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the same way, and only when grand-
parents died did they finally share their
secret with their families.
As many Polish Jews are still only
just learning about their faith of birth,
more and more enter the JCCs looking
for a way to bring Judaism into their
lives. They want to learn about who
their ancestors were, and they want to
continue to make the Jewish-Polish com-
munity grow.
While in Krakow, we drove to
Auschwitz-Birkenau. When we reached
the concentration camp, the sky turned
gray and rain started pouring down.
We tied Israeli flags to our backs and
walked inside security, perhaps never
able to be ready to face the reality of
what happened there just a few decades
ago. But as soon as we stepped outside,
the sun was out and the grayness gone.
We entered through the infamous gate
and passed train tracks and red build-
ings where our people were forced to
spend their final, terrible days. Inside the
buildings, we saw what prisoners had
brought with them, cups and mugs, hair
brushes, tallitot and a hallway filled with
what seemed like millions of shoes. I
saw the all-too-familiar pictures of men
and w omen with shaved heads in striped
uniforms.
At Birkenau, we climbed to the top of
the guard tower and saw how large this
death camp was. Even as we witnessed
the remains of a gas chamber, the clouds
above were beautiful, and the sun set
softly. Birds flocked and flew above
bright green grass, grass that didn’t exist
when this camp was a swampy hell dur-
ing the Holocaust.
We struggled to comprehend how
these places of horror, where innocent
Jews were cremated to ashes, the smell of
smoke still lingering in the air, could at
the same time show us such beauty.
As we have fewer and fewer survivors
left to tell their stories, the next-best wit-
ness is the nature around it. It felt like
nature was welcoming us in, wanting
us to understand the horrors that had
happened in that place’s midst and then
sending us back to our own lives with
the optimistic feeling that hope is what
gave us our lives today and Israel as the
precious homeland for Jews everywhere.
Poland is not merely a Jewish grave-
yard; its Jewish community may be
small, but it is strong, and Jews today
should feel proud, proud that we aren’t
gone forever like intended.
*
Lauren Levinson of Bloomfield Hills has spent
the past year in Netanya, Israel, participating in
Masa Israel Journey’s Israel Teaching Fellows pro-
gram through Israel Experience. When she returns
to the United States this summer, she will begin
a new role as Israel engagement coordinator at
Penn State Hillel.
Yiddish Limerick
IT’S SUMMER!
Now spring hot ge’endikt,* it’s no
longer here.
Yetzt zummer is doe,** ich zog***
vey is mir.****
S’iz hays, zayer hays,*****oy
vey,****** what a pain.
It is cool in the house, but
aroys vill ich gain.*******
Oh summer, hot summer, I still love
you dear.
* hot ge’endikt — has finished
** Yetzt zummer is doe — Now
summer is here
*** ich zog — I say
**** vey is mir — woe is to me
***** S’iz hays, zayer hays — It’s
hot, very hot
****** oy vey — an exclamation of
anguish
******* aroys vill ich gain — I
want to go outside
— Rachel Kapen