or at least a very religious Jew) giving a group of young women a tour of the memorial museum. He had some interesting views.

Adam contemplating the museum's exhibits

A haggadah made by concentration camp detainees to observe Pesach (Passover) correctly, with illustrations of the camp rather than of the exodus from Egypt. Very chilling.

Adam standing by the memorial to Jewish soldiers who fought against the Nazis in the war. I was touched by the fact that, as huge as each stone was, at least a few people had reached up and put small stones atop the lower blocks (for those who don't know, it's Jewish tradition to place a stone on the headstone or marker when you visit someone's grave, to indicate that you were there and paid your respects). The blocks had to be at least 7 feet high.

Another chilling artistic memorial to victims of the camps.

With six candles total and countless mirrors, the memorial to the 1.5 million Jewish children who perished in the camps looked like it was a room filled with thousands of flickering lights. An amazing memorial.

These were two other (outside) parts of the children's memorial.

After Yad Vashem, we took a bus back to Jerusalem. Before we got to the Old City, we passed the following modern metal artwork...

by Roy Lichtenstein, donated to the American Friends of the Israel Museum by the artist in memory of Yitzhak Rabin. Notice how big it is (Adam is to the right).

Still, as with most modern art, we couldn't help but parody it somehow, as in the above photo.

The Arabic script above apparently labels the Jaffa Gate. Or maybe not, but we weren't able to read it; just appreciate its beauty.

We ate lunch in Samara, a Greek-Mediterranean restaurant just inside the Jaffa Gate; it's quite unassuming but delicious. We highly recommend it. I particularly liked the Coke bottles with English and Arabic, bottled in Ramallah.

As if we haven't taken enough pictures of the souk... This one's cobblestones were unearthed and date back to the Roman period.

I liked this image of the Christian monk walking through the Arab souk.

After much wandering, we found the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

It was difficult to find, and like the restaurant very unassuming from the outside, but inside...!

This mosaic was the first thing we saw upon entering. The photo doesn't do it justice.

A monk in the Church.

If you have mpeg-capability, click here to see a movie and hear a cacophony of chants.

The shrine of St. Helena; a beautiful room.

View of a nearby church, seen upon exiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Another photo of Adam at the Jaffa Gate.

Monica with some of the souk "bargains" we got on Friday; more on the bargaining process later!

Danny and Akiva at Bet Ilan (Akiva's place).

Monica, Akiva, and Danny at Philadelphia for dinner.

Adam, Monica, Danny, and Akiva at Philadelphia (the waiter was the first person who didn't have to be told he needn't hold the camera directly to his eye!).

Monica and Adam, as photographed by Danny, at Philadelphia.

Yours truly (a fairly decent photo, if I say so myself; taken by Danny, who was practicing with the camera).

On Saturday (today) we went to the kibbutz, but it's now 10 p.m., so we're going to head back "home" for the night; we'll post the kibbutz page (and the Hadassah page) tomorrow.

In the meantime, click below to see what we did in the following places...

Last updated March 20, 1999.