Etgar 36: Summer 2008

By Alana Cole

The Holocaust has never been an easy topic and for us it was equally hard to face at the end of our trip. The museum touched us all greatly.

It began with us getting a card telling you a story of a European Jew who was in the camps during the Holocaust. We crammed into an elevator where a video reinforced the horror of the Holocaust as well as a few words from a liberating soldier. Following a film of Hitler’s rise to power, we were herded into the narrow halls of the museum’s fourth floor, which explained to us the rise of Nazism. The moving display spoke not only of the 6 million Jews whose lives were taken but also of the 5 million others. On the third floor we learned about the final solution which was Hitler’s plan to exterminate all those who were not Aryan. The planks that we walked on which moved us from exhibit to exhibit felt like a bridge between the ghettos and concentration camps. The bridge was surrounded by pictures of a village and its people that no longer exists. Following this came the shoes that because they were made of leather and string, not blood and flesh, they were saved from the hell fire of the crematoriums. There was also the piles of hair as well as a barrack taken from a real camp and a model of how people were gassed. We also saw a video of the medical experiments followed by the Elie Wiesel quote “Never shall I forget that night that killed my God even if I am cursed to live as long as God himself. Never.” Across from these words lay a piece of metal used as the rack to hold the bodies in the crematorium. Tears welled up in my eyes as I stood knowing I could never live up to the 11 million lives that were lost.

I moved down the stairs knowing that I couldn’t stop even though I wanted to. On the final floor we saw the end of the war, concentration camps and Nazism, and Righteous gentiles were noted on the walls. On the bottom floor you can look back at the pictures of the destroyed village and see how many people were wiped out. I ended by going to see the eternal light display in the Hall of Remembrance and tried to remember every face I saw in the pictures.

We left the museum feeling pained and saddened from the Holocaust and one more member of the trip, Hannah Goldstein, leaving to go home. We made our way to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum as we discussed whether or not we should use information gained from the medical experiments done at the camps.

We had our choice of Smithsonians and we split up between the Art, Natural History and Air & Space Museums. They were nothing short of amazing. I went to the Art Museum. The building itself was gorgeous as were the exhibits in it. My favorite was a photo exhibit entitled “On The Beach” by Richard Misrach. They captured the solidarity one can feel at the beach even when surrounded by others and captured what the beach truly is all about.

After the museums we met with Jewish representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties. They had a debate with us as to where the parties respond to the various issues we have dealt with and why their party is the right one. They were incredibly polite but it was obvious that they disagreed with each other much of the time. We grilled them on such issues as stem cell research, abortion, health care and the size of government.

The final meeting of the day, and the trip, was with an organization called Mobilize.org. This organization works to help American youth get involved in the political process. They gave us a handbook on how to mobilize to create change and told us their stories of how they got involved. The coolest part was that Mobilize was created by David Smith when he was 22 years old. He is now 28 and left the organization because he is too old. Mobilize made us realize that we, as students, do have something to say and a right to say it. After this journey, we know what is important to us and now it is our job to make that matter to others and make a change.

We then went to dinner at Potbelly’s, which was delicious, and then went to see “Batman: the Dark Knight” at an old fashioned movie theater. One word: Fantastic.

By Rachel Podber

We woke up later today which was a nice relief after our jam packed days in Washington DC. We started the day off with a meeting at the National Coalition for the Homeless. They had three people tell us their struggles with homelessness. I found their stories inspiring and eye opening. They told us how they became homeless in the first place and how they have overcome it. We had lunch with them too which gave us more time to ask questions.

After lunch we went to the National Archives. We saw the original Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights. It was really cool to see all the documents that our country STILL refers to for every decision. They were a little faded, which made it hard to read, but it was still awesome to see the big fancy “We The People” that everyone knows.

From there we went to the Newseum. This was one of my favorite parts of Washington DC. It is a brand new museum about the news but it ranks as one of my favorite museums. The video they have about 9/11 was extremely moving and took me back to that day when I watched the news in shock with my family. They also have the blood splattered notebook and ID of Daniel Pearl, the Jewish reporter who was murdered by terrorists.

on the roof of the Newseum with a great view of the Capitol

with the Newseum’s “mascot”

After the Newseum we ate dinner at Ben’s Chili Bowl which is a famous dining landmark in Washington. The walls are lined with pictures of all the celebrities eating there. The chili was amazing.

