Sunday, June 21 – By Travis Lear
Restoring the Context of Life: A Teacher’s Journey Through Poland’s Living History- By Travis LearFor the past ten years, I have stood before my eighth-grade Language Arts classes at the Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences, attempting to bridge the gap between our sunny Florida coast and the darkest chapters of human history. Year after […]
Nozyk Synagogue – By Rebecca Lubavin
I’ve grown up in synagogues all my life. As a young girl, Temple Beth Emet, in Anaheim, California was where I went to Hebrew school and had my bat mitzvah . You spend a lot of time in these places of worship. You learn about how to have relationships with other Jews, family, and G-d. […]
Sunday, June 21: By Virginia Hill
Can we all be like Anna who by age 20 did more for humanity than most of us have done in their entire lifetime? Her story so powerful, so profound! I’m grateful to have heard it. I’m privileged to keep it. Telling a story has at least two purposes: 1. To remind people of the great […]
Sunday, June 21 – By Matthew Beresh
Preparing for this trip a lot of questions went through my mind. Two days in and it still swims with optimistic uncertainty. I’ve been blessed with a great opportunity. There is a deep responsibility to the benefactors, the planners, my family back home, and the students in the upcoming school year. I don’t want any […]
Warsaw, June 20 – By Robin Sweeting
Today I went on a Warsaw Urban Walking Tour with Avi, one of our brilliant scholars in residence, who is teaching us on this journey. It’s hard to put into words, but I’ll share a few things that really impacted me from today. First, The Warsaw ghetto. Before WWII, 30% of Poland was Jewish(It’s actually […]
Beauty, Vigor and Curiosity in Helsinki’s Jewish Community – By Adam Reinherz
How do so few people make such a sound? The Helsinki Jewish community totals less than a1,000 yet its presence is palpable. As we discovered, the Jewish school, which serves students roughly ages 6 to 15 doesn’t havemore than 100 children. Weekday services at the adjacent synagogue welcomed slightly morethan a minyan. On Wednesday evening, […]
Day 9: Seeds of a Jewish Garden – By Adam Reinherz
In the smallest of communities we saw life. At their synagogue, in their JCC and across theircity, Tallinners are creating a Jewish future. This pursuit, which Estonians exhibited, is evidencethat a new period in Baltic Jewish life is underway. Tallinn’s Jewish story stretches to the 15th century, but its modern presence began closer to200 years […]
Day 6: In Riga, the Ground Speaks for Itself – By Adam Reinherz
In Vilnius, our guide called parks “scars of war.” The playgrounds we saw, where children descended colorful slides and adults gathered onnearby benches, were erected after the war. In some of these sites, Jews were rounded upduring the war; these spaces operate in opposition to their past. In Riga, the ground speaks for itself. Between […]
Day 5: Leaving Lithuania with Lessons Forward – By Adam Reinherz
Before leaving Lithuania we stopped at the Samuel Bak Museum and Ponevezh Yeshiva. Thepairing could not have been more perfect. At the Museum, we learned Bak was recognized early on for his prodigious artistry and thatafter surviving the Holocaust he became an influential painter and writer. In Panevezys, a city 140 km north of Vilnius, […]