Jumping In

Where there are birds...there are Jews

After a long day of travel (3 flights - 2 long layovers) and not nearly enough sleep, we safely arrived at our first destination, the lovely city of Krakow. From the airport we traveled directly to our first stop, through the bucolic Polish countryside to visit the Dzialoszyce Synagogue. Built in 1765 and taking 24 years to complete, the synagogue was an important gathering place for the community and served as the main synagogue of the area from the late 1700’s until the Germans took over and used it for storage and as a stable in Nazi occupied Poland.

This synagogue was the center of a community with 7,000 Jews that grew to 12,000 as WW2 broke out in Poland and Jews escaped the cities. The town was 85% Jewish before the war and was known for its fur and leather production. It was a thriving Jewish community like so many villages, shtetls, and stiebels across eastern Europe that were ultimately cleansed of their Jewish population. During the Nazi’s final solution, Jews who lived in this town were rounded up and forcibly taken to the death camp, Belzec, for immediate extermination. The vast majority of whom were murdered or died on the way to the camp.

The rabbi of this synagogue was known for saying, where there are birds, there are Jews. In a rather Hitchcock moviesque manner, pigeons, too many to count, have taken over inhabiting what is left of this once picturesque, magnificent center of Jewish life, as if they are bringing back Jewish souls to what was once a thriving community. While the walls of the synagogue remain, the building is a haunting reminder of the beauty that was and the fragility of life.

Images of what stands today, the many birds that inhabit the walls like Jewish souls returning to remember, and photos of what was a glorious synagogue.

Since Jews knew they were imminently being taken to their death, many wrote letters and left them behind. We read several out loud and each one expressed longing, apology and finality in their heartfelt and gut-wrenching messages.

After our return to the city, we prepared for Shabbat and walked to the old Jewish quarter where Jews lived before being relocated to the Krakow ghetto. Jewish life has reemerged in Krakow with 20,000 Jews living in the city, particularly in this area of the city. Walking around there are constant reminders of what was along with synagogues, modern restaurants, shops, and the well-known Krakow JCC that have reemerged from the ashes of Jewish life. The Jewish area of Krakow today honors what was thriving Jewish life and creates a modern Jewish community. A tiny number of Jews live in Krakow compared to what was, but the glimmer of survival is a reminder of our eternal strength and fortitude despite the cruelest brutality and inhumanity humans can ever inflict on one another.

Our JFI teens ready to go for Shabbat. What an amazing group of young people! Our future will be in good hands with these young men and women.

Signs of our modern day fragility outside the Krakow JCC.

The main synagogue in Krakow which is still used today for large services and fesitvals. An oppolent building that reminds us of what existed in Jewish life prior to the Holocaust.

A group of yeshiva students from Australia and South Africa boisterously sang their way into the synagogue to welcome shabbat as we were preparing to leave. For our JFI teens today we began exploring the complexity of identity building and how we remember our past and how we celebrate our present. We honor those who died at the hands of the Nazis. And, we do not let victimhood define us as we continue to rebuild. As we explore Poland, our teens will have the opportunity to learn, explore and question who they are and their place in our modern Jewish world.