Day Fourteen - Shabbat, Presentation at Beit Warszawa, Good Bye Dinner, Farewells,

After a good night's rest, We headed to services. Beit Warszawa held a beautiful morning service led by the passionate Rabbi Schuman who is a former New Yorker and extremely welcoming. I was called up for the first Aliyah and the congregation as a whole was so glad to have us there. After the morning service and some great Shabbat singing, Rabbi Katz led a heated Torah study session. Rabbi Katz is an incredibly interesting man. He is the newer Rabbi of Beit Warszawa and his presence on the staff shows the growing membership and needs of the congregation. Katz is openly gay, and to be an openly gay Rabbi in Poland puts him in a category of being an extreme minority. His style of giving sermons and teaching is exciting and fun and he really got the congregation involved in the readings.
Leah and I spent our afternoon buying flowers and creating bouquets for our dear Kasia and Kaja and preparing our presentation that we gave to Beit Warszawa. The presentation went well and we were warmly received by a rather good sized audience. We discussed our experience as a whole and spent time speaking about the different surprises we came across about Polish culture, especially the general attraction towards Jewish people and culture.
After our presentation, we went to a wonderful dinner with Kasia, Kaja, some other friends we made at the Museum, and some friends from Beit Warszawa. We had an absolute blast. At one point in our dinner, every person from our table was on the dance floor singing and dancing. We were all so happy to have had such an eye-opening and exciting experience, and all our happiness came out on that dance floor.
After our delicious and fun filled meal, we went back to our apartment and met up with some more friends from the Museum. We had a little celebration and gave Kasia and Kaja our hand made bouquets and thanked them for all there hard work and dedication for creating such a powerful and impressive program.

Sleep time. Flight in the morning. Faewwell Poland. Honestly, we could not have asked for more.

Day Thirteen - Shabbat with Beit Warszawa

Today we toured the Praga district of Warsaw. Praga was another heavily Jewish area in the city pre-war. There is still much evidence to be seen of Jewish life there. One of the most typical markers of old Jewish buildings are the doorposts where the outline of an old mezuzah can be seen. This has been the easiest way of identifying Jewish homes throughout our travels.
We spent the afternoon wandering around Praga. We returned to our apartment to get ready for Shabbat and then met up with Kaja, Kasia, and Wiki to head over to Beit Warszawa for Shabbat services and dinner. Beit Warszawa is the Reform congregation in Warsaw. Services are held in a house outside the center of the city. It is a small, but growing congregation and the first of its kind in Poland since before the war. It was nice to see that there is such an established Jewish community in Warsaw that there is the need for different synagogues to fit the needs and desires of Warsaw's Jewish population. Services reminded us very much of Rodeph Sholom and we felt very welcome in Beit Warszawa. They provide Shabbat dinner every week and this gave us an opportunity to chat with some of the Beit Warszawa members and hear their stories of how they ended up there, their own personal Jewish journeys. It seems all Polish Jews have a fascinating story to tell. A wonderful thing about being Jewish is that when traveling in many places around the world on Shabbat you can find a synagogue and feel at home no matter what far corner of the world you may be in!

Day Twelve - Back to Warsaw

Today is June 4th - the 20th anniversary of free elections in Poland. We left Kazimierz Dolny to get back to Warsaw to celebrate this amazing day in the country's capital. It was great to get back to Warsaw and see all of our friends at the museum office. After settling into our apartment Kasia took us to the Modern Art Museum to see a special exhibit to commemorate the day. It featured photography representing the past 20 years - a wall containing the image on the front page of a major newspaper every day for the last 20 years as well as photographs taken by 20 year olds - people who had grown up in a Poland free from communism. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting some work done in the museum office.
We spent the rest of the day/night celebrating, along with the entire country. We, along with practically every other person in Warsaw, went to a free concert in one of the cities major squares. The concert was a collection of Polish music from the 90s and was very entertaining. We really enjoyed this night of celebration. The majority of the people there can remember life under communism and therefore this day holds so much significance to them. As Americans this is a difficult concept to understand, we celebrate July 4th every year, but there is no one alive today who can remember what it was like before 1776. However, in Poland every person above our age and older lived under communist rule. This was truly a wonderful experience.

