B'ruchim haba'im! Welcome to Kraków!!! This is the official start of our tour, and what a first day we had! After a delicious breakfast at the hotel we met our Israeli educator Ron and our Polish educator Marcelina and boarded our bus for our first day of touring. I was struck by the sign in the front of our bus identifying our tour.
In Israel, our bus sign will read "Temple Adat Elohim's tour of Poland and Israel led by Cantor David Shukiar." But in Poland, our bus is identified as "Thousand Oaks." While I know that this is only a precaution and do not question our safety, it makes me sad that this is a precaution we have to take. I hope that one day we can live in a world where we do not have to worry about what our labels are and we can truly be proud to express our identities, no matter what they are, freely and publicly. As I said at the end of my blog post for yesterday, we still have a lot of work to do.
We boarded our bus and headed to our first activity, visiting the Oskar Schindler Factory and toured the museum there.
Throughout this museum we were taken on a journey back in time and traced the history of Kraków under Nazi occupation between 1939 and 1945. I was so taken by the fact that not only did the museum share the Polish story, but also the Jewish story. Part of this troubling history is the humanity shown by Oskar Schindler as he saved the lives of 1200 Jews by employing them in his factory making munitions for the German war machine. I always love to point out that all of the ammunition created in his factory was of the wrong caliber and was unusable by the German army. Bad bullets, 1200 Jews saved... GO SCHINDLER!!!!
A sobering moment was when I turned a corner in the museum and was met with the following flags staring me in the face.
My heart instantly began to race and I became very uncomfortable at the sight of the symbol of the Nazis. It is scary to think that more than 70 years later I still can have this fear from the swastika. As I walked with Ron, our educator, I seemed to find each and every swastika in every exhibit. Even the smallest ones didn't get by me.
Another powerful moment was looking at the walls of the ghetto where the Jews were forced to live during the occupation before being transported to the camps. Notice how the walls resemble Jewish tomb stones, as if the walls themselves were warning us of our upcoming fate... It was chilling.
Leaving the factory we went to Kazmirez, the former Jewish Quarter, the center of Judaism in Kraków. We first walked into the Altshul, the oldest synagogue in Poland, dating back to the 15th century. Now a museum, it helps to teach the local community about Judaism. Notice the Jewish items behind glass.
We then went to the Rema Synagogue, which dates back to the 16th century. This is the synagogue of Rabbi Moses Isserles the "Rema," the great codifier of Jewish Law.
We also went to the Rema Cemetary, where many of the great rabbinical leaders of Polish Jewry are buried. Notice the stones look a lot like the walls of the ghetto that we saw in the Schindler Factory.
Here is the stone marking the grave of Rabbi Moses Isserles. Notice the notes people write and place in and around the stone. It is like the Western Wall of Poland.
And here is yet another synagogue, this one dated to the 19th century.
We then walked to the old Jewish market, a market that still functions today, even without a Jewish population to support it. The round building behind our traveling group below was the kosher meat market. Now it sells many delicious looking foods.
We also walked to a special location where scenes from Schindler's List was filmed.
Our final stop was the Isaac Synagogue, which dates back to the 17th century.
A note about the four synagogues we saw today. Of the four, only one is an active synagogue community (the Isaac Synagogue is the home of the Chabad Lubavitch orthodox community). The rest are now museums. I am not sure how to feel about this fact. On the one hand, it is sad that such a vibrant center of Judaism, THE center of Judaism was dessimated by the Nazis. The reality that so many Jews were killed is overwhelming. On the other hand, each of these synagogues was looted and ransacked by the Nazis. Each was used either for storage or even as a stable during the war. The fact that the local community felt strongly enough to rebuild these sanctuaries so they could educate their children about Jews and Polish Jewish history is wonderful. Yes, the Torah was behind glass with a sign identifying it as a Torah. But Torah was there to teach the local community about its importance to Jews. As horrible as the Holocaust is, this is a small blessing in the face of such darkness. You can see in the younger generations of Poles a new respect and even desire to learn more about Judaism. At Majdanek yesterday Daron and I saw no less than 5 buses of Polish school children facing this part of Polish Jewish history. Perhaps this age old anti semetism is beginning to change. This new Jewish respect is just beginning, only about 15 years or so ago according to our educator Ron. I hope and pray it continues.
On our way to our opening dinner, we had the chance to take in the beauty of Kraków at night. What a beautiful city this is.
We enjoyed a delicious meal and wonderful company as we celebrated the start of our adventure.
Today was all about learning about the golden age of Judaism in Poland. This sets the stage for tomorrow, where we will dive head first into the destruction of European Jewry as we feel the darkness of Auschwitz. As I sat at dinner tonight, I looked around the tables of people I feel so connected to and my heart goes out to them. The reason is that I know that after tomorrow they will not be the same. Aushwitz will change all of us, and it is our challenge to be sure that the change is a blessing to humanity.
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