Traveling | Letters from the Children’s Village 2017
Written by: Alexandra Friedlander On March 19, we all met at 7 a.m. at the Pittsburgh International Airport. The very generous United Airlines allowed everyone attending the trip to take all of their suitcases, with the donations, free of charge – that’s 30 suitcases! Then, the United Airlines attendant checked our bags, and we said our […]
Germany Close Up | Jordana Rosenfeld – Friday
On Friday, we had several discussions about modern Germany, specifically regarding Jewish life. The day began with a panel discussion on contemporary Jewish life in Germany on which spoke three insightful women of different backgrounds – one who had emigrated from Israel as an adult, one born in the former USSR who moved to Germany […]
Germany Close Up | Jordana Rosenfeld – Thursday
On Thursday we started the day off at the Germany Close Up office where we were given an introduction to the nonprofit organization Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP), one of Germany Close Up’s partner organizations that mobilizes young Germans in peace-oriented, anti-racist service. The organization was founded in 1958 to address and ameliorate the […]
Germany Close Up | Jordana Rosenfeld – Wednesday
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is expansive, a large plot in the middle of Berlin (adjacent to the site of Hitler’s bunker, the American Embassy, and other socially and historically significant buildings), a sprawling field of 2711 gray stone stelae of varying heights. The ground is paved with small square cobblestones, also […]
Four Words
By Carolyn Linder ‘Joy’, ‘wonder’, ‘belonging’ and ‘connection’ are four words that evoke this summer’s Classrooms Without Borders Israel seminar for Jewish early childhood educators. A group of 24 Jewish early childhood educators, representing ten local programs, were selected to participate in this transformative experience. While returning to Israel is always emotional, leading this group […]
Unearthing Jewish History in Berlin- Jordana Rosenfeld
It seems like unearthing Jewish history in Berlin has a lot to do with learning to interpret negative space. The Shoah destroyed Jewish buildings, communities, and people. There are holes in our hearts, in our family trees, and in Berlin’s urban fabric. How can we see what is no longer there? How can we grasp […]
Day 5 – Poland Personally Seminar
Our experiences today made me think about the art of being a historian, but even more importantly, it made me think about the art of being an extraordinary human. We are traveling through Poland with knowledgeable tour guides and Howard Chandler, a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today we visited Birkenau, and Howard led a tour for […]
Day 3 – Poland Personally Seminar (Jill)
Today we visited Majdanek Death Camp on the outskirts of Lublin, central Poland. At the entrance to the camp is a gigantic rock that is raised in the air, cutting a striking image against the ever blue Polish sky. What I didn’t know as I walked under that suspended rock was that it was going […]
Shall We Survive
“Shall We Survive” Walls and wires have become our view. Hunger and sickness to a Warsaw Jew. Beaten and trapped in a common struggle, Forced to lie, cheat and sometimes smuggle. Some will run, many will hide, no way to tell how many have died. Taken like cattle pushed on to a train, not enough […]