Memorial Archives | Page 3 of 6 | World Jewish Travel

Stolpersteine (the “Stumbling Stone”)

The Stolpersteine (stumbling stone) is an art project inspired by Gunter Demnig. The concept is to install commemorative brass plaques in the pavement in front of the homes of known holocaust victims. The plaque records who lived at the address and that they were a victim of the Nazi regime. The very first stolperstein was set on 16 December 1992 in front of the Cologne City Hall. Currently, there are tens of thousands of “Stolpersteines” across Europe. In Berlin, there are many such stones, including a famous one located at Togostraße 25O, which is open daily for public viewing.

Image attribution:
Gmbo 2013, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Geolina163, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial

The Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial represents Britain’s first testimonial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The Board of British Jews paid for its construction in 1983. Richard Seifert, Mark Badger, and Derek Lovejoy and Partners designed the monument which consists of a garden of boulders in raked gravel shaded by white-stemmed birch trees. The memorial sits east of The Dell just past the dam. Observers will notice an inscription from the Book of Lamentations on the largest stone which reads: “For these, I weep. Streams of tears flow from my eyes because of the destruction of my people.”

Hyde Park houses Britain’s first memorial in honor of the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Thirty eight years after the end of the Second World War in 1983, the Board of Deputies of British Jews organized the design and construction of Britain’s first Holocaust memorial. It serves as a sobering reminder to pass the memory of the 6 million lives lost on to the next generation. On Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) 2018 over 1,200 people gathered at the memorial to mourn the lives lost, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the 73rd anniversary of the British Army’s liberation of Bergen-Belsen. Some of the key attendees on this significant day included not only the survivors of the atrocity, but also Israeli Ambassador, Mark Regev, and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

Photo attribution: Mx. Granger, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tomb of Maimonides

According to Jewish tradition, the Tomb of Maimonides is in central Tiberias, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. Maimonides died in Fustat, Egypt on December 12th, 1204, where it is believed that he was briefly buried before being reinterred in Tiberias. The Tomb of Maimonides is one of the most important Jewish pilgrimage sites in Israel, and one of Tiberias’s most visited tourist attractions. The place of the tomb of Maimonides is also the burial place of Rabbis Yochanan ben Zakai and Isaiah Horowitz.

Tomb of Rabbi Akiva

Akiva ben Yosef, also known as Rabbi Akiva, was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a tanna of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second century. Rabbi Akiva was a leading contributor to the Mishnah and to Midrash halakha. He is referred to in the Talmud as Rosh la-Hakhamim, “Chief of the Sages”.

As a leading Mishnaic sage (and teacher of Rabbi Meir Ba’al HaNess), Rabbi Akiva played a major role in establishing rabbinic (ie post–Second Temple) Judaism. He was tortured to death by the Romans because of his support for the Bar Kochba Revolt, his enthusiasm for resistance to the Romans was such that he declared Bar Kochba to be the Messiah.

A visit to Rabbi Akiva’s tomb in Tiberias is a chance to consider this great sage’s life and its significance for the Jewish people and all humanity.

Rabbi Akiva started out as a poor, illiterate shepherd. His wife Rachel married him against the wishes of her affluent father, who balked at Akiva’s lack of education.

Rachel encouraged and supported her husband’s utter devotion to Torah study and lived in abject poverty for twenty-four years. Akiva’s formal study of Torah did not begin until age forty, but his diligence, combined with his keen intellect, enabled him to become one of the foremost sages of the Mishnah with 24,000 students.

He supported the 2nd-century rebel leader Bar Kochba. He was arrested by the Romans and subjected to a horrifyingly painful death; he lovingly recited the words of the “Shema” at the end.

According to tradition, his body was miraculously transported to Tiberias for burial alongside his students who had died in a plague.

His tomb, on the mountainside behind the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, overlooks Tiberias and the Kinneret, and has been a pilgrimage site since the early Middle Ages.

It became a special tradition to pray for rain at Rabbi Akiva’s tomb during drought years.

