Day 1 - Netzach - Ella

Arriving at the airport was when it all sunk in... the reality that we were about to experience a once in a life time experience, IST. We were all so excited to travel and finally make our way to Poland, to learn and understand more about Jewish history.

As soon as we stepped onto our first plane we were all so excited and ready to jump into an incredible experience. Our first flight was to Bangkok, where we all had a layover of 9 hours. Although this may seem long, after a couple of massages, rounds of eating food and hang outs with the teachers, madrichim and friends, we found ourselves on our next flight, which was to Frankfurt. In Frankfurt, we had another long layover of 6 hours, which again went by fast. Finally, we had our last flight to Warsaw.

Upon our arrival in Warsaw, we were shocked with freezing cold weather and despite being tired from the travelling, we were all in a rush to begin our learning journey.

Our first stop was to the Warsaw Ghetto Wall which was very confronting but extremely educational, especially since we have all been learning about the ghettos in class. I quickly came to realise that this trip would provide me with the opportunity to connect the pieces of my Jewish history, using our knowledge learnt at school and now the experience of seeing it in person.

Next we went to Mila 18, which was a memorial at a hidden bunker of an organisation - the ZOB. At Mila 18 we learnt about Jewish resistance groups and their extreme heroism, courage and strength.

We then made our way to a dining hall where we had a delicious spread of food for dinner; warm vegetable soup, hot chips, salads, schnitzels and cakes for dessert. The whole group was reunited with the Na’aleh group, which was great because we hadn’t seen them in 2 weeks.

Since we were so exhausted from our travelling, bus rides and a day of learning, as soon as we got to the hotel we all went straight to bed.

I am so excited for the rest of the trip and what it will bring!

Ella Singer