Tentative itinerary

Day 1-5 | Day 6-10 | Day 11-15 | Day 16-21

Day 6 Friday
Headed towards Lublin our first stop will be in Grochov on the outskirts of Warsaw. Before the war this was an Hachshara farm where young members of Zonist youth movements learned how to farm before they went as pioneers to Eretz Israel. Telling the story of the Zionist youth movements and learning a pioneer song will give us a taste of what Kibbutz Hachshara was about. We proceed to Majdanek one of the most notorious Nazi camps. Here too we will conclude our visit with a memorial ceremony performed by the participants. Lublin was Poland's Jewish capital in the 16th and 17th centuries ( Council of the Four Lands) Here were the biggest Batei Midrash and the most important scholars. At the beginning of the 19th century this was the seat of the Seer, one of the most important Hassidic leaders. We will visit the famous Yeshiva of Lublin and the old Jewish Quarter. On the way back to Warsaw, time permitting, we will stop in Kazimierz Dolny, a very picturesque little shtetle that has become an artist colony.

We'll spend shabbat in Szrodborow a Jewish retreat outside Warsaw, in the company of local Jewish youth who are here on a summer camp.

Day 7 Saturday
All day Shabbat activities in Szrodborow with the Polish kids. Saturday evening we will go to visit the Old Town of Warsaw.

Day 8 Sunday
We take an early train to Cracow, arrive midmorning. Cracow is one of the oldest and most important Jewish communities in Poland. At about 10:30 AM we will start a walking tour of the old Jewish Quarter in Kazimierz including the famous Ramu Synagogue, the Old Synagogue the Temple and the Goose market. We will talk about Polish Jewry and explain why in the last 500 years it has become the most important center of the Jewish people. Then we walk beyond the Vistula River to Podgorze where the Nazis put Cracow Jews into a ghetto. Referring to Schindler's List we will visit various sites of the Cracow Ghetto including Schindler's factory (at some point we will show the film so people can refresh their memory). In the afternoon we will visit Cracow's Old Town, one of the most beautiful in Europe. Here, at last, there will be some free time. For dinner we will invite a Polish lady who rescued Jews in the war to share her heroic story with us. At night the Old Town Square is alive with music and lots of young people.

Day 9 Monday
This day we will learn about what has become the darkest symbol in Jewish and world history. Auschwitz was the largest death factory in the Holocaust. About an hour away from Krakow, we will first visit Auschwutz I - the concentration camp. Then we will visit Birkenau the actual death camp. Here over a million people, mostly Jews, died in the special gas installations. As we walk through Auschwitz we will discuss such issues as "how was it humanly possible "and "faith after Auschwitz" After a memorial ceremony in the afternoon, we get on the bus for a short ride to the nearby town of Oswiencim where an old synagogue has recently been restored. There is an exhibit of the history of Oswiencim Jews till their end in the Holocaust.

Day 10 Tuesday
Travel to Bielsko Biale a town two hours from Cracow that has an active Jewish community. We will spend the day meeting the small disappearing community and do volunteer work helping clean the cemetery, mend its fences etc. In the evening back in Cracow is kleismer night - food music and dancing.