Among those who visited Rabbi Akiva’s Tomb was the famed kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Ari Zal, making the site even more sacred.

Anzac Memorial Centre

The ANZAC spirit brought hundreds of horsemen from Australia and New Zealand to bravely and determinately fight for their homeland in the Land of Israel and in Be’er Sheva. You are invited to learn all about the ANZAC spirit at the ANZAC Memorial Center in Be’er Sheva. A tour of the center will unfold the story of these soldiers in an engaging and moving way.

The ANZAC Memorial Center in Be’er Sheva was built in cooperation with the governments of Australia and Israel, the Be’er Sheva municipality, the JNF, JNF Australia and the CWGC. The Center is located near the cemetery for combatants of the First World War in Be’er Sheva. The Center will be dedicated as part of the 100th anniversary of the occupation of Beersheba by the ANZAC forces on October 31, 2017 in the presence of the Prime Minister of Israel and the Prime Minister of Australia.

The ANZAC Memorial Center is a unique place in Israel that tells the story of the soldiers of the ANZAC soldiers and the conquest of Be’er Sheva in an experiential manner. Visitors to the center will journey to another continent, another time, and discover themselves in the process.The ANZAC Memorial Center in Be’er Sheva is an educational facility committed to promoting and instilling the values of heritage, patriotism, identity and the promulgation of knowledge, all embodied by the ANZAC spirit and their stories.

The ANZAC Memorial Center is a central point of interest for visitors in the city of Be’er Sheva. The Center is a magnet for tourists from Israel and from around the world, for IDF soldiers, for students and for anyone interested in the national heritage of Israel and of the city of Be’er Sheva, as well as those who cherish the ANZAC soldiers and their bravery.

Image attribution:
zeller -zalmanson Pikiwiki Israel, CC BY 2.5 , via Wikimedia Commons;
Dr. avishai teicher Pikiwiki Israel, CC BY 2.5 , via Wikimedia Commons

Monument to the Negev Brigade

The Monument to the Negev Brigade, known locally as the Andarta, is a monument designed by Dani Karavan in memory of the members of the Palmach Negev Brigade who fell fighting on Israel’s side during the 1948 Arab Israeli War. It is situated on a hill overlooking the city of Be’er Sheva from the east and constitutes a recognized symbol of the Negev and Beersheba. In addition to its strengths as a memorial, it was a precursor to the land art movement.

The monument was built between 1963 and 1968 at a time when Israel was making many physical memorials to those who fought and died in its wars. It is made of raw concrete consisting of eighteen separate elements covering 10,000 square meters. These elements are symbolic and connected to Palmach and to the War of Independence.

The perforated tower alludes to a watchtower shelled with gunfire and the pipeline tunnel is reminiscent of the channel of water in the Negev defended by the soldiers. Engraved in the concrete are the names of the 324 soldiers who died in the war, the badge of the Palmach, diary passages from the soldiers, the battle registry, verses (from the Bible 2 Kings 2:12) and songs.

Photo attribution: Talmoryair, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Ramat HaNadiv

At the southern end of Mount Carmel, between Zikhron Ya’akov and Binyamina, lies Ramat Hanadiv – Gardens and Nature Park – over an area of about 450 hectares, dedicated to the memory of Baron Edmond de Rothschild. At the heart of the Memorial Gardens buried the Baron and his wife. The contrast between the meticulous Gardens and the Mediterranean Nature Park around them, is one of the wonderers of Ramat Handiv.

Far beyond its value as a geographical site, Ramat Hanadiv plays a leading role in the management of natural and cultural resources based on sustainable interactions between man, nature and the environment, and encourages understanding and appreciation of this ideal. To fulfil this mission, we invest great effort in innovative management, scientific research, environmental education, and inherent link between humanity and the environment, particularly as it concerns communities.

The Memorial Gardens invite the guests into a place of rare tranquility. Visitors may stroll the pathways among the exquisitely landscaped gardens and breathe their fragrance throughout the year. A gracious combination of European formality and Mediterranean-style vegetation, the Gardens reflect the Baron de Rothschild’s legacy of dignity and modesty. Along the paths visitors can view the Nature Park and its characteristic Mediterranean scenery.

