Some people base all of their views on a single defective principle.

In 1989, I made my first visit to Israel. As part of a busy trip from north to south, we spent a good amount of time in Jerusalem. Two places that touched my heart were the Western Wall, where a person starts to spill out his soul as he approaches the ancient walls that once saw the Second Temple in all its glory. The other site was Yad Vashem — the official Holocaust Museum. The former remains as it was then, while the museum has gone through a major renovation that has made it even more powerful.

At Yad Vashem, one exhibit led me to uncontrolled sobbing. The Children’s Memorial is, on the one hand, a very simple exhibit. It shows pictures of children who were murdered by the Nazis; it has lots of burning candles and reflected light, and in the background one hears the names of these children. One walks through and comes out a complete wreck. I was so moved by the experience that I wrote to the man who created it: Professor Moshe Safdie. Safdie was born in Haifa and at the time was a professor at Harvard. Much to my surprise, he not only wrote back but also sent me several of his books. I learned that the open area in front of the Western Wall was also his doing. After being captured in 1967, the area in front of the Wall was filled with Jordanian garbage. There was a competition on how to develop the site. Safdie said to open it up into the plaza that it is today. At certain times of the year, 50,000 or more people can stand there in prayer. He said that one did not need any additional adornments at such a location.

A few years after arriving in Israel, I had the opportunity to meet Moshe Safdie in his office in Jerusalem. He was developing the super-successful Mamilla Mall that is the bridge between the Old City of Jerusalem and the new city. Next to it is the City of David,........

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