Memory and Legacy
by Wendy Paler
As we left the rolling hills of the Galilee and headed toward Yerushalayim, we shifted the focus of our learning from IsraelĂ?¢??s political and military history to concepts of memory and legacy.
We began by watching a poignant video, A Hero In Heaven, which recounted the passion and bravery of Michael Levin, a young man from Philadelphia who made aliyah and perished in the Lebanon War in 2006. Next, we learned from Shaya Ben-Yehuda at the archives of Yad Vashem (pictured below) about the stories of various Holocaust victims. Jeremy Leigh took us through the Valley of the Communities memorial, and we finished with a discussion at Har Herzl, Yerushalayim military cemetery.
To connect these powerful vignettes to one another and to our study of leadership, we explored an overarching question: "Is it possible to be a leader in the future without an understanding of the past?" We considered the way in which we construct our personal and collective identities by remembering certain elements of Jewish history and forgetting others, and we thought about the importance of the periphery to gain an accurate understanding of the complete picture of history.
Since the Holocaust is in the more distant past, our greatest challenge at Yad Vashem was to find meaningful points of connection between our modern American lives and the stories of individual victims in Europe. Although we felt deeply moved by the incredible stories and legacies of the spotlighted individuals and communities, it was inherently easier to engage with them, because these stories have been contextualized and neatly sealed into the canon of history. To contrast, the pain we felt at Har Herzl was far more raw and immediate, because these fresh graves were not representations and memorials in a museum but the actual resting places of so many who sacrificed for the State of Israel and the Jewish people. As we sat among the graves of the heroes of the Lebanon War, countless young soldiers wandered, crying and remembering their friends and family who fell while serving Israel. One of the other fellows shared how striking it was that the last time she was in Israel, all of these people were living life as we were, but in a few short years, we have continued to live and they have made the ultimate sacrifice.
Perhaps our sacrifices will not closely resemble those of the heroes we discovered at Yad Vashem and Har Herzl. However, by exploring and understanding those who came before, our experience as young Jewish leaders is given context, strength, and meaning. 