Day Eleven - Kazimierz Dolny

Today we got a chance to explore the town we've been staying in Kazimierz Dolny. This town too used to be a shtetl, it is now a popular vacation destination just a two hour drive from Warsaw. We spent the morning exploring the town center and visited the synagogue (now museum). The synagogue is full of pictures from the shtetl between the time of the rise of photography and WWII. We saw the square, now full of tourists and school groups, as a bustling place of business for the Jews of Kazimierz Dolny and pictures of the synagogue when it was still functioning as a synagogue.
We then took a short hike up a hill for a magnificent view of the town and the surrounding area including the river, it was beautiful. We made our way over to another near by hill where there were old castle ruins. This town has a very long history of Jews and non-Jews.
We spent the evening relaxing and enjoying this beautiful place - tomorrow we return to the hustle and bustle of Warsaw.

Day Ten - Shtetl Tour

Today we went shtetl hopping. We visited several towns which used to be considered shtetls (meaning they had at least 50% of the population was Jewish). Now, very few, if any, Jews live in these towns. The emptiness left by the Jews in some of these places can still be felt. There are market squares in town centers which used to be full of Jewish shops, holes on doorposts once occupied by mezuzot. In many of these towns synagogues still stand, most as museums, dedicated to remembering the once thriving Jewish life of the town.
We stopped in a town near the eastern border of Poland called Wlodowa. There we met with a group of local high school students who gave us a tour of their town. Wlodowa is very proud of its 3 cultures festival, which is a 3 day annual festival celebrating the history of the town as a place where 3 different religious groups once lived side by side - Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Jews. They took us to both of the churches (currently almost the entire population of the town attends the Catholic church every Sunday) and then to the synagogue. This synagogue too, was a museum. It was really interesting to experience this along with the local students. There were several old Jewish books to be found in every room of the shul, each one provided an opportunity to share some knowledge about Judaism with the students, which they seemed truly interested in learning.
The next stop on on trip was the town of Chelm. This town holds such an important place in Jewish memory and literature and yet this town, compared to all the others we saw barely remembers that it used to be predominantly Jewish. This synagogue was not made into a museum, rather it is just another building on the street now housing a restaurant. There is not much in the town that suggests that it used to be a Jewish neighborhood, but the center of town used to be lined with Jewish homes and businesses. We also visited the cemetery which seems to be the one Jewish place maintained in town.
After several hours of driving around and seeing these shtetl remains, we returned to Kazimierz Dolny where we've been staying. Here we are truly appreciating the beauty of the Polish countryside and the the lovely Wisua river.

Day Nine - Lublin

Today we left Krakow and headed northeast for a shtetl tour. We took the train to Lublin, where we were met by Jan from Beit Warszawa. He took us for a tour of the city, starting with a trip to the Grodzka Gate. The gate marks the entrance to the Jewish quarter of Lublin. Inside this gate is a museum dedicated to the history of the Jews in Lublin. They do great work educating the youth of the area on the Jewish history of Lublin and the surrounding areas.

We saw the rest of the Jewish quarter, the majority of which was destroyed in the war, a park now stands in its place. We ate lunch in a “Jewish” restaurant, part of the phenomenon in Poland of people being very interested in Jewish culture.

After lunch we had a meeting with a wonderful organization called Homo Faber. They are involved in countless humanitarian projects and are doing wonderful work in Poland and throughout the world,

including Polish-Israeli exchange programs helping to further Polish-Jewish relations.

We left Lublin and drove to Kazimierz Dolny where we will be staying for the next three nights while we spend our days exploring old shtetl towns in the area.

Day Eight

This morning we met with Czulent, the Jewish youth group in Krakow and the surrounding region. We talked about the foundation of the group 5 years ago as a place for young people to gather together to discuss the difficulties of discovering their Jewish roots. Over the years it has grown into a group of about 40 members, no longer focusing on their own Jewish journeys, but rather, doing good in the community. The members are very involved in several important projects in the Jewish and surrounding community in Krakow. The organization is rather progressive, encouraging each member to find their own Jewish identity. We saw a short film about the organization that revealed to us many of the personal stories of the members. It was a pleasure to see young Jewish people who were asking themselves the same questions about their Jewish identity that we have been asking ourselves for years. We really connected with these three young Jews on a very personal level. We especially enjoyed meeting adorable baby Shimon, the son of one of the czulent members, who represented to us the future of Polish Jewry.
We then went out to lunch with Alachua, the 18 year old Floridian intern of Rabbi Tanya Segal, who is the founder and Rabbi of Beit Krakow. She told us about the very new Beit Krakow, a progressive congregation of about 25 people in Krakow. They hold weekly Friday night services and create an environment for people to slowly to embrace their Jewish heritage.
We had an afternoon of free time, during which I (Leah) went exploring alone in the city of Krakow as Jason took a shluf. The city is quite small so I was able to walk everywhere and felt really comfortable finding everything. We reunited at Monika's apartment for a classical Slask (Silesia) - beef wraps, potato pancakes with vegetables, and kluske (which Jason is very excited about because he helped her make them and because they were an funny texture.) After dinner we listened to music and talked for hours. I (Jason) LOVE MONIKA!!!!!!! However, she said some things about Israel that I found contraversial and I felt inclined to defend the Jewish homeland until 6 am. Following this we had a very sad and emotional goodbye and headed to the train station.

