Sunday, September 9, 2012 - Home in Rochester

I want to make a final post to this blog now that we are home in Rochester. We flew overnight Thursday from Tel Aviv to Newark and then on to Rochester early Friday morning. I've spent the last few days sleeping, doing laundry, catching up on mail, and sleeping some more.

The last day of our trip deserves a post, since it ended up such an emotional roller coaster. We began the day with a visit to Yad Vashem's Valley of the Communities to do an exercise on the communities our own families came from.  If you've never been here, it is a "reverse topographical map" forming a massive 2.5 acre monument dug out of the natural bedrock. The names of over 5,000 Jewish communities that were destroyed or barely survived in the Holocaust are engraved on its 107 walls.  Finding a community means keeping a map of Europe in your head and walking in the right direction from known points.

For instance, we knew Eric's father's family came from Przemysl on the south eastern border of Poland and so we were able to find it immediately by knowing the direction to walk relative to Warsaw and Krakow.

My father's family home of Vilna did not take us too long to find, as it was a major city and had a wall to itself.

We walked and walked, but we could not find my mother's family home of Ostropol.  We found Odessa, we found Kiev, but I could not orient myself correctly to find Ostropol.  I became increasingly desperate to find it as the minutes ticked by and we knew we had to reconnect with the entire group to perform an exercise Haim had planned.  As I frantically searched, could not find it, and was forced to rejoin the larger group, I could not stop crying.  In fact writing this now, I can feel the tears starting again.  I sobbed uncontrollably as I tried to explain to Eric that I felt like I lost my ancestors yet again. He left the exercise and went back to try and find it for me, but it was no use.  Ostropol seemed to have vanished.  It has taken me 60+ years to trace back where my mother's family came from.  Only in recent years, with newer software and better data bases had I been able to translate what I heard my mother say (Estreploly) into an actual town filled with Jews in the late 1800's and early 1900's. And now I couldn't find this tiny town of Ostropol on any of the walls.  I was angry, bereft, and exhausted.  However, the exercise Haim had planned eventually brought me to the correct location and I was able to touch the letters of the town in Hebrew and English and make a connection that had eluded me for so long.

I was truly shocked by the depths of my emotions at this rock wall - it was just a name, but if this seminar has taught me anything, it is the importance of names. Names must not be forgotten! As we traced all of our group's communities, sharing stories that made you laugh and cry, often at the same time, we brought some closure to our Poland journey.  For one last time we said Kaddish together - the final collective prayer for all of our ancestors.

From Yad Vashem,  we headed to Hebrew University (home of our Melton Seminar) to meet with  two professors, one retired and one young and in his prime.

Professor Eleazar Shafrir, retired faculty member, was born in 1924 in Krakow and was 15 when WW II started.  His father had been a very active Zionist in Krakow, collecting money for Palestine.  In 1938 his father traveled to Palestine and wished to stay, but was told he was doing more important work in Krakow.  In 1939, when the Germans occupied Krakow, his father fled, but returned  three weeks later and was arrested. After many detention camps he was sent to Auschwitz. The family received a letter from Rudolf Hess saying his father had died of stroke and for 20 marks they could receive his remains.  A bottle with ashes was sent back which were deposited in the Jewish cemetery next to his father's father. During the occupation, he, his mother and five year old sister were transferred to the Krakow Ghetto to a very small space.  About 10,000 - 15,000 people were squeezed into a place fit for 2000.  When the Ghetto was liquidated, the younger people sent to the Plaszow Camp and the older ones were sent to Belzec.  His mother was taken in 1942 to Belzec where she died.  His sister was supposed to be sent to Plaszow, but was shot in street by the SS, along with the person taking care of her. With a friend, he managed to escape and was hidden by three Polish families.  These families arranged food, Polish papers, and a way to get to Hungary and then on to Turkey. The Jewish Agency in Turkey sent him to Palestine in 1944. He came to university in Israel in 1944 and the university was adjusting to the influx from Europe.  His advantage was he knew Hebrew from the gymnasium in Krakow. The friend who escaped with him was a soldier in Israel and was killed in the War of Independence.