You are invited to enjoy the rich range of activities that take place in Ramat Hanadiv: to find out the story of “The known Benefactor”‘, to stroll among the flowers in the Memorial Gardens; or to take a walk out to the Nature Park, where the past reflected in the archeological sites, the present shown in the flora and fauna, and the future realize according to the vision of Ramat Hanadiv

Ramat Hanadiv is a living memorial to Baron Edmond de Rothschild, operating for the benefit of the Israeli public as a whole and for generations to come.Ramat Hanadiv plays a leading role in the management of natural and cultural resources based on sustainable interactions between man, nature and the environment, and encourages understanding and appreciation of this ideal.

Yitzar Hirschfeld has carried out archaeological digs in Ramat Hanadiv over a period of 14 years. The excavations at Horvat ‘Aqav and Horvat Eleq, has unearthed remains from three periods: a small Phoenician shrine, a Herodian estate manor and a Byzantine period villa. It has been hypothesized that there was a spread of malarial mosquitoes in Ramat Hanadiv during the late Byzantine period.

Jaffa Clock Tower

The Jaffa Clock Tower is built of limestone and incorporates two clocks and a plaque commemorating the Israelis killed in the battle for the town in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It is one of seven clock towers built in Ottoman Palestine. The others are located in Safed, Acre, Nazareth (though that one is significantly smaller), Haifa, and Nablus. Jerusalem also had a clock tower built during the Ottoman period, but the British Field Marshal Sir Edmund Allenby, demanded its destruction as he would not see such a clear Ottoman symbol resting on the city wall of Jerusalem, for which he had much emotions.

The construction of the tower was initiated by Joseph Bey Moyal, a prominent Jewish businessman from Jaffa. He was also the mind behind the Jerusalem – Jaffa train line. The construction was made possible with contributions from all the communities of Jaffa, Arabs, Armenians, Maronites and Jews. The watch mechanism itself was done by Moritz Schoenberg, a Jewish clock-maker from Rishon LeZion who also built a few stores in the adjacent Negib Bustros St. (now Raziel St.). The official goal was to commemorate the silver jubilee of the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II, however, the local community had a lot to gain, as Jaffa was going through a rapid process of modernisation and urbanisation, and the building of the clock tower helped develop the vibrant and well-functioning centre of town alongside the market, the bank and many new offices and shops. The construction was carried out by Baruch Papirmeister from Rishon LeZion, who studied architecture in Germany, hence the German style of the tower.

The cornerstone was laid in September 1900 and a year, two floors were built and the construction of a third floor had begun. In 1903, the clock tower had been erected and Schoenberg designed and installed four clocks at its top. In 1965 or 1966, the Jaffa Clock Tower was renovated; two new clocks were installed and colorful stained glass windows describing the history of Jaffa designed by Arie Koren were added.

Image attribution:
Jorge Láscar from Australia, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons;
Noam.armonn, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons;
Shaharkalaora, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Jafudà Cresques Monument

Perhaps here in at the Sapiencia plot was the site of the house and workshop of the famous cartographers Abraham Cresques and his son Jafudà Cresques, from a family whose members had attained lofty positions and had enjoyed a considerable reputation.The masterpiece by Cresques was the famous Atlas Catalán, a mapa mundi which Prince Juan gave as a gift to Charles V of France in 1381 and which today is on display at the Paris National Library

Hebrew Inscriptions at Marlet Street

Marlet Street starts with a headstone recalling the figure of Rabbi Samuel Ha-Sardi. This headstone was discovered in 1820 during construction work on the nearby buildings. The transcription, which appears on the headstone, are from 1826, and a modern interpretation would read: “Pious Foundation of Rabbi Samuel Ha-Sardi: its light burns evermore.” The headstone at Marlet street is now a replica and the original can be seen on display at the History Museum of Barcelona.

Site Tag: Memorial