Shore of Eternity. Part 2

We are approaching the two holiest sites in Christianity, the place of Christ’s crucifixion and burial. The last four stations of the Via Dolorosa are within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is as central a pilgrimage site as Mecca and typically it is built on a previously sited Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter and/or Venus.

The Christian site blossoms in 312 AD when Constantine – a Christian convert – sees a vision in the sky that prompts him to send his mother Helena on a search for Christ’s tomb. Catholic school children remember a holy card of Saint Helena finding the true cross. She also found a tomb that she believed to be the burial site of Jesus. These are all within the church accompanied by the Unction Stone (where Christ’s body was prepared for burial) and an omphalos stone marking the center of the Christian world.

Muslim depredations of the site are often thought to be the rationale for the First Crusade and Crusader architecture dominates. As we walk about, we see many pilgrims, locals and tourists touching various objects to the Unction Stone where Christ’s body- presumably- was placed. Below ground the site of the finding of the True Cross can be accessed by a steep staircase. This may be the point of origin for Christian fascination with relics. It is said that there were so many pieces of the “True Cross” that a small city could be built with the lumber.

Ironically, the crucifixion site is physically divided between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faiths…a jarring manifestation of division. At the center of the church, a small chapel encloses the burial site itself. This structure called the aedicule, is bustling with crowds of the faithful from all over the world. Each sect, and denomination appears to have a piece of the place for devotions unique to their believers.

In keeping with the discoveries made in the Middle East, the Old City and the Sepulchre itself are divided, conflicted and crowded.

The conflict between the Jesus message and the reality on the ground of our Earth is due to become in more starkly revealed as we are scheduled for a trip to Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center- as soon as we leave the holiest place in the Christian world.

We segue to the Jaffa Gate and arrange a taxi . There are four of us going, our two photographer friends join us. Even Bo Az has second thoughts about going to such a grim and haunting place. The center has a threefold mission: the preservation of the memory of the dead; the honoring of those who helped the Jews in their state of extreme need and research into the cause of the Holocaust to prevent further genocides around the globe.

Upon arrival we go directly to The Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, where those who helped the Jews are remembered for their basic humanity and altruism. We stop a moment at the tree that is in memory of Oskar Schindler and his wife. We learn about many other heroes such as Irena Sendler, Janusz Korczak and many others.

Two sites prove to be the most moving. The first is a rail car mounted open upon a trestle that leads to nowhere, it is suspended in the air above our heads and it commemorates the deportation of Europe’s Jews to the death camps. The second – and it is heartbreaking – is the memorial to the children who died in the camps. We enter a large domed space that is in darkness except for a field of stars. The names of the children are read in a continuous loop and as each child’s name is read a particular star is illuminated for a brief second. It is estimated that a million and half children died in the camps.

Perhaps the most important mission of Yad Vashem is housed in the library and archives. Millions of evidence shards from biographical notes, to Nazi documents are housed to make it abundantly clear to everyone what happened and how it might be avoided in the future. I would like to see every Holocaust denier forced to spend a day encountering this mammoth weight of evidence.

The idea for Yad Vashem was initiated during WW2 by the Jewish National Fund. In 1942 The First Conference on Holocaust Research was held at the University of Jerusalem. Today, the site is magnificent…and horrifying.

A more mundane horror is the fact that we must rise at 3:00 AM for a long ride to Ben Gurion Airport to catch a flight to London. Our Middle Eastern trek is winding down. Today we encountered two of the most amazing places on Earth. I think about a line from my new favorite poet, Yehuda Amichai: “Jerusalem is a port city on the shore of eternity. ” Absolutely.