By Nicole Swerdloff and Michele Goldhirsch

Today, we experienced an emotionally filled day. First, we visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum where we split into two tour groups. We were taken from room to room to look around and read quotes and stories, as well as listen to our tour guide of course. We heard stories and learned about different parts of the Holocaust, starting from before the Holocaust to after liberation of the camps. The museum was both haunting and inspirational. One of the most inspirational aspects was watching a video where we heard survivors discuss how they survived. Another memorable aspect was the last room in which we saw a bookcase full of names of people who died in the Holocaust, along with 600 photos of other people who died. We also saw a display of many shoes taken from Jews before they were taken into the gas chambers – each shoe represented one person with dreams, hopes and ambitions…it really made us introspect.

After a delicious lunch of bagels and muffins, we visited Har Hertzl, a cemetery. There, we saw the grave of Hertzl and many other well known Jewish people, such as Yitzhak Rabin and Golda Meir. After that, we visited the Israeli Defense Forces cemetery, where we saw the graves of all the brave members of the IDF who lost their lives fighting to defend our Jewish homeland. It was touching and inspiring to hear about the lives of members of the IDF from our tour guide Etanna, our amazing advisor Ayelet and our Madrich, Elizar.

After Har Hertzl, we were given an hour and a half to get ready for the much anticipated Yom NCSY event. We were all given yellow t-shirts with pink writing on that the entirety of TJJ would be wearing. Before leaving to go to Yom NCSY, we celebrated Jakob Hess’s birthday, bringing him cake and balloons. Yom NCSY was as amazing as we were told it would be, and our entire bus got into it. Every person on TJJ Bus 4 was up and dancing pretty much the entire night. Our bus was one of, if not the loudest bus there. By the end of the night, our legs were hurting from dancing and jumping around and many of us woke up with little to no voice the next morning, but we all had the most amazing experience. We loved the messages our parents sent us, thank you parents! Yom NCSY was hands down one of the most memorable experiences bus4 has experienced this summer, especially since we had the opportunity to hang out with people from other NCSY Summer programs, dance with our friends, enjoy a very exciting concert, and eat delicious food. Yom NCSY was definitely a night to remember!