'We had an hour and a half to fight the
crowds in the hustle for shabbat. The colors,
sounds and smells created a rainbow-like
atmosphere. A mood of joyous festiveness
filled the marketplace. It's fun to know that
this happens every Friday afternoon."
—
Amanda Warner
May 10, 1997
"After dinner, we had a Yam Hazikaron cer-
emony. At 10 p.m. a siren rang across the
country and everyone stopped, stood, silent.
The siren startled me at first. I was scared,
associating the noise with an air raid siren. It
had a somber tone. We stood alongside a
street — cars pulled over and drivers stood
nest to their vehicles. The patriotism in Israel
is awesome. Unlike the U.S., everyone cel-
ebrates this holiday knowing that others
died for them to live. It is truly inspirational."
—
Amanda Warner
May 11, 1997
"At 11 a.m., the second siren for Yom
Hazikaron sounded across the country. I felt
honored to stand on Ammunitioin Hill where
the reason for the war originated, next to Is-
raeli soldiers who would give their lives for
their country. I felt a glimpse of patriotism
that doesn't exist in the U.S."
—
Amanda Warner
'We came back to the hotel and rested and
showered before going to a closed mall.
Thank God it was closed because we got to
go to Ben Yehuda. What a party. I have
never seen such mass insanity. People
were smashed into the streets, spraying
shaving cream everywhere. It was awe-
some to see a country so united to celebrate
its independence. I think in Israel they truly
know the meaning behind independence."
Lindsay Spolan
—
May 13, 1997
'We had a simple burial in the soldier pro-
tion of the cemetery. Mike Simon had taken
human ash from Birkenau and we gave the
victims a burial in Israel. This gesture made
our trip full circle, as we used our knowledge
from Poland and Israel. It connected the two
weeks with a definite tie."
Amanda Warner in Har Herzl where Ra-
bin and Heal are buried.
May 14, 1997
"Before I knew it, we were landing on Ameri-
can soil. I never thought I'd not want to be
there (in Israel) so much in my entire life. I
wanted so much to be back in Israel cele-
brating my freedom with the most incredible
group of 60 teenagers and 12 staff mem-
bers ever!"
—
Julie Jonas
'These weeks have gone by tremendously
fast — even though it has only been a few
hours that I have been home, things have
sunk in. Everyone that I have talked to is
like, 'How was it?"Was it fun?' How can I
answer such a question? I can't I cannot put
all of these feelings and emotions that I am
experiencing into words ... The one thing
that will always stick out the most from this
trip is the way I think we bonded with the
Jewish community. When we left, we got on
the plane in our separate groups. Two
weeks later, we have come back; only this
time, we got off the plane honding hands
and singing — Orthodox, Reform and Con-
servative. All together."
— Lindsay Spolan
But when the road took them over train
tracks and within sight of the infamous
gate at Birkenau, the chatter stopped.
The students — Conservative, Reform
and Orthodox — clasped hands and
walked in silence.
At the end of the tracks, students from
40 countries held a service honoring the
dead. Names of some victims were list-
ed, followed by poetry reading and songs.
A light rain fell on the crowd and a cool
spring breeze caused the Israeli flags to
ripple from the barbed wire to which or-
ganizers attached them.
Some of the marchers were moved to
tears. Still having to tour the camp and
its museums, they trudged on, support-
ed by their newfound friends.
Misha Feldman, a student from Ald-
va, was moved by the experience of stand-
ing with so many Jews of different
backgrounds.
"I kept looking at that gate," he said,
gazing at the entrance to Birkenau, "and
the railroad and thinking about how
many died trying to walk what I did."
"I follow these laws and these laws and
I try to understand the ways others see
themselves as Jews," he said, referring
to other members of the Detroit contin-
gent. "But I see how they are affected
here and I know they too would be here
with me."
At the end of the tour, darkness had
come. The students walked toward the
tour buses, through fences that once held
so many Jews, the same fences that once
served as the means of suicide to those
who had given up hope not so long ago.
Through these fences 52 years after
the liberation of the camp, the future of
Detroit Jewry walked, hand-in-hand.
D
riving to the airport to catch
the flight to Israel, it was plain
to see from the windows in the
bus that the vegetation in
Poland is very similar to Michigan's. Like
the various fruit-bearing trees and or-
namental bushes, the tulips and daffodils
were in full bloom and daisies were just
beginning to poke from the rich dirt.
Above:
Adina Newman views a display of human hair
shaved from the heads of prisoners in Majdanek.
Below:
After a day of visiting several sites in Krakow,
Sari Tracht takes a break in a cemetery.
Unlike Michigan, there is not much of
a Jewish community in Poland today. A
vast majority of those who grew up on
Polish soil were plucked by Nazi hands,
destroyed before they ever had a chance
to bloom.
After the war, some Polish cities re-
duced to rubble by the bombing were re-
built with concrete buildings which turn
to a darker grey in the omnipresent rain.
Although the dwellings returned to
their original sites, the Jewish occupants
never did — at least not in the vast num-
bers that were present before the war.
Those who survived for the most part
moved away, never to return.
But for one week, a group of Detroit
teen agers from three separate branches
of Judaism returned to the cities and
shtetls some of their ancestors inhabit-
ed.
There, they prayed as a group, laughed
with each other, mourned as one, learned
together. There, they visited the past and
formed bonds for friendships and unity
that will transcend the present and serve
as roots for a future they will build to-
gether.
And together, their vibrant blooms
stood in stark contrast to the grey and
dour existence that is Poland. D