Yad Vashem vs. Migdal Dovid: Which is More Important?

“I will give them in my house… a [YAD VASHEM] memorial and name better than sons and daughters.” – Isaiah 56:5

Which is more important?! What a stupid question!

Yad Vashem is the most important Holocaust memorial in the world, (with the Kotel) the emotional apex of any trip to Israel. Migdal Dovid is a misnamed (unconnected to David) tower which would be largely ignored if it wasn’t located at the entrance to the Old City.

That however, is not the Dovid, or the Migdal, to which I refer.

Dovid was my classmate and close friend in yeshiva and has remained so six decades later. We played together, studied together, misbehaved together, slept over at each other’s homes.

Not once however, did we ever address the fact we were both only-children of Survivor parents. Not once, did we, or any other Survivor-children-classmates ever discuss the Holocaust.

One reason was, the very word (capitalized) Holocaust (referring to the Nazi genocide) didn’t exist.

The Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem didn’t open until a decade after Dovid and I started yeshiva; Holocaust Remembrance Day didn’t begin until four decades later.

Our parents only made vague temporal references to “The War” (i.e., before or after.) We didn’t refer to it at all.

The Migdal Dovid to which I refer is not the Jerusalem tower Arabs call “The Citadel.”

I refer to the edifice, the citadel, my friend Dovid created – six children, over 40 grandchildren, over 20 great-grandchildren (numbers that grow monthly.)

Dovid, like all Survivors’ only-children was “The Last of the Mohicans.”

Had he never had children, his mother’s and father’s family-lines would have abruptly terminated. Instead, like Jacob entering Egypt with 70 family members, he has procreated a similar amount.

In doing so, he has created his own promised land. He has kept the promise he implicitly made to his parents.

Their part of the contract was to survive; his was “Gedenk! Zachor!” Ensure they are remembered. He has created 70 memories.

Isaiah 56:5 claims a Yad Vashem, a brick-and-mortar memorial is better, more important than flesh-and-blood sons and daughters. I don’t depreciate its importance, but I respectfully disagree.

Yad Vashem is our history. Our Migdal Dovids are our future.

The verse concludes: “I give you an eternal name that will never end.”

Migdal Dovid is Am Yisroel Chai!

What could be more important than that?