Once we were full we went to see the comedy musical group The Capitol Steps. The actors take known songs and put funny political lyrics to them. They poked fun at everyone from President Bush (Georgie on my mind) to Barack Obama (Barack around the clock) to the war (Papa’s got a brand new Baghdad). It was definitely the hardest I have laughed in a while.

The last thing we did was see the famous monuments and memorials on the Mall at night. I enjoyed seeing the ways they chose to remember and celebrate different people and events. It was interesting to see the Korean and Vietnam Memorials and how different they are and, yet, they both are in memory of people not much older than us who gave their lives for this country.

at the World War II Memorial

Vietnam Wall

with the Albert Einstein statue

By Sarah Gilbert

We woke up a little groggy from the full day we had yesterday. It had been a hard and fast day that had worn us down. I prayed that I had gotten enough rest for this day.

Our first meeting was with the ONE Campaign. They are an organization that fights poverty and disease in extreme third world countries in places such as India or Africa. One of the most important parts of the ONE campaign is that Bono, of U2, fronts the organization in the media. In the elevators on the way to their offices we whispered (maybe even yelled) about how exciting it would be to meet Bono. We decided that we probably would meet him. We didn’t. But it didn’t matter. Instead we met with Kim Smith, the Deputy Field Director of ONE. She explained that ONE is not like other organizations where people physically build wells, schools, etc. Instead, ONE acts at a higher level by building up a “grassroots army” to raise awareness and petition their representatives to devote a larger portion of the nation’s budget to helping these countries that need it. At this point in time, our government has devoted less than 1% of our budget to poverty relief in other countries. Actually, ONE accepts no donations of any kind but trains people to organize others to reach their congressional leaders.

After this we met with Folabi Olagbaju, the Mid-Atlantic region Director of Amnesty International. Amnesty International is all about upholding the rights that were made legitimate in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR was sparked by World War II and the Holocaust and the need for that to never happen again. Eleanor Roosevelt fronted the movement of the UDHR which was legitimized by the UN and signed by many nations in 1948. Peter Bereson, the founder of Amnesty International, was reading a newspaper and read about Portuguese students who were arrested for toasting freedom. This didn’t sit well with him so he asked people to write letters to the Portuguese government and got the students released. Amnesty focuses on individual human rights violations as well as bigger scale issues. Some of their campaigns are: abolish the death penalty, women’s rights, to abolish torture, and end the genocide in Darfur. Folabai also explained to us how people in the West thought that rights are something we own but in indigenous areas people think rights are your responsibility to the world.

After lunch, we met with Carinne Luck, the Chief of Staff for J Street. J Street is a brand new progressive lobby that is pro-Israel and pro-peace. They are searching for a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and aim to have a dialogue with Iran. J Street just celebrated its being in existence for 100 days. In fact we were the first school group they met with. We understand that J Street is not anti-semitic, they just wish for peace and promote democracy and diplomacy.

After that we met with NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. They would like for marijuana to be legalized. We met with R. Keith Stroup, the legal counsel for NORML. He made a lot of good points. The main one is that since marijuana is physically non-addictive, cannot be fatally overdosed on, and is not more harmful than cigarettes, why is it illegal while tobacco and alcohol are not? Think about it. He also brought up the question of what role should government have in our private lives?

After this we went to Temple Beth Sholom, the synagogue that Etgar member Hannah Goldstein goes to, for Friday night services. It is a modern Orthodox congregation so the men and women were separated. Other than that it was not so different from other services we had been to.

We then went to Hannah’s house afterwards for an amazing home cooked dinner! Afterwards, we did our wrap up at their house. While speaking about our response to NORML, Hannah’s grandfather, who is a judge, stood up and told us what he thought about our meeting with NORML. We realized how controversial many of the topics we have discussed on this trip are. It seems that everyone has an opinion about them. I hope this trip will help us form an opinion about many other issues we will face in the future.