Visiting Yad Kennedy & the 9/11 Living Memorial

Jeremy was very excited to park like an Israeli.

A few weeks ago, Sarah and I had the good fortune to have a free Saturday afternoon. Even better, we had the even better fortune of having a car! As the end of the year gets closer, we have created a "bucket list" of sites and restaurants that we want to visit before we leave Israel. Since we had such luck of time and a car, we decided to go and visit two sites that were on our list: Yad Kennedy and the 9/11 Living Memorial.


Yad Kennedy


Yad Kennedy is a memorial to President John F. Kennedy. The monument was built 3 years after JFK's death, almost exclusively by American money through the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The memorial is shaped like a chopped-off tree trunk, offering beautiful symbolism for how JFK's life was cut short. The 51 columns that make up the building each have the emblem of one of the 50 states as well as DC. The columns seamlessly connect to the ground and extend to the edge of the plaza, continuing the tree imagery. Although the inside room was closed, we could look through the windows and see that there is a place for a candle in the middle of the mostly empty room. The memorial was built in connection to a new forest, not unsurprisingly called the "John F. Kennedy Peace Forest." 







9/11 Living Memorial


The 9/11 Living memorial, also built by the JNF in connection to a forest, is the only place outside the US that includes every name of the victims killed on 9/11. As you walk down into the plaza, there is a structure in the middle that at its base, includes a piece of iron from one of the fallen towers. From the base sprouts an American flag that waves up into the air and evolves into a skyward flame. Looking at the same structure from the opposite side, the imagery of the American flag is completely lost and the structure looks only like a glowing flame. 


Although incredibly beautiful and powerful, there were two things that really struck us as odd. First of all, if you don't know it's there, or where you're going, you'll never find this site. We happened to do our research and were able to see the tiny road signs along the path, but there are a few roads along the way that are unpaved, making it quite the journey. Perhaps that will change in the years to come. Secondly, if you stand at the beginning of the plaza and your eye goes from the ground to the sky, you see the memorial, then the highway, and then a large cemetery. The imagery was striking and confusing, and seemed to contrast the idea of the site being called a "Living Memorial."