Krakow - Jewish community and more

Shalom,

It's time to catch up on events of the past few days.  After a wonderful Friday in Krakow, we also had a special Shabbat experience.  We 'dressed up' and welcomed Shabbat together at the hotel.  Shabbat morning, we went together to services that were held at the Kupa Street Synagogue.  As the services began, it seemed to be that we would be just at a minyan, but then a stream of Israeli yeshiva students thronged through the door.  Later Saturday, I returned to Mincha with David and we also sang zemirot with the others during a small shalos-seudos. After havdalah at the shul, a shul with a tall painted ceiling, and a gallery around the 2nd level, we returned to the hotel for a Havdalah with everyone else.  We used grapefruit juice since there was no kosher grape juice available!

Shabbat Shalom! - Mariana and Rhoda

The R(e)ma synagogue is the former residence of the Isserles family, the family of Moshe Isserles, called the R'ema.  He wrote the Ashkenazi commentary to the Shulchan Aruch, the classic code of Jewish Law.  

Shabbat Shalom! - Sid and Marilyn at Rema Synagogue

Shabbat Shalom! - Max and Esther at Rema synagogue

A special place within a special place within a special place - The grave of the R'ema, inside the Jewish cemetery of Krakow, inside the complex of the R'ema shul.

The JCC of Krakow, a center of activity for the entire Krakow community.

Yom Ha'atzmaut - Israel Indepence Day - Krakow celebrations 2013

Remembering the Krakow ghetto:

The metal chairs in this square represent the former location of the ghetto, with empty chairs indicating the places where Jews once lived and thrived.

Remains of the Krakow ghetto wall:

Jews from the Krakow ghetto were deported to the Plashow camp outside the ghetto walls.

Oskar Schinderl's desk at his Krakow factory.  Here is where he was able to save the lives of over 1,000 Jews by employing them in his enamel factory.  

The Sukiennice, the Cloth Hall, is today a flea market with many stalls - filled with amber jewelry, toys, cothing and more.  It is in the Rynek, the vast town square of Krakow, that is a central gathering place for residents and visitors.

April 11: From Prague to Krakow

We all left the Majestic Hotel in Krakow this morning around 3am to catch a flight to Frankfurt and then to Krakow.  After changing dollars for zlotys at the airport, we drove to the Holiday Inn Krakow for R&R.

Isabela, our Krakow guide, is a third generation Krakow resident.  She led us up to the castle and cathedral that are the heart of the city, and the nation, the seat of its kings and queens as well as the spiritual center of the people.  This is the town where Pope John Paul II first became bishop and then cardinal.

Two views of the castle-fortress from the outside.

 

The Castle and Cathedral share the hill, and we see the eclectic architecture that represents several classical styles.

The Wisla River is central to Poland, and the statue of the dragon that you can see at the bottom of this photo is a classic story connected to Krakus, a pagan king whose name gives us the name of the city.  The King promised his daughter's hand to the one who could defeat the local dragon.  The dragon took as appeasement every girl in the city except the King's daughter Wanda.  No knight could defeat the dragon.  The simple cobbler's apprentice named Skuba had an idea.  He stuffed a lamb with sulphur and put it in front of the dragon's cave. The dragon noticed the free meal, ate the lamb, and then became terribly thirsty.  He drank all the waters of the Wisla, the nearby river and burst.  Skuba and Wanda were married.

A fun feature is that the dragon statue actually blows a puff of fire on occasion!

Tadeusz Kościuszko, a great Polish general who served in the Continental army during the Revolutionary War, is memorialized in a grand statue on Wawel Hill.

Tomorrow we go to Kazimierz, the Jewish section of Krakow.

April 10: Terezin

We spent the full touring day today at Terezin, an 18th century Habsburg fortress built toward the border with Germany in order to protect against potential invasion.

At Terezin, there was considerable courage shown in the face of Nazi cruelty.  One light that shined bright was Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, an artist who supervised the children's house there.  Her students created thousands of pieces of art work, and we can see many of these pieces in the collection "I Never Saw Another Butterfly."  This is a picture of a children's house at Terezin:

There was no train station right next to Terezin, and so the Nazis forced the Jews to build one.  Before they built this station, deportees would walk some 5k after their terrible deportation from home.  This photo shows the remains of the train station-siding the Jews built:

In Terezin, one burial ground for Jews who died there contains some 9,000 burials.  A stone menorah stands at the site.

While there were no gas chambers at Terezin, there was a crematorium that the Nazis used when in-ground burial was no longer possible.  They threw ashes of thousands of Jews into the nearby river when the Red Cross was on its way.  At the memorial lights inside the crematorium we recited the Kaddish.

One of the crematorium ovens, here with a 'shin' comprised of three red flowers.  The 'shin', as on the mezuzah, represents the way we invoke God's Presence into the world.

The ashes of one of our people, May he rest in peace and may his memory be for a blessing.

One of the hidden, secret synagogues in Terezin with Holocaust survivor Abe Bowski standing at the front of the room in front of the Hebrew inscription, "And our eyes will witness Your [God's] compassionate return to Zion." -- a message of hope and redemption.

On our way out of Terezin, one last look at the heavily fortified walls of this tightly guarded fortress.  Only 3 men were known to have escaped Terezin during the Holocaust years.  The small fortress, located across from the larger ghetto compound, was a prison. Here is the story of the escape:

Of the several dozen attempted escapes from the fortress, only one was successful. On Saint Nicholas Day, December 6, 1944, Josef Mattas, Miloš Ešner and František Maršík escaped while the guards were celebrating. They climbed down a rope into the moat and through a gap in a bulwark. They hid there until the end of the war.

