Day 8

When one thinks of a soldier, the idea of a strong, tough-minded person comes to mind. This didn’t seem quite so when most of our Israeli soldiers held tissues and shed tears at our first stop of the morning: Mt. Hertzl Cemetery. Yet, they were not the only ones – many in the group had glassy eyes, some even with sunglasses to hide them. But as we went from grave to grave, story to story, it dawned on me that the tears of our supposed strong companions were not only for the loss of those they knew and did not, but tears of thanks. Such a small country with so few soldiers faced so much adversity and won. Those soldiers who have fallen were their main source of daily strength. There was no more doubt – we stood amongst eight of the very strongest people this world could ever find us.
At the end of our tour of the cemetery, the emotions did not stop. It was time for us to say goodbye to our soldiers, our friends. Many of the kindest words were exchanged, followed by some joking and laughter to keep us all from feeling more of the weight of the heavy day. After many a picture, we were forced to walk away.
The bus was not quite the same after that. Eight seats were now empty that should have held eight integral parts of our family. The only thing that kept us going was knowing that Facebook would keep us together while we are an ocean apart. There were also promises that they would see us off at the airport Saturday evening.
As if Birthright did not see enough heavy heads, our afternoon stop was to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum. We first saw the nicest and sweetest old man from Holland who spoke to us about being a survivor. There were jokes throughout his speech which all found extremely refreshing in juxtaposition to his heart wrenching story. We then went on a guided tour throughout the amazing museum. The artifacts that they managed to collect under the roof of greatly-architectured building was astonishing. Due to time restraints, we were unable to see it all which upset many.
The whole day made each and every bus member thankful for their life and the way they lead it.

-Stefanie Kaplan, Binghamton University