Student and Alumni Poland Trips

From David:
I am writing this Thursday evening. Today we left the city of Wroclaw (pronounced Vrawtzlaf) after a one-day visit.
I particularly enjoyed meeting up with the Albion students who are also in Poland and interacting with members of the Jewish community who live in the city. We actually met up with the Albion students on three occasions during our stay. Last night (Wednesday) we gathered at a nice restaurant off of the city’s beautiful town square. Early this morning we joined the students again to work at Wroclaw’s “New” Jewish cemetery that was established in the 19th century when the centuries-old. The cemetery has been neglected for many years, but volunteers like the Albion students have begun to reclaim some sections of the cemetery that lie closest to the gates, yet the majority of the cemetery is overgrown in dense woods. The final time that we intersected with the Albion students was at the one remaining synagogue in Wroclaw that survived the Kristalnacht of 1938 but not the communist regime. It has been reclaimed be the Jewish community who run the adjacent Jewish Community Center under the direction of Rabbi Yitchak Rapaport. For many years the synagogue consisted of only ruins without a roof and only the outer walls surviving. Rabbi Rapaport and the synagogue’s president addressed our group at a kosher lunch within the community center and Mr. Jersy Kichler gave us a tour of the main synagogue that is being renovated from top to bottom and is scheduled to be completed in October 2009, the 180th anniversary of the synagogue’s founding. Multiples of 18 have special significance as numerology of the Hebrew letters CH”AI mean life (as in Le’Cha’im).
The courtyard of the synagogue was the deportation point for the Jews of the city during World War II. A plaque on the courtyard wall of the Jewish Community Center commemorates this history.
It was very gratifying to see a resurgent Jewish community in Wroclaw. A Jewish Polish-American, Jay Fleischer, has opened a restaurant, Od Novo, in the adjacent building that Work by Albion students and other groups has stimulated renewed interest in Wroclaw’s New Jewish Cemetery. Some of the 2012 European Cup Football will be held near the cemetery and there are hopes that even greater political and financial resources will be directed toward its renovation.
This evening we arrived in Krakow (pronounced Krahkuf) where we will stay for three days. Tomorrow we will visit Auschwitz.
We are traveling with a wonderful group. Special thanks to Susie and Maria, to Les our tour guide and to Marek our bus driver.