Day Seven - In the City of King Krak

This morning we woke and went to the Galicia Museum to meet with Jozef Mironiuk, a Righteous Among the Nations of the World. He was an incredible nice and charming old man, who told us his amazing story. He served in the Polish Home Army fighting against the Nazis in WWII. He had a farm in the forest near the work camp in Janow. He and his family helped to hide and feed many escapees from the camp. He helped many people to flee from the Nazis. For an extended period of time he his three Jews, they lived in a secret room in the barn, which was covered by manuer so the smell would throw off the Nazi dogs. Even his 11 year old sister Weronika played a crucial role in the hiding of these Jews and their survival through the war. During his service in the Polish home army, he was captured by the Nazis three times. He managed to escape each time in very creative ways, including spending a night covered in dirt in a potato field. He was awared a medal of honor from Yad VaShem saying "To safe a single life is to save the entire world." Mr. Mironiuk is very proud of what he did, doing good in such a dark time. He was one of the most impressive people we have met thus far.
Following our meeting with Mr. Mironiuk, we met with the educational director of the museum. She told us about the many programs the museum runs educational museums that teach many Polish teachers about Jewish history in the region and in Poland in general, so that they may better incorporate the Jewish components of history into their classrooms.
We went out for lunch, just our little group (Jason, Leah, and Kaja) at a great little restaurant across the street from the JCC. We had amazing tomato soup. From there we went for a walking tour of the old city of Krakow. The old market square, one of the largest in Europe, is absolutely beautiful and contains countless outdoor restaurants and shops. Some of the buildings here are very old, because the city was not destroyed in WWII. We learned the in depth history of the city of Krakow, which was given its charter in 1257 by the great King Krak. The defensive walls were built around the city to prevent attack from the violent neighboring peoples. We saw many beautiful churches, built throughout many centuries, we learned about the old town hall, which had a torture chamber and a brothel in its basement, it was certainly an interesting place. We toured Wawel castle and learned the legend of the virgin-eating dragon of Krakow. As the story goes..."There was an evil dragon who ate much of the live-stock, but had a sweet-tooth for the vigins of the town. King Krak's daughter, being a virgin (of course), was in great danger. King Krak decided that he would offer his daughter's hand in marriage to anyone who could slay the evil dragon. After many attempts and a lot dead men, a clever townsman (Jewish) suggested to fill a sheep with sulfur. Of course the dragon ate the yummy sheep! And it made his tummy burn. Oh No! So the evil dragon went to go get a drink from the river and instantly exploded! And the Jewish townsman married the princess." and Jason asks "How did they get the sulfur into the sheep???"We then met up with Kaja and her friend Garrett for coffee.
We went back to Kazimierz for dinner at Dominic's apartment. It was a blast with chile con carne and veggie food for Leah. We had a really great night, hanging out with our new Polish friends.