When asked if he thinks there is a future for Jews in Krakow, he responded that Jews should not strive to go back to Krakow and try to revive the Jewish population.  It is not his generation/friends etc. who want to replenish Jewish life in Krakow - it is outside influences, particularly the Rabbis, who want to revive the synagogues that remain.  

After a quick lunch, we had a study session on S.Y. Agnon and Israeli culture after the Holocaust. This was followed by a meeting with Professor Gad Yair, Head of the Sociology Department on his book "The Code of Israeliness" or what he calls the "ten commandments" of being Israeli and how they shape the politics and future of the country. 

Professor Yair could be a huge success as a standup comic and we were all thrilled to have a light note on which to end the seminar.  His topic is not light - because these very characteristics will be create the success or failure of Israel's future, but his timing, delivery, and irreverence helped to end the day on an up note.  I highly recommend his blog: www.coolcite.com/blog/1227/?post=89 which is in English (his book is only available in Hebrew).

A final wrap up, a few bites at the final dinner and then we're off, part way through the dinner, to the airport for our flight home.

How can I sum up this experience?  I can't call it a vacation and it certainly was not a pleasure trip, yet there were, indeed, times of pleasure during "moments of serendipity," such as hearing the Cantors Choir singing in the Warsaw synagogue during the Jewish Music Festival.  It was a very important trip personally, and for Eric and I as a couple.  It opened my eyes to the horrors of war and what the Polish (non-Jewish) people suffered at the hands of the Nazis. It introduced me to Germans and Poles who I want as friends and those with whom I could never agree.  It brought me in touch with humanity's capability for evil, as well as goodness, and the absence of both - indifference. It brought me despair and gave me hope.  And, it will take me months, or perhaps years, to process all I have learned.

Wednesday, September 5 - Outside of Tel Aviv

This is our next to the last day of looking into the lives, beliefs, deaths, and aliyah of the Jews of Poland. Yesterday we dealt with the urban story of the Jews who came from Poland to Israel and settled in Tel Aviv. Today we are traveling to the Carmel and Sharon regions and finding the stories of those who settled in the rural regions both before and after World War II. If I thought yesterday was hot, today was even hotter! It was stifling, very humid, and in the mid to high 90's.

We started today's journey at Giv'at Haviva, an educational peace center where we were met by a fantastic woman, Lydia Aisenberg. She gave us an introduction to the work done at the center, bringing Arab and Jewish youth together.


She is a kind, funny, knowledgeable, dynamo of a woman with whom we longed to spend more time. The sun was so hot that we only viewed a few parts of the campus, including the peace tree that is carved on the grounds.

Our group in front of the peace tree:


We then met with Professor Eli Tsur who introduced us to socialist and educational models that the Polish Jews brought to Israel.


We toured the exhibit of the early Zionist scout movements that brought young people to Israel to work the land. Below is a Zionist Scout flag with the scouting trefoil in the center, the Magen David around it, and the laurel wreath around them both. The exhibit is undergoing renovations and is not air conditioned, so we sweat some more.


From there to lunch at Tishbi winery where we eat outside under a grape arbor with huge fans blowing on us. Did I mention that it was hot??? At this point my brain is fried, my ability to process information is gone, and I'm feeling very sick from the heat - and I certainly wasn't alone.

The afternoon stop is Kibbutz Merhavia. We are met by Raphi who tells us the history of the Kibbutz. I would recount the history, but the fried brain cannot remember it, except for the hardships the early settlers encountered. The land was mosquito infested swamp land; the Turkish government at first refused to accept the deals that had purchased the land; the neighboring Arab communities were hostile to the settlers; etc. The Kibbutz was built on the site of an old Crusader fort, complete with moat. The original stones were used for some of the buildings.



Again, we are all melting in the heat and unrelenting sun. But Haim won't quit - he has one more stop for us. Under the final syllabus for this course, we were not supposed to have gone to Kibbutz Merhavia, but instead were supposed to have heard the story of the K'far Hassidim from the third generation of Rabbi Yehezkel Taub. Unfortunately, Rabbi Taub's grandson died a few days before Haim left Israel for Poland. So the Kibbutz provided an alternative way to understand the rural Polish immigration to Israel before the war. But to bring closure for all of us on this rural settling of the land, we go to Rabbi Yehezkel Taub's grave, along with the fresh grave of his grandson.

