This past summer was a particularly memorable one for Lindsay Anderson, a Grade 7 teacher at North Battleford Comprehensive High School.
Anderson was one of 15 teachers who went to Israel with the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem.
They were there to study the Holocaust at Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
“It was an international study program, so there were the 15 of us from Canada, and then there were 13 from the United States,” said Anderson.
There was also a teacher from Italy and a film producer from Serbia.
It was the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem who organized their scholarships and paid for the trip, which ran July 1 to 20.
This was not her first time in Israel; she had been there a couple of times before. But this would be a chance to learn in-depth about Jewish history and the Holocaust, and about the resilience of the Jewish people.
While there, she took classes at Yad Vashem running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
“The first day that we got together our teacher … literally started with Genesis,” said Anderson. “He actually started with ‘in the beginning.’”
Anderson says they went through Jewish history, right from the time of the Bible through to the creation of the State of Israel.
The latter part of the second week through the first half of the third week was entirely focused on the Jewish experience during the Holocaust.
Anderson said they had a chance to go into the museum “and spend as much time with the artifacts as we wanted,” she said. That included meeting with actual Holocaust survivors.
One of the most memorable experiences for Anderson was standing at Oskar Schindler’s grave to speak with a Holocaust survivor who described how she became connected to Schindler and her experiences during that time.
For people who have not been through the experience, the Holocaust seems like an unimaginable horror. One takeaway for Anderson was learning how the Jewish people were able to move forward.
She explains that in showing the Holocaust, Yad Vashem has what she describes as a “safe in and safe out” policy, where they “take you into those very dark times in a safe manner, so that when you walk out of them, you see how the survivors survived – how life moved on after that, that it wasn’t just that the Holocaust led to an end to everything.”
Anderson said she got a thorough education of all aspects of the Holocaust and the Jewish faith.
“We did Jewish history, we did the Jewish faith, culture, the settlements throughout Europe, the different trials and tribulations,” said Anderson.
They also learned about the anti-Semitism against Jewish people and the history behind it.
“It isn’t just something that showed up in World War II – it’s something that was grounded in history long before that,” said Anderson.
The people who worked with the students were at “the top of their field,” said Anderson – people who either worked at Yad Vashem itself or at top universities in the country.
“You really came out of it feeling like we’d learned from the best of the best,” said Anderson.
While she was based out of Jerusalem for the three weeks, Anderson had an opportunity to travel extensively throughout the country with her group. Israel itself is very small, with travel across the entire country taking only a few hours.
As a group, they had stayed in a hotel only three blocks from the Old City. That meant that when they were done at 5 p.m., they could go and have dinner in the Old City and visit the different quarters.
“Most of our time was spent in both the Jewish and Christian quarters,” said Anderson. “But to get to those places you cut through the Armenian quarter, so you see those three quarters.” She recalled that one afternoon was spent exploring the Old City, and they went to the Western Wall, where they “put our prayers into the wall, which was incredible.”
They also did a tour went through the tunnels along the original Wall, which extends underneath the current city.
“Israel is awesome because it’s one society built on top on another built on top of another,” Anderson said. “You can’t turn over a stone without finding history underneath it. You really grasp that when you are in the Old City.”
She mentioned the Western Wall, which is “this holiest of holy places for the Jew within the Jewish culture, can be a wall within somebody’s house because of where it is in a community. So it’s just all built on top of each other.”
She also noted an experience on the second Friday there when they observed the start of Shabbat, or the Sabbath, with the lighting of candles and Friday-night services. That particular experience came amid the backdrop of political unrest, as there had been a shooting on the Temple Mount.
“It was an incredible experience because you really got a feel for Judaism, in that bad things have happened throughout history and continue to happen to Jewish people today. And yet, Friday night services have looked virtually the same for the last 5,000 years – as the sun is setting, they’re still at the Western Wall, they’re still bringing in the Shabbat,” said Anderson.
“It was incredible to see that resilience.”
Anderson also had a chance to see other parts of Israel. She describes Tel Aviv, where the airport is located, as being much different from Jerusalem.
“There are skyscrapers, and stores that we would recognize. It’s right there on the beach at the Mediterranean. It’s gorgeous, a very metropolitan city that you would see anywhere.”
In contrast, Jerusalem is “steeped in tradition” and it is there where you see the different sections of Judaism come alive, she said. There is a strong Muslim element to that city as well.
“I guess religion is more obvious there, if that makes sense,” said Anderson.
The group got to travel the country extensively during their time there. Anderson had a chance to visit Bethlehem, which included going to the Church of the Nativity. That was a new experience for Anderson because it also meant she was going into Palestinian territory for the first time.
What struck her the most was that even though it was a very short distance from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, “we had to carry our passports with us because we were leaving Israel and entering Palestine,” she said.
Moving to the northeast are the rolling hills of the Golan, where Anderson had gone on a visit to a winery. Not far away is the Sea of Galilee where they went for a boat trip.
A particularly interesting experience – too interesting, perhaps – was a trip to Mount Bental, directly overlooking Syria below.
The last time she had been there, there had been a UN security station located on the next peak over.
This time, “the UN observers were right on the ground looking directly into Syria, and there was gunfire and stuff going on in Syria. So it was amazing how close we were and yet how far away.”
Anderson said one takeaway from her latest trip to Israel was an understanding of “just how complicated Israel is,” she said.
That is evidenced simply by the food there. Anderson notes that what is called an “Israeli Salad” in Israel is known as a “Palestinian Salad” in Palestine.
It is “the same salad, but both sides lay claim to it.”
It was a small example of how daily life can still be complicated for Jewish people, years after the Holocaust and after the establishment of the State of Israel.
“When we talk about the Holocaust we kind of tend to think the Jews were liberated, and that was that, and they kind of went on with life. In Israel, we got a real feel for some of the struggles that those who are liberated faced when coming to Israel or going to other places after the war, and how they rebuilt their lives following the war as well.”
Since being back, Anderson did a presentation for her staff at the school, and then she did a presentation for Grade 10 students about anti-Semitism and the history leading to World War II.
“I think to understand World War II and to understand the Holocaust you need that bit of a background in Jewish history and anti-Semitism to know where that’s coming from.”
Anderson said she came back with so many resources and knowledge from her time in Israel that she is excited to share it with her students.
“It has been just phenomenal to come back with this level of knowledge, and connections that I’ve made with teachers and Holocaust museum curators,” Anderson said.
She feels she has a community to tap into now if she or a student has a question about the Holocaust and Jewish history.
“That piece of it has been phenomenal, just to know there are other educators out there who have had the same experience and are ready to work with you.”
