O
K, it wasn’t that big, and it wasn’t that fat. But meaningful? Oy, vey!
My beautiful bride, Dr. Freda Lengel Arlow, a divorcee of 10
years, and I, a widower of 13 years, decided to exchange our wed-
ding vows in a very special place.
We were wed in October 2019 in Kazimierz, the centuries-old Jewish
quarter of Krakow, Poland’s second-largest city.
The choice of Poland for a destination wedding might seem “beyond the
pale” — but the city called out to us for deep personal and spiritual reasons.
Before World War II, Freda’s family lived in Tarnow, about 50 miles east of
Krakow. By war’s end, her father, Hillel Lengel, had survived Auschwitz, but
the Germans had slain his wife and two young sons.
After liberation, Hillel married Anna, also of Tarnow, and in 1948, Freda
was born in a displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria.
Freda’s mom, Anna, was one of 11 daughters of a well-to-do Jewish family.
But of the 11 sisters, only two survived the Holocaust. During those horren-
dous years, Anna endured starvation and beatings in three slave labor camps.
Anna’s younger sister Lucia, however, was hidden by a heroic Catholic family
despite threats of death to those who hid Jews. After the war, she married
the family’s son, Bronik Zaczkiewicz, and remained in Poland. Bronik was
later honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust center in Israel for risking his
life to smuggle food to Jews in the Tarnow ghetto and for saving Lucia’s life.
In 2019, and for each of the past 16 years, Freda had traveled to visit her wid-
owed Aunt Lucia, now a feisty 100 years old and a Krakow resident. For Freda,
whose mother died in 2001, the opportunity to be wed in front of her mother’s
surviving sister and cousins Halina and Gosia had enormous meaning.
Freda and I also believed that having a Jewish wedding in Poland would
be an act in defiance of the Nazis who sought to exterminate all Jewish life.
Our wedding took place in the late afternoon on the day after Yom
Kippur, a very desirable day to marry according to Chasidic tradition. On
the morning of the wedding, I was thrilled with anticipation, and Freda was
as giddy and nervous as a youthful 70-year-old could be — getting married
in the land of her family’s roots.
My (Big, Fat) Joyful, Tearful Polish Wedding
DAVID SACHS COPY EDITOR
A GREAT HERITAGE
Jewish Krakow has a vast 600-year history, and several ancient synagogue build-
ings have been preserved. In 2008, a new Jewish Community Center was estab-
lished to serve the few thousand Polish Jews and the contingent of American
expats and Israelis who live or work there.
We decided on a wedding at the JCC officiated by American-born Orthodox
Rabbi Avi Baumol with whom we studied during previous trips to Krakow.
Baumol, whose mission since 2013 has been to revive Jewish life in the city, con-
ducted our wedding ceremony in Hebrew, English and Polish.
“It’s a new life you’re starting,
” he said as we stood together under the chup-
pah, “and where better to start a new life than in Krakow — a place that had
such a flourishing Jewish community for hundreds of years? It was almost
PHOTOS BY MICHAL ZIELINSKI
CLOCKWISE FROM THE TOP: Under the chuppah, Dan Arlow reads the seventh wedding
blessing to David; his mom, Freda; and Rabbi Avi Baumol. Women dance around Aunt Lucia
immediately after the wedding ceremony. Newlyweds David and Freda Sachs enter the
reception. The whole clan: David, Freda and Aunt Lucia, seated, with Halina, Marcin, Ania,
Olga, Gosia, June, Dan and Maria.
DECEMBER 24 • 2020 | 27
IN
THE
JEWS D
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