Silence for Sirens . . . and Silly String for Celebrating

On Monday during Yom HaZikaron we went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum. We toured Yad VaShem and saw the world's biggest Holocaust archives. At the archives in Yad Vashem, they had 4.5 Million names out of the 6 Million Jews in the Holocaust. After that we went outside and stood in silence for the Yom HaZikaron siren. I thought that the siren was very interesting because the siren goes off in all of Israel. I also found it interesting that everyone in Israel had a relative or friend that died in the IDF. After that we went to the children's memorial, which was in a dark environment. 

Looking out over Yad Vashem

After Yad Vashem, we went to Har Herzl and saw the military cemetery and we also saw the cemetery for the men, women, and children that died in terrorist attacks. When we left Har Herzl we went to an army training session where we separated into groups to go with commanders that were in the Israeli army. The army training was challenging, but it was fun.

When we got back to the hotel we were able to get ready to go to Ben Yehudah street. At Ben Yehudah street, we celebrated Yom HaAtzmaut. Yom HaAtzmaut was crazy on Ben Yehudah street - people were dancing, running around, and spraying each other with either shaving cream or silly string. Andrew and I had fun spraying everyone with silly string. We had a great time at Ben Yehudah street.  Plus Rabbi Michah surprised us as we were finishing the celebration on Ben Yehudah.  It was a fun celebration of Yom Haatzmaut (and Cinco de Mayo!), and after we talked with Rabbi Michah we finally went back to the hotel. 
-Joshua