Day Six - Auschwitz-Birkenau

This morning we took the bus to Oswiencim (the German's named it Auschwitz). We first visited the synagogue and the Jewish Museum, about the history of the Jews in the town of Oswiencim. The town used to be a thriving center of Jewish life, well over 50% of the population was Jewish. The synagogue managed to survive the war due to its use as a storehouse. Today there are 0 Jews living in Oswiencim, yet the synagogue appears fully functional with many siddurim and a sefer Torah. The Museum also contained an exhibit on the Jews from Oswiencim who survived the war and their lives today, many in Israel. It was amazing to read their stories and see pictures of their happy families today.
Then we went to the outskirts of the town to the camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. We started with a tour of Auschwitz, which is very much intact. We walked through the barracks, many of which have been converted into exhibits. The exhibits helped to show the magnitude of the horrors that occurred at this place. The first few were about the many different people, Jews and non-Jews, who were sent to Auschwitz from all over Europe. Many of whom were forced to buy their own train tickets, as they were told they were being resettled to a better place. In the next set of exhibits were the many different things collected by the Nazis which help people to better understand the number of people who were murdered and also the extent of the cruelty and dehumanization inflicted by the Nazis. What struck me the most in this exhibit was the room full of hair, which after being shaved off of mainly women's heads was to be used to make carpets and other such things. The collection of baby clothes and toys brought tears to my eyes as I thought of the horrible treatment of children and babies, who were murdered before they had a chance to live. We left Aucshwitz and headed over to Birkenau, 2 miles away, and were struck by the train tracks which lead right into the center of the camp, stopping at the area where the people were seperated and marched either into the gas chambers or into barracks that were actually horse stables. The majority of this camp was destroyed by the Nazis to try and cover up the atrocities that occurred there, all that remains are some of the barracks and the chimneys of those buildings whcih were burnt down. The camp is enormous and perhaps the size of this one camp of many, helped for me to begin to understand the number of people who were murdered.
We returned to Krakow and prepared for Shabbat, it was important for me to feel Jewish and to be a practicing Jew, after seeing the remains of the attempt to destroy Jews and eliminate Judaism from the world. We went to the Remuh synagogue in Kazimierz for a lovely Kabbalat Shabbat. We were amazed at the amount of people who were at services who were not Jewish. After services, we (along with the majority of the Jewish/wanna-be-Jewish population of Krakow) made our way to the JCC for dinner. We were so grateful to be with such wonderful people after such a difficult day.

Day Five - Off to Krakow

We woke up rather early to head to the central train station. We met and hopped on the 2 1/2 hour train to the wonderful city of Krakow. Jason's host, Monika picked us up outside the train station on her bike. She is cheerful, sweet, and extremely energetic. We all went to her apartment to drop off our things.
We then took a quick walk to where Leah would be staying at an incredible apartment with a guy named Dominik. We walked in and found the most wacky room we had ever seen. There were crazy costumes and posters everywhere. He seems like a really cool guy.
Then Leah, Kaja, and Jason went for a walking tour of the district of Krakow called Kazimierz. It is considered to be the old Jewish quarter of town. Decrees were made in Krakow, saying that Jews could not live in the town, and at that time, Kazimierz was outside the Krakow. So the great King Kazimierz offered land for the Jewish inhabitants to settle. We visited the beautiful main square where there once stood four different synagogues. The oldest one is a museum today, so is another one, and the Remuh synagogue still operates and holds services regularly. Rabbi Remuh is famous for a very influential book he wrote called the Mapach (Hebrew for tablecloth), which is considered to be the Ashkenazim codification of Rabbi Yoseph Carro's Shulchan Aruch (the set table). We also visited the Remuh cemetery, which was the cemetery for the town of Kazimierz, it was destroyed during the war, the Nazi's used it as a garbage dump. However, it was recovered and cleaned up, and the stones were reorganized and it is now very well kept. The town was not destroyed as Warsaw was during WWII, so many of the structures are pre-war architecture. The town has a charming feel to it.

In total, Kazimierz had eight synagogues, and countless private houses of prayer before WWII. There were 65,000 Jews that lived in this relatively small area, and it was a place where Jewish life flourished. Another beautiful synagogue (the progressive one) managed to survive, also by being Nazi horse stables during the war.
Present day, there is one mikvah that is located in a hotel owned by a Jewish family. Technically, there are about 150 registered Jews living in Krakow, many of them very old. However, we are learning that this does not account for the actual Jewish population here, because being Jewish in Poland is a legal matter that does not include people who are recently finding out they are Jewish or have Jewish roots.
Following our wonderful walking tour of Kazimierz, we went to the JCC and met with the director whose name is Jonathan. We learned that the building was built just last year due to extremely charitable contributions from Prince Charles. Who, after a visit to Krakow that moved him deeply, decided that the Jewish community could use some help. We took a full tour of the beautiful facility, and spoke with Jonathan about the goals and expectations he has for this place. He told us about the incredible interest from the Jewish population and non-Jewish population in Krakow. They hold many lectures and teach Hebrew multiple times a week. There is a senior's club, and Shabbat is held weekly. The place was very impressive, but I think we were even more impressed with Jonathan's goals and energy that he brings to his job.
We then enjoyed a delicious lunch with Kaja and her friend Garrett. He is also a Skidmore alumni (like Kaja) who decided to move to Poland rather randomly. A very nice guy.

