Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on October 14, 2012 by M. Backman
Scrolls of Fire
Photo Credit: Andrea Wiese (PEP ’11-’13)
Alex Singer was an American Jew who made aliyah to Israel and was killed in Lebanon in 1987 at the age of 25. The first segment of the hike in his honor was a discussion of the Megillat Aish (Scrolls of Fire) Holocaust memorial. The monument was intricate and moving and the discussion was quite insightful. It’s definitely worth a visit. We then walked the first part of the hike, which wasn’t difficult, and since we were in a forest the scenery was very pleasant.
After hiking for a while, we stopped at a little clearing to first rest and eat. We then discussed various excerpts and drawings from ALEX Building A Life. It was emotional to listen to Alex’s family and friends detail memories of him. We then proceeded to discuss the etymology of various surnames of hike participants, after which we concluded the hike with an extremely downhill journey.
Frankly, I didn’t think the experience was worth the roughly six hours that it took, but that was probably mostly due to the fact that I didn’t have a personal connection to Alex Singer. Nevertheless, it was an extremely poignant experience for many other people on the hike and I certainly enjoyed the event.