Chaim teaching at the Rabbi's grave:



Rabbi Taub had come to Israel in 1925 with his Hassidic followers from Yablonow, Poland and settled in the hills of Sheikh Arbrekh and Hartieh where they established three communities and began draining the swamps along the Kishon River. They broke from established Hassidism in not waiting for the Messiah to come, but rather in moving to Israel to become farmers. Again, I learned much more, but the brain cells that the sun destroyed have not regenerated.

We do not arrive back in Tel Aviv until after 8 PM, more than 12 hours after we left. Although each piece of the puzzle we put together today was important, it was too much, too hot, and too exhausting. A final view of the sunset as we rode back to our hotel.




I will most likely not be able to post tomorrow, so here is what we will be doing. We are going to Jerusalem to visit Yad Vashem's Valley of the Communities where we will do an exercise on the communities our own families came from. From there we will head to Hebrew University (home of our Melton Seminar) to meet with Professor Eleazar Shafrir, retired faculty member, who will give us a lecture on "Israel: From Past Challenges to Challenges of the Future." We will stay on at Hebrew University for lunch and a study session on S.Y. Agnon and Israeli culture after the Holocaust. This will be followed by a meeting with Professor Gad Yair of the Sociology Department on "Reflections on Loss and Rebuilding: A View of the Shoah and Israeliness." A final wrap up, a few bites at the final dinner and then we're off, part way through the dinner, to the airport for our flight home. There is NO rest for the weary!!!!


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Tuesday, September 4, 2012 Tel Aviv

We got to "sleep in" this morning, as our first session didn't begin until 8:30 AM. It was very hot and humid today - mid 90's. To give you an idea of how uncomfortable it is, even though it is midnight now, the temperature is still 84 and the humidity is 80%. Tomorrow will be just as hot, but a little less humid.

Our first session was with Shalmi Bar Mor, an educator and the former Director of Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem). His father was the first Israeli diplomat to Poland, so although he was born in Israel, at age 9 he moved to Poland for a number of years. He is an expert on the current state of Judaism in Poland and directly contradicted a number of things we had learned in Poland.


From his perspective, Judaism in Poland is dead. We had a much better insight into how the Holocaust survivors of Poland fared in Israel after listening to him. He also clarified the various of waves of Polish Jews that emigrated to Israel after the War, both immediately post-Holocaust and post the expulsion of Jews from Poland in 1968. If there is one thing I've learned on this trip - it's complicated!!!!!

After a blisteringly hot walk with Haim through Tel Aviv's streets to see architecture that ties into this story, we grabbed a quick ice cream for lunch.


Then off to Petach Tikvah (suburb just north of Tel Aviv) to meet with Reb Reuven Berger who is a Ger Hassid (from that same line of Ger Hassids who originated in Gur Kalwaria - a tiny town we visited back on August 27. The Ger Hassids were all killed or sent to the camps and very few survived. Those that did emigrated to Israel, America, Canada, Australia, England, etc. Reb Berger's father was a survivor who lost his entire family in the war and then started a new family in Israel. His father taught him that it was his responsibility to help others and so he started Bet Simcha, a facility for physically and mentally handicapped people. It was somewhat interesting to hear him speak, but his community is quite closed (very, very Orthodox) and there was a lot of controversy in our group about how we should all dress to meet with him. Definitely not a highlight for me.

Then one of the highlights of the entire trip. We went to Cafe Europa, a senior center that is for Holocaust survivors. With a live performer singing and playing an electrified piano, we danced, danced, danced (and sang) with these wonderful people. Most spoke no English and most of our group spoke little Hebrew, but the universal language of dance needed no translation. What a gift to us!!!













Since the day wasn't long enough, and we weren't hot and tired enough, Haim gave us one hour of free time to explore the new wing of the Tel Avivi Museum of Art. Then off to dinner at Lillyot, a restaurant that trains at-risk youth to be chefs. Fabulous, fabulous food - but we didn't get home until 10:30 PM.

It's another early, jam-packed, hot day tomorrow!


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Monday, September 3, 2012 Tel Aviv, Israel

We're finally in Israel!!! The entire day (again, starting at 5:30 AM) was spent in travel from Warsaw to Tel Aviv. We had our first Melton session in Israel on the beach, at an outdoor cafe in the sand, as the sun set in the Mediterranean. Doesn't get much better than this. When Haim asked each member of the group to give one word about how the arrival in Israel felt, he got answers like renewal, homecoming, peace, comfortable, etc.

