A Three טקס Day

Last night, today at school, and tonight at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai--three ceremonies to commemorate the Holocaust. I will write about the one at Yad Mordechai when I get back. Last night, which I already talked about, was our Nativ program. Leading the discussions was really cool because I got to prompt people with questions and when they shared stories, they mostly looked at me. Afterward, too, people came up to me and kept telling me stories, which I liked a lot, because I felt like those people wanted me to listen to them. It's hard to deal with the Holocaust and if I could make it easier for someone by listening to them, I was more than glad to do that.

Today, we had first period at school in class and then a break before the school ceremony. Everyone went into the concert hall auditorium for it and it was dark and there were candles and the 12th graders led the whole thing. There was a slide show with music behind it and the pictures were really graphic; at one point I just thought, "No." I couldn't understand it or believe what I was seeing, so I just thought no, no, this can't be right. It was very powerful. The students are people I work with on a regular basis and I know them to be rambunctious, crazy, irreverent people with quite a zest for life. They totally shifted gears for today though, and put on a really beautiful ceremony. I was amazed. Everything was practiced, choreographed, thought out. It really changed the way I see the kids, and it made me happy to know that they really care about something.