As we approach one of the most solemn days in the Israeli calendar – Holocaust Remembrance Day, we take the time to reflect. Magen David Adom youth volunteers flew to Poland to learn about the Holocaust.
Just here. As I sit beneath the tall, bare trees, do I understand how the very obvious isn’t obvious at all.
We can hear the quiet. The birds tweet, and the rain falls steadily. The branches break beneath our feet with each step that we take.
It’s only as I sit here, between the trenches, that I understand that how the obvious isn’t obvious at all.
The heart beats, I hold my breath.
One step, another.
How none of it can be taken for granted.
The flag of the State of Israel, the flag of Magen David Adom.
One over my shoulder and one on my chest.
Wrapped in flags, waving them proudly.
We have a state, an army, a government, an anthem.
Hatikva – The Hope – how this hope was barely there.
How many people hoped and dreamed and wanted the things that couldn’t be taken for granted.
To complain about the bus running late, or the traffic, or the heat.
To volunteer, to give, to provide, to help others, to raise a smile.
Waze, and sprinklers, and cherry tomatoes, dreams and initiatives.
To dream, to believe, to live.
Just here, surrounded on all sides by death, where the screams still echo between the naked trees.
It was just here that I finally understood, how much of the obvious, isn’t so obvious at all.
(Written by Arbel Cohen – a youth volunteer on the delegation to Poland)