We will be waking up at the early hour of 230am to catch flights that will take us over the border to Krakow in Poland.

April 8, Evening - April 9: Jewish Life in Prague, Past and Present

Last evening we met Rabbi Ron Hoffberg who has been the Masorti Rabbi in Prague for the past 13 years.  Before that, he was Rabbi in Cranford, New Jersey.  He joined us for dinner at Dinitz restaurant where we enjoyed wonderful homemade chumus and Israeli salads, salmon with a spicy red sauce, followed by chicken tagine with salad, potatoes, and rice.  We learned from Rabbi Hoffberg that there are currently some 1,500 Jews in Prague from a pre-WWII population of over 50,000 in the city.  Many in the city are interested in Judaism, and many have Jewish heritage in their families. He told the story of Peter, a Christian, who came from eastern Bohemia, somehow found his way to the Jewish community of Prague, studied Judaism while balancing a job on the railroad, and eventually discovered that his grandmother and mother were Jewish - despite an intentional effort to keep this information from him.

We began our tour of the Jewish Quarter at the Alt-Neu Shul, the Old-New Synagogue, completed in 1270 and still in use by the Jewish community here.  We were not permitted to take photos inside, so I will search the net for an available interior photo.

The Spanish Synagogue is an Ashkenazi shul with the distinctive, colorful Moorish style of arches and bright colors as you may have seen at Bnai Jeshurun in NYC.  This shul is no longer in use for davening.  There is a museum display of Judaica as well as many concerts held there.  On the facade, we noticed that the representation of the Ten Commandments shows Commandments 1-5 on the Left side in Roman numerals rather than Right-Left as with the Hebrew spelling of the Commandments. 

The Old Jewish Cemetery was also a notable site we visited today.  We find there the graves of the Maharal, Rabbi Loew, a great Rabbi and author of works on Jewish mysticism.  There is the grave of Rabbi Ephraim of Lunshits, the Kli Yakar, a commentary on the Torah.  Once again, photography was not permitted in the Cemetery without a payment of 40 korunas, about $2.  

In addition to Jewish sites today, after a full-morning of touring the classic synagogues, seeing the bronze statue of Franz Kafka, and enjoying coffee while watching the clock tower, we were able to wander through the Old Town Square and to enter the Church in the picture just above.  The striking spires of the Church complement the ornate chapels, art work, wood and metal work inside.

On the way back to the hotel in the afternoon, we stopped by this outdoor market where we found fresh fruit as well as all type of souvenirs.

Tomorrow, we head out of Prague to visit Terezinstadt for the day.

Departure-Arrival-Departure-Arrival! Sunday April 7- Monday April 8, 2013

The Lufthansa flight left on time from JFK airport as the group came together and many of our fellow travelers met each other for the first time.

We welcome Leo Bowski and his father Abe on the trip.  Abe is a survivor of Dachau and Auschwitz.  We are privileged that he chose to return to Poland with us to, in his own words, visit 'kever avot', the honored graves of our ancestors.

At the heart of Prague is the Castle (Prazsky Hrad)  The Castle Gate is ornate and beautiful.  While Kings and Queens no longer live in the castle, the President and 'West Wing' have their offices there.  A new president was just elected in March and the flag flies over the building when the President is in the country.

Another Prague landmark is St. Vitus Cathedral.  Started in 1357, the structure was completed after 600 years of work in 1929.

Jewish writer Franz Kafka lived in Prague at #22 on the 'Gold Lane', where goldsmiths once lived, a charming street with fairy-tale houses built up against the walls of the Castle.

The Charles Bridge was the first stone bridge over the Vltava to last, and it has lasted since 1357.  It is possible that the calcium in chicken egg shells may have been the 'glue' that continues to hold this bridge together after six centuries.

On the lighter side...a very narrow alley in Prague with a light to 'regulate traffic' on this 'potentially hazardous' narrow pathway.

Tomorrow, we will spend the day seeing Prague's Jewish history.  According to Ruth Ellen Gruber's book Jewish Heritage Travel:  A Guide to Eastern Europe, Jews have lived in Prague since the 11th century.  She estimates there are 1,500 people in Prague's Jewish community today.  We look forward to tonight's dinner at the Dinitz Cafe (www.dinitz.cz) where we will welcome one of the local Rabbis as a guest speaker.  

Surprise - A special gift for everyone going on the tour!

Here is a first look at the GRJC Eastern Europe tour jacket - a zipper sweater jacket with hood.

It is a gift for everyone traveling with us from Mrs. Rachel Blumensty and me.

Blessings,
Rabbi Tow

Getting ready to travel - Count-down to takeoff

As we get ready to travel to Europe, with many of us leaving on Sunday, some of the group will gather at the Glen Rock Jewish Center on Saturday to recite the Tefilat Ha'Derech, Traveler's prayer.  This prayer is written in the 'we', even though a traveler might be going on a trip as an individual.  We travel with all our brothers and sisters, just as we confess our misdeeds in the 'we' during the High Holidays.

Here is the traveler's prayer:
May it be Your will, LORD, our God and the God of our ancestors, that You lead us toward peace, guide our footsteps toward peace, and make us reach our desired destination for life, gladness, and peace. May You rescue us from the hand of every foe, ambush along the way, and from all manner of punishments that assemble to come to earth. May You send blessing in our handiwork, and grant us grace, kindness, and mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who see us. May You hear the sound of our humble request because You are God Who hears prayer requests. Blessed are You, Adonai, Who hears prayer.