Today we slept in, by MOL standards at least. 7:30 wake up, the kids loved it!
Kids had the choice of either attending a shul service this morning or a study session with the Rabbi. I opted to go to shul, not every day I get a chance to go to synagogue in Warsaw on Shabbat.
It was raining outside, very lightly, but a group of about 40 of us (students, madrichim and survivors) walked the 10-15 minutes to the Nozyk Synagogue.
This is the sole surviving synagogue in Warsaw that was operating pre-WW2. It opened its doors in 1902 and only survived the was because the Nazis used it as a stable / storage house. The shul was restored and reopened in the early 1980s and is still operating to this day.
From the outside the original building is very unassuming but inside it is home to a beautiful sanctuary.
When we walked in as a group we made our way to the back and took seats and joined in the prayers. The shul was filled to capacity. Canadians, Americans and other MOL delegations joined with local Poles in prayer. It took a minute or two but I realized that, although a world away from home and in a place filled with so many strangers, we were all speaking the same language and singing the same songs! It was a beautiful feeling to be part of that service.
When we got back to the hotel we had a bit of time before lunch but that passed quickly, as almost everything does these days!
We ate and then set out for a walking tour of Warsaw, in the rain!
Our first stop was the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The museum itself is an architectural gem. Unfortunately the main Exhibit won't be open until October 2014. We watched a 20-25 minute video that walked us through the exhibit.
The museum sits in the heart of what once was the Warsaw Ghetto, right across from the famous Ghetto Heroes Monument. The monument was meant to show the struggles of life in the Ghetto while the museum aims to show life before, during and after the war. They want to bridge the gap between past, present and future.
After the museum we set out into the rain once again to tour several sites around the city. We saw monuments for the likes of Janusz Korczak and the famous Mila 18 bunker which housed the headquarters of the Jewish resistance in the ghetto.
As we walked through the ghetto I saw stones commemorating where Ghetto walls once stood. I always tried to point those out to the kids so they could see and get a feeling of the size of the ghetto to better understand how small an area it was.
We ended the tour by visiting the last buildings that still stand from the original ghetto. 98% of Warsaw was destroyed by the end of the war but, amazingly, 2 and 1/2 buildings remain of the old Ghetto. Today there is a shop downstairs and apartments upstairs. One building still lies in ruins, a shell of the former beauty that lived inside before the war. Across the street was part of the original Ghetto wall that still stood. It was built into a new building, while I was happy they kept the original wall I would rather it not have been an architectural enhancement to the building that was there.
We're back at the hotel now, soaked not only from the 3+ hours of walking in the rain but with knowledge of Jewish life in Warsaw. Today we mainly focused on the Ghetto and the uprising and it all speaks volumes of how our people lived under unimaginable conditions!
Tonight, after dinner and Havdallah, we are off to the International March of the Living ceremony. Tomorrow we depart for Krakow!
Adam Weinstock
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