After a whirlwind 22 hours of airtime, the IST cohort of 2012 has finally made it to Poland!
In all honesty, the days have blurred into each other thanks to our transit time (including an excursion to Germany solely to buy Haagen-Dasz), but I guess you could call this day one. I’ve subtitled today “good morning” in Polish, but I think I may have forgotten what morning is.
Whilst all of us kept up a brave face during the first flight, most were crumbling under the pressure of flying to Warsaw – but the dust settled once we realized that nobody had lost their bags through our messy transit!
Our first stop in Poland was the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw. We visited gods among men, actors among professionals, and great rabbis in a brick tent. The cemetery was a beautiful tribute to the once strong, healthy Jewish community in Warsaw.
Our next stop was the orphanage set up by Doctor Janusz Korczak, from where we made our way to one of the remaining walls of the Warsaw ghetto. The experience was as real as one could imagine, with most of us reaching out to the wall in an attempt to connect with our collective past. Prayers were whispered, eyes were closed, tones were hushed – it was a profound moment.
After the wall we went on a tour through some of the memorial sites in Warsaw. During the tour, we heard a reading from Jodie and a moving speech from Ben (which will be posted soon), after which we said Kaddish and broke for dinner.
At the time of writing, we are just about to leave Warsaw for our hotel in Bialystock where we’ll be settling for the night. I think most of us are a hair’s breadth away from collapsing at this point – so naturally we’ve got an early rise tomorrow morning to look forward to!
- Josh
but I guess you could call this day one. I’ve subtitled today “good morning” in Polish, but I think I may have forgotten what morning is.
Whilst all of us kept up a brave face during the first flight, most were crumbling under the pressure of flying to Warsaw – but the dust settled once we realised that nobody had lost their bags through our messy transit!
Our first stop in Poland was the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw. We visited gods among men, actors among professionals, and great rabbis in a brick tent. The cemetery was a beautiful tribute to the once strong, healthy Jewish community in Warsaw.
Our next stop was the orphanage set up by Doctor Janusz Korczak, from where we made our way to one of the remaining walls of the Warsaw ghetto. The experience was as real as one could imagine, with most of us reaching out to the wall in an attempt to connect with our collective past. Prayers were whispered, eyes were closed, tones were hushed – it was a profound moment.
After the wall we went on a tour through some of the memorial sites in Warsaw. During the tour, we heard a reading from Jodie and a moving speech from Ben (which will be posted soon), after which we said Kaddish and broke for dinner.
At the time of writing, we are just about to leave Warsaw for our hotel in Bialystock where we’ll be settling for the night. I think most of us are a hair’s breadth away from collapsing at this point – so naturally we’ve got an early rise tomorrow morning to look forward to!
- Josh