Hey, everyone! As the semester comes to a close, so does this blog. With that said, this will sadly be my final blog post. To recap, last week, I talked about my journey through the tunnels under the City of David and how I began panicking as I realized my claustrophobia. This week, I will discuss one part of the last few days of my trip, something that truly stands out as the most emotional, meaningful, and worthwhile experience on the entire trip: our visit to Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
On the second to last day of our trip, our group leaders took us to the cemetery at Mount Herzl. It is the most respected national cemetery in Israel and only the greatest heroes of the State of Israel are buried on Mount Herzl. It is the location of Israel’s national cemetery and is named after Theodor Herzl, who wrote a book regarding Zionism, which is the idea of having a modern Jewish state. The whole idea of placing Theodor Herzl’s body on the top of the mountain revolves around him overlooking the Jewish state that he had the idea of creating. Once we arrived at the mountain, the view was breathtaking. I could not believe the sheer size of the hill and I was overwhelmed by the number of graves on the mountain. I couldn’t fathom how many people have died protecting Israel and how many prominent figures there have been in Israel’s short history.
As we walked up the mountain, we arrived at different levels of graves. We came across the graves of soldiers from the Independence War, the Lebanon War, and the Six-Day War, just to name a few. We also saw Golda Meir’s grave and Yitzkak Rabin’s grave. At both of these, our tour guide sat us down and discussed the figures and why they are so important. These figures were both vital in bringing Israel to where it is today and it was an incredible experience to learn about these people right where their bodies exist today.
As we made our way to the top of the hill, a behemoth structure presented itself. This structure was the grave of Theodor Herzl. Here, those who have strong connections to the State of Israel were told to go to the top of Herzl’s grave monument, place a flower or a rock, say a Hebrew prayer, then leave, Due to the facts that my father was born in Israel and my grandparents found refuge in Israel after the Holocaust, I found it to be my moral obligation to go up and lay down a flower next to his grave. I felt a spark of pride throughout my heart and soul as I laid down the flower in honor of all that Theodor Herzl and the State of Israel has done for my family.
Towards the end of our tour of the cemetery, we went to Michael Levin’s grave. In other blogs posts, I have discussed Michael Levin and the great hero he was to all. In case you do not recall, he Levin was a young man from Holland, Pennsylvania who made Aliyah to Israel. He went to Israel and skipped college in order to fight for the Israeli Defense Force. He climbed a dumpster in order to sneak into a building and apply to fight and went out of his way to fight for what he believed in. He fought his first round in the Israeli paratroopers and went home afterward to be with his family; however, while he was on break, the Second Lebanon War broke out. Without hesitation, he flew back to Israel and fought in the war. He was sadly killed in battle but went out a hero. Visiting Levin’s grave was the most meaningful part of the trip. How could someone with such a great life and phenomenal family background forgo their future to risk their life? Why do people fight for things that they have relatively no ties to? What extent will people go to fight for their beliefs? All over his graves were Philadelphia sports team hats, Eagles shirts, and flowers. This man reminded me a lot of myself. I could see myself or any of my friends being in the same shoes as Michael Levin and fighting for Israel. It broke my heart to see his grave after meeting members of his family in the past.