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Visiting Info
Opening Hours:

Sunday to Thursday: ‬09:00-17:00

Fridays and Holiday eves: ‬09:00-14:00

Yad Vashem is closed on Saturdays and all Jewish Holidays.

Entrance to the Holocaust History Museum is not permitted for children under the age of 10. Babies in strollers or carriers will not be permitted to enter.

Drive to Yad Vashem:
For more Visiting Information

Prayer in a World of Destruction

The Holocaust period was characterized by a constant attempt to break Jewish spirit and humanity. Consequently, all aspects of physical and spiritual life of the Jews were torn asunder. 

Within this environment, with official policy aimed at denying the Jews – as individuals and as a community – their freedom, humanity and, ultimately, their very existence, Jews in the ghetto were often prohibited  from  assembling, which made it difficult and dangerous  to pray in a minyan (quorum). Even tefillat yachid (individual prayer) was not always possible either, due to conditions such as forced labor.

Nevertheless, there were those in the ghettos and camps who managed to pray individually and communally, in particular during the Yamim Nora'im (High Holy Days) and Jewish festivals. For them, it was a declaration that the Nazis would destroy neither their faith nor their traditions. Tefillah (prayer) was, in many ways, an act of defiance against the Nazis. Under those dire circumstances, tefillah served as an anchor, an island of spirituality, or in the words of Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl from his book Man's Search for Meaning, something with kedushah (holiness) to cling to. People who were able to carry out some semblance of tefillah in those chaotic times – in the traditional form or in their own improvised way – with valiant effort and at great risk of danger, drew strength from the profound meaning they found in it. Perhaps in learning about their mesirut nefesh (self-sacrifice) we, too, can draw strength and derive deeper meanings in our own tefillot.

Lesson objective:
Discuss the attempts of Jews to cling to tefillah as a means of maintaining tradition and as an expression of their identity and faith during the Holocaust, and talk about the particular meaning that tefillah took on in that environment. Use the dialogue on tefillah in the Holocaust as a point of departure for a discussion on what tefillah means to the students.

Lesson structure:

  • Introduction – the difficulties and challenges of tefillah during the Holocaust
  • Group activity – tefillah in a ruptured world
  • Summary – discussion on the meaning of tefillah
     

Introduction  

Introduction

Group Activity – Tefillah in a Ruptured World  

Group Activity – Tefillah in a Ruptured World

Group 1  

Group 1

Group 2  

Group 2

Group 3  

Group 3

Group 4  

Group 4

Group 5  

Group 5

Group 6  

Group 6

Summary  

Summary
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