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!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, July 20, 2009
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 m
orning 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.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, July 3, 2009
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.
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