The same 3,000 Jewish teen-agers who re-enacted a death march from Auschwitz to Birkenau a week ago gave new life to an Israeli hilltop on Sunday, planting the March of the Living Forest near Jerusalem.
The teen-agers, from 36 nations around the globe, spread over a hill near Moshav Neveh Ilan, their costumes painting the area blue and white.
Clasping a sapling with one hand and a friend with the other, they stood in silence for two minutes while sirens wailed all over the country, calling a halt to all activity at 11 a.m., in honor of Israel’s fallen soldiers.
The significance of the ceremony was not lost on the youth fresh from the gray Jewish past of Poland to the vivid present of Israel.
The vast difference between the two worlds was further underlined for them by the chairman of the Jewish National Fund of Israel, Moshe Rivlin. He told the teen-agers about the changes since Israel’s independence in 1948.
He mentioned, for one thing, that 42 years ago, Jerusalem was cut off from the rest of the country. There was only a single road to Jerusalem, under fire by the enemy, who made it “a road full of death.
“But now,” Rivlin said, “there are 11 roads leading to Jerusalem, the road of life.”
Talking to the youths during the ceremony, it was clear that their experiences of the last 10 days left a strong impression.
IMPORTANT THAT JEWS ‘STICK TOGETHER’
Although they studied the Holocaust before leaving for Poland, their journey has given them much more than would have been possible from only reading books.
Just before planting his sapling, Scott Schneider, 18, from Harrisburg, Pa., told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he joined the “March of the Living” to “experience the death of our people back in Poland and experience the life of the people in Israel.”
He said he wanted to learn more about the Holocaust, to understand why it happened and what had happened.
Although this visit to Israel is not his first, he said he experienced something different this time.
“I was really excited that when I got off the plane here in Israel, I kissed the ground,” Schneider said. “The feeling of life here is just amazing.”
Another participant, 16-year-old Leora Salzhauer from Orangeburg, N.Y., said her experiences over the last two weeks have made her decide she wants to live in Israel.
“I joined the ‘March of the Living’ because I thought it would be a wonderful experience,” she said. “I wanted to learn more about the Jewish fate during the Holocaust, to know how important it is that we Jews stick together.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
