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.