123: Wartime Diaries - Hagit Maoz

Israel Story

Judaism, Palestine, Jewish, Stories, Religion & Spirituality, Israel

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2023

⏱️ 16 minutes

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Summary

Almost immediately after the start of the attack of October 7th, as rockets were being launched at Jerusalem, and sirens sent the city’s one million residents into shelters, the heads of the Israel Museum initiated an emergency protocol for the first time since the Gulf War in 1991.

The idea was to protect the nation’s most priceless cultural and historical treasures, the building blocks of our collective identity. The very first step of that protocol was to secure the Museum’s most prized possession, its indisputable star, its “Mona Lisa” – the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Of all the estimated 500,000 treasured items in the Museum’s collections, from Monets to Picassos, from the Chalcolithic hoard of Nahal Mishmar to the House of David inscription from Tel Dan, it was the 2200-year-old scrolls that were packed up and rushed into the museum’s most protected safe. And it was Hagit Maoz, the Curator of the Shrine of the Book where the scrolls are normally housed, who was tasked with this delicate operation.

The end song is Imperiot Noflot Le'at ("Empires Fall Slowly") by Dan Toren and Hemi Rudner.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's like a lot of people play this game of like, well, if your house were on fire, what would be the one thing that you would take?
0:07.4	And the Israel Museum has answered very, very clearly. The one thing that we take is the one thing that you're in charge of.
0:14.9	By the way, I live in a village that two and a half years ago almost was on fire and the only thing I took
0:26.7	from home I mean I told my kids now to the car and we took the cat and I took the albums
0:34.4	of my family yes I didn't take anything, not underwear, nothing else. I took my family
0:42.9	albums and of course my family and we tried to escape. And so it's interesting what you're
0:50.1	saying now because when you think what is dear to you is your history and I did it I
0:59.2	mean it was clear to me that this is the most important it's the documentation about my my
1:05.2	ancestors so I have to take it with me and I didn't think about something else seems like
1:10.4	the you and the Israel Museum think in the same way because in many ways
1:14.5	these are the photo albums of our people.
1:18.1	Absolutely, yes.
1:19.4	Yes, you're right.
1:21.0	Hey listeners, it's Mishi.
1:24.0	So as you know, during these incredibly difficult days, we're trying to bring you voices we're hearing among and around us.
1:32.9	These aren't stories, they're just quick conversations, or postcards really, that try to capture slivers of life right now.
1:43.3	Almost immediately after the start of the attack on the morning of October 7th,
1:48.2	as rockets were being launched at Jerusalem, and sirens sent the city's million residents into shelters.
1:55.5	The heads of the Israel Museum initiated an emergency protocol for the first time since the Gulf War in 1991.
2:04.1	The idea was to protect the nation's most priceless cultural and historical treasures,
2:09.9	the building blocks of our collective identity. And the very first step of that protocol,
2:17.2	securing the museum's most prized possession, its indisputable star,
	...

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