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!