Reflections on Yad Vashem

From Rebecca Rosen '14, comes this amazing set of photos, plus a great set of questions.  I'll write up a bit of an answer to her questions in a later post . . . but in the meanwhile, take a look at what she got to see!

Hi Professor Crannell,

I hope you're enjoying your summer! I actually found something that reminded me of class when I went to Israel on birthright earlier this summer. We travelled all over, and one of the many places we went to was Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum. Yad Vashem has a children's memorial to commemorate the 1.5 million children who were lost in the Holocaust. This memorial consists of an underground cavern where a recording plays, stating the names, ages, and countries of each child.  Pictures of them are shown on large screens. The cavern is only lit by 6 candles, but they are arranged with mirrors in such a fashion that it creates an illusion that is meant to represents millions of stars in the sky. I actually had no idea that those countless lights were created from only six candles until our tour guide told us, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever! 

Since the candles and their reflections were the only forms of light, none of us could see
how they were set up and we weren't allowed to take any pictures. I remember talking about reflections in class; however this was so much more complex. I was wondering how many mirrors would be necessary to create this kind of effect?  I am sure it varies depending on how many candles, mirrors, and amount of light one prefers but I seriously thought this was the coolest thing ever and had never seen anything like it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Becca

PS.  The architect's name is Moshe Safdie and his other designs are really cool as well. The last two pictures I attached are two of his other buildings. 

Moshe Safdie, Habitat 67,  Canada.

Moshe Safdie, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.