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).