Tomorrow the grind starts once again, but at least we get to "sleep in" until 6:45 AM.


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Sunday, September 2, 2012 Warsaw

The day began by taking the train from Krakow back to Warsaw. It was very comfortable, shorter, and much more enjoyable than bus ride down. From the train station we walked to a Kosher restaurant for lunch (no rest for the weary) followed by a few hours walking in the main Warsaw Jewish Cemetery. This cemetery was outside the Ghetto walls and although it suffered some bombing, it was not destroyed. Some graves are in disrepair, others have been restored, but you can "read" Polish Jewish history through the gravestones. I have become particularly fascinated with Polish Jewish decoration - both in the restored synagogues and on the headstones. I hope to do something with all of these patterns when I return to Rochester - maybe an interpretation of them in a quilt.









I was so engaged in photographing the headstones and listening to the stories of Polish Hassids, Jewish Bund members, Ghetto freedom fighters, and 20th century scholars, that my fatigue faded away. Basha and Haim were a fountain of knowledge of Polish Jewish history. My weary body awoke and complained loudly as we left the cemetery to walk to a Jewish Day School to meet with the principal. Hearing about the K-9 Jewish Day School was interesting, but I kept nodding off. I did hear that 40% of the students are not Jewish and there is a long waiting list to get in. The principal, a Rabbi, was born in Warsaw, educated through college in Poland, then went to Israel to study, followed by Yeshiva University where he received his s'micha (ordination). A young man, married with children, he could not predict if he would remain in Warsaw as his children grew up. He had not personally experienced overt anti-semitism, despite wearing a yarmulka all the time, but he did not deny that it was present. The larger problem for him was the small size of the current Jewish population, approximately 8000 in all of Poland.

A quick trip back to the hotel for a shower (hurry, hurry, hurry) and then off to a different Kosher restaurant for dinner where we had the pleasure of hearing Konstanty Gebert, a noted Polish Jewish journalist who is the child of Polish Jews who survived the War and returned to Warsaw afterward. Of course before going to dinner we had to walk to two more memorials (oy, my aching legs). The first at Mila 18 (one of the entrances to the Warsaw Ghetto through the sewers) and then on to the monument built in 1948 by the Polish government to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Although I was exhausted, I'm glad Haim cajoled us into doing this before dinner.

At dinner, Mr. Gebert had a different perspective from Jonathan Ornstein in Krakow. Jonathan had been so upbeat, youthful, energetic, and charismatic that it was hard not to believe that Judaism was having a resurgence in Poland. Hearing Mr. Gebert brought us back to the reality of Poland as a complex country, with strong anti-Semitic roots. He was articulate, brilliant in his analysis, and very much grounded in reality. Where Jonathan Ornstein had been born in New York City and came to Krakow with a Polish woman he met in Israel, Mr. Gilbert was born and raised in Warsaw. His Polish roots were generations deep and his eyes were constantly vigilant. I look forward to reading his work "Living in the Land of Ashes" when I return to Rochester.

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Saturday, September 1, 2012 Krakow

We spent Shabbat still in Krakow and, ever the gluttons for punishment, spent it in the salt mines. Yes, we literally went to the salt mines outside of Krakow. The mines no longer function, but rather are a museum and include space for chapel, cathedral, and are replete with sculptures, all made out of rock salt. It was a very unique place - ranks right up there with Carlsbad Caverns. We descended over 130 meters in three stages of steps. The first stage included over 300 steps and went round and round like a spiral staircase. We were all dizzy by the time we reached the bottom. Fortunately an elevator took us back up after two hours of walking through three levels of the mine. I would show photographs, but I took my small Canon camera with 4 new AA batteries in it and once again it died after the first two photographs. Clearly something is wrong with the camera.

Had a short Shabbat rest and then the group reconvened for a study session with Haim that lasted from 5:30 to 8:30PM. We had not eaten since breakfast and had to be up at 5:30 AM to catch a train to Warsaw. A quick bite in the hotel restaurant, repacked the bags, and slept fast - very fast.



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