Museums

In the past few days, my wife and I visited several museums- Yad Vashem, the Israel Museum, and Bible Lands Museum.

Yad Vashem is a very powerful place. It documents the Nazis' attempt to murder all of Europe's Jews. Between 1939 and 1945, Hitler and his henchmen shot, starved to death, gassed, hung, burnt alive and killed in other horrific ways, an estimated 6 million innocent men, women, and children. The only reason they were murdered was because they were Jewish. The Nazis murdered an estimated 12 million other Europeans- for being Slavs, Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses, political opponents, disabled, or homosexual. While Yad Vashem does acknowledge that the Nazis also killed Roma, it is disappointing that there is little to no mention of the other non-Jewish victims, in particular the millions of Poles, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Russians who made up the majority of civilians who were murdered by the Wermacht, SS, and Gestapo. It is however good that Yad Vashem exists. People need to be reminded of the atrocities that were committed against the Jewish people and we must be sure to act and speak out so that holocausts and genocides never happen to them- or anyone else- ever again.

The Bible Lands Museum is a cool place, which contains artifacts from ancient Egyptian, Canaanite, Roman and other civilizations that were around during the time that the events described in the Bible are said to have taken place. It is really amazing to see traces of the civilizations that are described in the Old Testament and New Testament.

The Israel Museum is enormous, and absolutely amazing. It contains the Dead Sea scrolls, which were collected by a group called the Essenes, who lived a very strict and religious life. It contains also artifacts from the early history of Israel/Palestine. There are buildings, clothing, art and tools made by the early Jews, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Muslim Arabs who conquered Jerusalem after its Byzantine conquerors were forced out, the Crusaders who conquered it from the Arabs, and the Mamelukes who conquered it from the Crusaders. The city has seen a lot of war and suffering, although neither Christianity or Judaism or Islam call for their adherents to slaughter others.

I would strongly encourage people to check these places out.



Unfortunately, when I was in Yad Vashem, I forgot to bring my camera's memory card. Photos of the museum can be seen on my other blog.

http://www.livingstones-tomasz.blogspot.co.il/2010_08_22_archive.html

Like Yad Vashem, the Bible Lands Museum does not allow pictures to be taken inside. However, I took a picture from the outside, it is below.