Last week, Tribe’s Learn2Lead programme took 50 Year 12 students from London and 6 students from Hong Kong to Poland for an inspirational and educational 5 day experience.
The group was led by Rabbi Tzvi Sperber from JRoots and Tribe Rabbi, Yisroel Binstock and saw them travel to several places including Warsaw, Krakow, Lodz, Majdanek, Lizhensk, Plazov and Wolbrum. Several community Rabbis joined the group to help forge closer community ties. Speaking after the trip Rabbi Binstock said, “This was an inspiring trip on so many levels. It strengthened the students Jewish identity, it showed them what Jewish life was like in Poland before the Holocaust and as a united group it encouraged them to be proud Jews connected to their Jewish heritage.”
Participants outside the Yeshiva in Lublin
Starting at the Jewish cemetery within the Warsaw Ghetto walls, participants learnt about life in Poland before World War II and the vibrant Jewish community that lived there. They also visited Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin, where they learnt about the great Rabbis who expounded the Talmud and revolutionised the study of Torah in the 20th century. The now quiet Yeshiva, which was once famous for its Torah study, was brought back to life by the group learning Torah there.
The group also visited Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau, where they walked from the gas chambers through the camp to the crematoria and the memorial of ashes. Seeing the place where people were sent to their deaths for being Jewish made participants appreciate the religious freedom they enjoy today. The group spent a moving Shabbat in Krakow, where they were given a guided walking tour of Kaziemeirz.
Before returning home, the group travelled to Wolbrum, a forest with a mass grave of women and children. Afterwards they went to a monastery in Pilica, where they learnt about Jewish children who were sent to monasteries during the war in order to save their lives.
Although it was a very emotional trip, the group bonded really well and took the lessons of the Holocaust to heart. One participant, Dan Fried commented, “As we walked in, and then out, of the gates of death at Auschwitz-Birkenau, we were inspired. Having wrapped Israeli flags around our shoulders, our very presence defied those who tried to annihilate us, and it was an unforgettable experience”.