We returned to the JCC for a lecture with the Rabbi, followed by a guest speaker. Most of it was in Polish, and Monika and Kaja tried to help translate, but it was rather difficult to understand. Regardless, we were very happy to be doing something with a Jewish community on Shavuot.
I (Jason) went out with Monika, Dominik, and three of their friends to a traditional Polish bar. The music is surprisingly good, and the people were incredibly fun. We joked and danced for a while. I felt incredibly welcomed and very comfortable with these people even though I have only known them for one day.
Sleepy time now. We have a big day tomorrow.

Day Four

This morning we went over to the museum office and had a meeting with Ania, who is working on the campaign of a candidate for the European Parliament. She taught us about the European Union and Poland's place within it. (Poland joined the EU just 5 years ago in 2004.) Wikitoria, who also works for the Museum, taught us more about the EU, its history and the countries which are and are not included within it. It was great to learn more about this institution and it's role in European and Polish society.
We spent the rest of the morning helping out in the office. We worked on editing the English translations of the Polish texts for the museum's exhibits and website. This was actually quite enjoyable, because the mistakes made by the initial translator were hysterical.
Kaja and Kasia took us out for lunch to a milk bar. We learned about the history of the milk bar - it began in communist times, when money was scarce. They began as a place to eat dairy products, but expanded to more products later. Milk bars serve home cooked meals at very low prices.

After lunch we visited the Warsaw Uprising Museum (not the ghetto uprising). The museum is laid out in an interesting manner, that it creates the atmosphere of being in a war zone, ruined buildings and sounds of bombs dropping. It was incredible fascinating to see pictures of places we had visited as piles of rubble. Due to the suppression of the Uprising, the city of Warsaw was 85% destroyed. (All of the buildings which appear today as they did before the war were rebuilt.)

Following our visit to the museum, we met with a filmmaker who created a short film that was displayed in a festival regarding the historical events surrounding March of 1968. We learned how this was the most recent and intense anti-semetic campaign launched since the second world war, and casued 35,000 out of the 40,000 Jews living in Poland to flea the country. We also discussed the other ways in which this project depicted March of '68 through the use of physical objects that represent personal stories. The focus of the projects were more artistic in nature than historical, but there was a lot to learn.
Train to Krakow in the morning. Layla Tov!

Day Three

Today we met at a large blue glass building where the largest synagogue in Warsaw (the Great Synagogue) once stood. Next to this building, in what used to be the synagogue's library, is the Jewish Historical Institute. We met with an interesting man named Mr. Reisner who explained the kind of work done at his institute. He shared some incredible stories with us about how the institute's work has helped parents and children find each other after decades of not having contact. A specifically moving story was one about a man who wanted to say Kaddish for his grandfather, but didn't know the correct date. He had been saying it on Yom HaShoah for years. After extensive research, a death certificate was found, and after cross referencing the date with the Hebrew calender, it turned out he had been saying Kaddish on the correct day all along.
We learned about the Ringlebloom Archives and the "Oneg Shabbat" which was the hidden conspiracy movement in the Ghetto devoted to documenting the atrocities occurring to Jews in Poland.
We got to see amazing documentation such as death certificates, letters of confiscation, and even one of Schindler's lists of names and birthdays. Accompanied with this list, was a letter requesting medical help for his workers, signed, "Heil Hitler." It was fascinating.

We visited the very impressive Morashah-Lauder School and took a tour with the principal. The school has over 200 students who all receive excellent Jewish education. They study Hebrew from age six, and have extensive knowledge of Jewish Studies and the holidays.

After lunch, we met with someone from the "Association of the Children of the Holocaust." Her name is Anya and she is a survivor. She was very young when WWII occurred, so she remembered only specific things about her past. She told us about the different things her organization does, such as group therapy and seeking financial help for survivors and righteous gentiles.

We grabbed coffee with two extremely active members of Nozyk synagogue who participate in building anti-discrimination programs. One of them only found out she was Jewish when she was 16 years old, and she told us what that experience was like.

