Eastern Europe Trip - 2024 - Journal

What is there to say after spending a day in Auschwitz?! (I don’t even know how to punctuate that.) Shall I tell you that we saw two young girls standing in front of the barracks draped in Israeli flags? Or that we stood as a group by the railroad tracks that brought people into the horror? Or that we did what so many never had the opportunity to do - we walked out of Auschwitz together, holding hands?

Then, we went to Oshpitzin. That is the Yiddish name of the town. In Polish, it is Oswiecim. The Germans called it Auschwitz and then took the name for the death camp. But Oshpitzin was once full of Jewish life and there were synagogues. One remains, and we went there to daven Minhah.

First, we kindled lights - six candles for the Six Million.  Among our group were children of survivors (Barbara Elkan and Sol Genauer) and others who lost family in the Holocaust ( Howie Cetel, Beth Warren, Sharon Goldstein, and Rob Elkan). They each kindled one of the lights.

Then Charlie Goldstein led us in Minhah, Cantor Cohen chanted Eyl Maleh Rahamim and we all said Kaddish and sang Hatikvah.

I wonder at the fact that we were kindling candles in that place. It occurred to me that these were not just memorial candles. This was more than an act of memory. It was renewal - bringing light and life to a synagogue where others had sought to extinguish it.

The Parashah for this Shabbat is B’Ha-a lot-kha et HaNeyrot: “When you raise up the candles, the lights.” We did that in Oshpitzin.

Later that day, we went to the Krakow JCC. We had dinner with Sebastian, the COO, and Mariah, who leads Hillel in Krakow. Young people who are raising up the light of Jewish life. The JCC has a preschool that has educated 150 children, a program for seniors, and supports Ukrainian refugees. They are raising up the light of Jewish life and Jewish values.
And then I remembered another Biblical passage about light. The Book of Proverbs teaches: “Neyr Elohim Nishmat Adam -The human soul is God’s candle, God’s light.”

I’m not sure what to say after spending a day in Auschwitz. But I think maybe we have some sense of what to do. Kindle the candles: Raise up the lights of both Remembrance and Renewal.

After Auschwitz, the Jewish spirit and Jewish spiritual values are still a shining light.