Things to Do at Yad Vashem

The exit is the point. After two hours of darkness - photographs of ghettos, testimony from survivors, piles of shoes, a room of faces projected in an abyss, and the children's memorial where a single candle reflects infinitely in mirrors to represent 1.5 million murdered children - you walk through a concrete corridor and emerge onto a terrace overlooking the Jerusalem hills. Green valleys, white stone buildings, a modern nation built by the people who survived what you just witnessed. The architecture is the argument: from destruction to continuation. Admission is free. Yad Vashem is Israel's Holocaust memorial and museum, opened in 2005 with a new museum designed by Moshe Safdie as a 180-meter concrete prism cut through the hillside. The museum moves chronologically from pre-war Jewish life through the rise of Nazism, ghettos, deportation, the camps, resistance, liberation, and the establishment of Israel. The material is devastating and presented with rigor - every artifact is real, every photograph has a name. What most people miss: the Valley of the Communities. A massive open-air stone maze carved into the hillside with the names of over 5,000 destroyed Jewish communities engraved by country and region. Walking through the stone walls, running your fingers over town names that no longer exist, is the most physically affecting part of Yad Vashem outside the children's memorial. Best time is first thing in the morning (opens 9:00 AM Sunday to Thursday, 8:30 AM Friday). Allow three to four hours minimum. Only a local would know: the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, honoring non-Jews who saved Jewish lives, includes over 27,000 names. The carob tree planted by Oskar Schindler is near the entrance. Worth it? This is the most important museum in Israel, and one of the most important in the world.

Yad Vashem is on Mount Herzl, 6 km west of the Old City. The Light Rail stops at Mount Herzl station - a 10-minute walk downhill to the museum entrance (follow signs). Bus routes 13 and 18 stop near the entrance. Taxi from central Jerusalem costs ILS 30-50. The museum is at the end of a long access road with parking. The site is large - the entrance pavilion is near the Garden of the Righteous, and the museum exit is on the opposite hillside.