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A community leader for more than a quarter century, Harvey Schloss z’l devoted himself to strengthening children and families and the organizations that serve them. Harvey’s extraordinary work sets the example for meaningful volunteer service and purposeful philanthropy.… Read More

After 20 hours of travel and a quick stop over in London we have arrived to Berlin! After crossing the international date line we entertained ourselves with games of ninja and airport yoga and snacked on fish and chips while passing the time in Heathrow. Yvonne shares with us some of her first impressions: So, today was the flight….10 hours is a doozy, but the time went by fast due to all our adventures. For dinner we had our introduction to a kosher airlines meal which meant somehow nearly all our food came out frozen, but who after all doesn’t… Read More

Today we stood under the Brandenburg Gate and learned about the waves of history that have flowed through this gate.. from the Prussian Monarchs through the Nazi era and the fall of the Berlin wall. Including JFK and his famous declaration.   This moment truly illustrates our cohort of amazing students. After viewing memorials to the darkest times of history they continue to engage intellectually, support each other, and end each day with a smile on their face. They continue to impress us and those we come into contact with along the way.   Enjoy their words from our days… Read More

The wooden barracks, stretching off into seeming infinity as the gaps between them are shrouded in a thick white fog, the layers of barbed wire fence with pencil-trunked trees and green grass just beyond the environs of the camp. The atmosphere here is just as I’d seen it in the recurring bad dreams I’d had when I first was taught about Auschwitz-Birkena through viewings of the film Night and Fog. Though I understand that this documentary isn’t used any more, it was the educational tool in my generation; and as we enter the galleries with the grotesque piles of… Read More

On the bitterly freezing day when we were on the market in Karzimierz, Daniel pointed me to a table of souvenirs with a curious collectible set: This was a replica of a seal used in the Lodz ghetto.  The text reads: “Der Aeltester der Juden.  Litzmannstadt”  (The Chair of the Judenrat.  Lodz ghetto).   I’ve seen a lot of Polish tchatchkes in my time, but I found this collectible to be especially painful.  As I was wheeling myself away from the table, I reached a bump in the concrete path and had trouble going further.  One of the souvenir sellers, a… Read More

It is hard to know where to begin in writing about the experience of Shabbat in Poland. Since I had never been here before, I did not know what to expect; now that I am here, I see that this was just as well, because Poland is unlike any other place I have been, and any serious attempts to imagine it beforehand would have in any case been futile. The strange truth is that this place is, in many respects, the most Jewish place I’ve ever been. Jews have lived here continuously for eight or more centuries, and for much… Read More