MOL Shabbat

Shabbat Services - Warsaw:

Finally it is a gloomy day! It is almost a relief to see the dark skies and pouring rain.

Some of us head out on foot to daven at the Nojyk Synagogue while others stay back at the hotel to study text with Rabbi Poupko. I choose to walk to the orthodox synagogue together with 40 students, 5 madrichim, Ronen, Ella and Ernest and 2 polish security guards. When will I ever be able to pray in a 110 year old polish synagogue?

The kids are eager to see the synagogue. Is it authentic? Why didn't the Nazis destroy it? How did it survive? As we walk Ronen gives us the history of the shul, telling us that it survived only because the Germans used the synagogue as a warehouse. Today the synagogue serves less than 100 Jewish families of Warsaw.

We arrive to find a packed sanctuary filled with music, prayer and youth - the way a synagogue should be. Both the main floor and the second floor women's section are filled with MOL participants from Toronto, LA, Florida, Argentina, Panama and now Montreal. The melody of the prayers are familiar - a universal language uniting Jews around the world. We join in immediately.

The shul is beautiful - stained glass windows, an ornate Aron Kodesh, a raised carved wooden bima, and several chandeliers. We join the service with pride, joy and purpose. It is the first time I understand what it means to pray with kavanah. Our collective voices are loud, powerful lifting us to a new level. I feel a connection to my delegation, my fellow marchers from around the world, my people...this place.

Walking Tour:

The rain has intensified. After lunch we head out in the rain on a walking tour of Warsaw. Bus one piles out of the hotel with Ronen. He starts at the corner of the street by announcing that we are currently standing within the perimeter of the former Warsaw ghetto. The kids are shocked a even a little disappointed. They expected to see some physical evidence of the famous ghetto they have heard and read about - the ghetto wall, a war torn city, train tracks. Instead they find a fairly modern city. We could be in any city on earth. The kids bombard Ronen with questions. He just smiles and asks them to continue walking.

Our first stop is a brand new state of the art museum highlighting the 1000 year history of the Jews in Poland. More questions...these kids are so perceptive, so intelligent, so honest. They want to know who the museum was built for, who visits this place? There are barely any Jews left here. The museum program director explains that the museum conducts tours for school age children everyday. The kids don't appear convinced. Later at night when we debrief with the kids about the days events, many of the kids express anger about our museum visit. Not sure what to do. I'm conflicted. Have to behave like an adult. How do I listen to their angry remarks and put them into perspective when I myself share their anger. One bright young man dares to say exactly what I am thinking... "That museum was built by  the Poles to clear their conscience. It was built out of guilt."

As we walk the streets of the former ghetto, the kids search for physical signs. Ronen tried to explain the hardships of the ghetto - crowding, starvation, sickness...death. We listen to stories but don't grasp the meaning of the words. He continues with numbers, percentages, statistics. The kids eyes' glaze over. We can't understand the numbers. They are shocking. They don't make sense. We enter the lobby of an office building to seek cover from the rain. Ronen asks us all to imagine our own homes. "What room or space in your house represents 3% of the size of your house?" Several yell out, "the bathroom." Ronen continues. "Now imagine that your whole family - parents, siblings and grandparents - lived in that space for months and often years. Silence. We begin to understand crowding. We continue walking. Standing in the rain, we stop again. More numbers...calories. Ronen asks the kids how many calories are in the protein/ snack bars he sees us munching on. 200 to 300 calories. Jews were given 150 calories a day of food - one slice of bread and margarine. It is not possible to survive on 150 calories a day for weeks, months, years. Silence. We begin to imagine hunger...

Next stop the umshlugplatz of Warsaw. The stain station from which Jews from the Warsaw ghetto were sent to their death at Treblinka. Jews often waited at the station for days before boarding cattle cars to Treblinka. Ronen a asks why would the Jews have to wait so long. The kids are so attentive, so smart... They remember the previous day. The tiny death facility of Treblinka could only murder about 600 Jews an hour but it took longer for the bodies to burn. Jews arriving from various cities in Poland had to wait their turn at the umshlugplatz of their city. Sick! Shock! Disgust! We see the tracks, used today for the streetcars.

As we walk down the path of heroes, we debate the qualities of a hero. What makes a hero? Who decides? Next we talk about resistance. The kids see resistance as armed resistance - the resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. We learn about other forms of resistance including spiritual resistance. As we pass the stone of Janusz Korzack, Ronen describes another hero, another form of resistance. We are soaked to the bone, cold and tired. We've been walking for over 3 hours. We join the other buses along with Rabbi Poupko at the Mila 18 memorial sight. Rabbi Poupko tells the story of Mordechai Anilevich and the Warsaw uprising. The kids know the story but they don't know the significance. The Rabbi empowers the kids and explains that at every juncture in Jewish history, it is people your age that determined the future of the Jewish people. I don't think the kids ever realized that many of the heroes of the Warsaw uprising and other resistance movements were people their age. The Rabbi asks them to take up the charge of the Jewish people because each if them has tremendous potential and power to advance our people and determine the history of the Jewish people. (Later that night during our debrief I asked the kids what the highlight of their day was. Many referred to Rabbi Poupko's speech. I think they felt empowered, like they discovered the potential of their voice.

On our way back to the hotel, Ronen satisfies their quest for physical evidence of a Jewish community in Warsaw, of the ghetto, of Jewish life. In the pouring rain, we walk through a non-descript door to a courtyard surrounded by old decrepit buildings. The kids are surprised to learn that the buildings are authentic Jewish homes from inside the  Warsaw Ghetto. Ronen explains that these buildings will soon suffer the same fate that most of the ghetto suffered. They will be demolished. The kids ask why the buildings are not protected as historical sights. They are angry!

What an afternoon! Not a single complaint about the weather, the cold, the walking. Undecided attention and brilliant questions. I am so proud of my kids!

Monica Mendel Bensoussan