We walked to dinner with Kaja, Kasia, Daniel, and Ania. The restaurant was very interesting, as it is now an art gallery. However, bullet hole patches are visible on the side of the building from WWII.

Day Two - Intro to the Museum & the Jewish Community

This morning we went to the Nozyk Synagogue, and Orthodox synagogue in Warsaw. We met with Peter a member of the congregation, and the director of the Education Center at the Museum of Polish Jews. He talked to us the history of the beautiful synagogue, built in 1902, it is the only synagogue in Warsaw to survive the war, as it was used for Nazi horse stables. It was reconstructed to look exactly as it did before the war, and it is absolutely beautiful. Although the synagogue has a difficult past, it is now a flourishing center of Jewish live in Warsaw. There are currently 550 congregants, a religious school for elementary and middle school children, a very active youth group, a daily minyan. The synagogue is a huge meeting place on Jewish holidays, as well as for visitors from Israel, the US, and around the world (they are particularly full when march of living stays in Warsaw.)
Peter told us his story, about how his mother told him and his brother that they were Jewish well into their adulthood. They both embraced this heritage and live observant Jewish lives. Peter's wife, who was not Jewish, converted at that time so they could live a Jewish life together with their children. We were suprised at how casually this type of story is told, it is a common phenomenon in Poland, many people embrace Judaism whenever they learn of their Jewish roots. We met briefly, a friend of Peter's, who was a skinhead, found his Jewish roots, and is currently living a hasidic, very involved, Jewish life.
We then headed over the Museum offices. Our trip is being run through the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which is due to open in 2012, located next to the monument of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The plans for the museum look amazing, the museum is going to cover the entire history of Jews in Poland since first arriving about 1000 years ago. One of the historians working in the museum gave us a virtual tour and we were amazed, and cannot wait to return to Warsaw in 2012 and see the finished product!
We walked from the Museum to cute little cafe in the area, where the people who work in the museum like to go out for lunch. We were joined by Kaja, Kasia, Anya, and Yanic, and had a delicious lunch.
We then went to the Palace of Culture, a gift to the city of Warsaw Love, "Uncle" Stalin. We went to the 30th floor and saw a panoramic viw of the city. Parts of the city are beautiful, but many areas are full of communist architecture.
From the Palace, we went to the Jewish cemetary. It is a huge cemetary, containing the graves of many prominent members of the Warsaw Jewish community and much history. We saw the grave Adam Czerniakowa, who was the head of the Warsaw Ghetto government structure. He was a very contriversial figure, because he tried to cooperate with the Nazi's in an effort to better the situation within the Ghetto, when the deporations to Treblinka occured, he committed suicide, because he felt as though he had failed his people. We stopped for a moment at the mass grave of the people who died in the Ghetto and the commemerative graves of those who perished in the Holocaust.
We stopped briefly at Yanic's Polytechnic University, which is housed in a stunningly beautiful building, influenced by Italian architecture. We talked briefly about the solidarity movement and the fall of communism 20 years ago. We ended our day with a lovely dinner at a traditional Polish restaurant, consumming lots of different kinds of perogies and traditional Polish soups (Zupa).

Day One - Welcom to Warsaw

Kaja and Kasia picked us up from the airport. They are both our leaders/guides from the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. We hopped on a bus and went to the apartment of a very nice Polish graduate student named Daniel. He is very knowledgeable about the entire history of Warsaw as we are finding with most of the Polish people we are encountering. We rested up for about an hour and then took the bus to meet Kaja at a very exciting food festival located on the "royal route" in the heart of Warsaw. We ate some very strong cheese, and watched some very traditional folk music. The street is located near the old town and the architecture is beautiful. All the buildings are filled with history.
We passed a statue of Copernicus (the guy who suggested the earth revolved around the sun) and viewed a painting of what the street looked like centuries ago. We viewed Warsaw University and visited the auditorium where we learned about Adam Miskawitcz, the famous poet and symbol the complexities of Polish identity. Then we walked down to the new, state of the art library which overlooks a beautiful garden.
We learned briefly about John Paul II, the Polish pope who was extremely influential in ending communism.
We then had a welcoming dinner with a lot of people from the museum, Beit Warsaw, the progressive congregation in the area, and the Polish students with whom we will stay. Dinner was absolutely delicious and we already feel like we know a lot of people in this city, even though we just arrived this afternoon.